Mate! You dropped the 'T'!

A podcast for English learners!  Improve your listening skills, practice your pronunciation, learn new vocabulary!     
  
This episode, I'm chatting with Lucy!   We chatted about not pronouncing, or “dropping”, the letter ‘t’, Cockney Rhyming Slang, and your mirror neurons – how mirroring other people (doing what they do) can help you learn a language...

Pronunciation tip = How some 't' sounds in English are not necessary, so drop them!

Presenter = Sam @_emaileng (Twitter, IG), @emaileng (TikTok)     

Music = "Baby Bloodheart" by Mara Carlyle   @MaraCarlyle    www.maracarlyle.bandcamp.com       

Artwork = Penny Rossano  @pennyrossanomusicart (IG)     www.pennyrossanoillustrations.com     

Transcript

EPISODE 31 = MATE!  YOU DROPPED THE “T”! 

Hello!  And welcome to Chat ENG – a podcast where people chat about how they learn and use English.  My name is Sam, I’m a CELTA teacher and a performer, and I have a particular interest in pronunciation and expression.   

In each episode, non-native and native speakers will chat about their experiences with English, share their advice and, at the end, I’ll give some pronunciation tips for you to take away and practice.  

So – ready?  Let’s get Chat ENG!

This episode, I’m chatting with Lucy.  Lucy is from the South East of England, an area we call the ‘home counties’, and she’s a Neuroscientist, so she can tell us about how the brain works!  We were able to meet in person and enjoy a nice cup of tea together – Jasmine, I think!, which was lovely – but just a quick warning - the creaking you can hear at the beginning of our chat was my old dining room table! 

We chatted about not pronouncing, or “dropping”, the letter ‘t’, Cockney Rhyming Slang, and your mirror neurons – how mirroring other people (doing what they do) can help you learn a language, but I started by asking Lucy to tell me a little bit about herself…

INTERVIEW

L: Okay, so my name is Lucy, I'm a Neuroscientist. I grew up in the “home counties” in the UK, and I've lived in three or four different countries. 

S: The “home counties” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_counties) in the south of England, your accent and the way you speak English, then - what does that say about you?

L:  I think that because the UK has very well-known and defined regional accents, you can definitely tell that I grew up in that region from the way I speak, but you might not be able to tell whether I grew up in, say, Surrey, Kent, Hampshire, or London, so it's reasonably neutral and you can also tell, I guess, from my choice of vocabulary, that there are less regional colloquialisms. And I think people probably make some assumptions about you on the basis of your accent if you're in the UK, but if you're outside of the UK, I think the only comment people have made about my accent is that it's perhaps been slightly easier for them to understand than some of our regional accents. 

S: Why do you think it's easier? 

L: Perhaps it's closer to the style of accent used in language learning materials? (Sure)  Perhaps also, I speak a little bit more slowly than some of the regional accent holders who have a different pace of language sometimes, depending on where they're from.  And maybe living overseas has also helped me modulate it a little bit to make it clearer.

S: So back to colloquialisms then, do you have any specific to your region that you think to yourself “Oh, I say that because I'm from this part of the country”?

L: There are occasions where I find myself saying “mate”, which is a very London thing, and in some ways it started off as an ironic turn of phrase, especially because my dad is a Cockney (Ah ha!) And then sometimes when I'm overseas, it's quite comforting for me to bring in the colloquialisms from my home location, it can be a way to add emphasis when you're not consciously thinking about what you're saying, maybe you're carried away, maybe you're having an argument or maybe you're driving - you're like “Oh, get out of the way, mate!”  You know, it gives you a way to express yourself which is more visceral. (Yes.) You're not making calculated decisions about how your language comes across. 

S: Yeah, it's funny that you say “mate” in a sort of “Cockney” way, where you drop the ‘t’, and don’t say it in your lovely accent, say “mate”! 

L: “Mate! Get out the way, mate!” and I hate, I hate that. I hate that I drop ‘t’s, like hate, hate, that I drop ‘t’s.

S: Why do you hate it?

L: Because I know it's incorrect to do it. 

S: Is it?

L: But it's typical of where I grew up. 

S: Why is it incorrect? 

L: I think… when I was at school, when I went to primary school and secondary school, for a certain number of years we had elocution lessons, and we actually had exams - so if I had done that in front of a teacher, I was made aware that that was an improper habit, if you like, it was a naughty thing to do. But now I'm not at school, nobody's correcting me!  So the bad habits have more time to get ingrained!

 S: I would argue that it's not necessarily incorrect… you know, it'll all be to do with where the ‘t’, the previous ‘t’, links to the next word and stuff like that, you know?

L: Yes. Exactly. And it's unnatural in the flow of conversation, to speak English perfectly all the time. Like, I'm probably enunciating better now because I'm aware there's a microphone in front of me and we're talking about the English language. But if I'm talking with my mum, there'll be lots of regional things I must be doing that I'm just not aware of.

S: So you said your dad is a ‘Cockney’ – is his accent very thick?  Or does he speak in Cockney Rhyming slang (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang) ? 

L: He does use a bit of rhyming slang, (does he?) but not the typical things you would imagine. He.. so one of the things I've noticed with my father - his accent is quite strong, but it has become milder as he's aged, because he's living in Surrey, so he's not around so many people who might mirror it. And my mother is very well spoken - so perhaps she's sort of tried to teach him some better habits, I don't know, by her estimation!  And he tended to use rhyming slang, a bit like me with “mate”, when he was trying to denigrate, make fun of, or when he got annoyed.  So, I remember he made fun of a neighbour who used to wear a wig - a toupee - and he kept referring to it as a “syrup”, so that would be an example where… I don't know if he was being deliberately humorous, per se, it just - in his mind, when he learned the term for a wig, it was a “syrup” when he was a child (Yeah) everyone referred to it as a “syrup”!

S: What is the rhyming slang for that?

L: So “syrup of figs” = wigs. But he doesn't say “apples and pears” (= stairs) or any of the cliched things. It tends to be when you're gossiping about somebody and you don't want them to know what you're saying. And this is an interesting thing about native English speakers, sometimes using slang, or rhyming slang, or another term almost takes the sting out. You feel less rude for saying it. (Yes). And, of course, anyone who's tried to learn English as a foreign language will be aware of how Brits use language - to some people's minds, they think it's passive aggressive, but to us, we think we're being courteous. (Yes). There's also an element of that, maybe. 

S: That’s definitely true!
So you've moved around and lived in different countries - your work has taken you around - have you noticed any changes in your English as you’ve moved around?  Has it been easier to communicate in some countries than other countries, or how do you find it? 

L: That's a good question. I would say that because the first place I lived outside the UK for a significant amount of time was the Middle East - and many of the immigrants to the Middle East are American or speaking American English. So I realised quite early on in that region, specifically, that there were terms that I thought were normal in British English that Americanized English speakers don't actually understand or that might be confusing. Like, for example, “put that in the bin”, “turn on the tap”. “Regular” - does regular mean something's normal, usual, you know, common or garden, or does “regular” mean in terms of temporality - it happens at a set schedule all the time? That word is understood, but there are nuances. I realised that I had to do away with terms like “bin” or “rubbish”, do away with terms like “tap” and start using more internationally recognisable alternatives, like “trash”, because there's no room for error. If I say to someone anywhere in the world “that needs to go in the trash” or “I'm going to put this in the trash”, there's no way someone can misunderstand. So that forever changed my English. And when you live in a country where the grammar and the syntax is different in the native language, which you can't help to pick up, you do start to consider your own language in a way that it naturally becomes more sympathetic to non-native speakers. So for… an example would be, you know, I lived with Arabic speakers for a long time and example would be “what you do?” If I were thinking about it, I would say “what are you up to?” But there's probably many times where I turned to an Arabic speaker and say “oh, what you do?”, which we know is incorrect English, but it is still understood. And it has the efficiency of Arabic, Arabic’s a much more efficient language. So you do find yourself becoming more sympathetic, because it makes everyone happier. If you can streamline your language to be understood.

S: Do you find that the same thing happens within your work then, that you're streamlining the English that you use? Because, obviously, working within a scientific field (Yes) - is it just that science has its language, and we all understand that and nothing changes? Or is it that you have to sort of adapt so that everybody understands? 

L: That's incredibly incisive. There's a lot of scientific language that is common across all languages - and the reason for that is that the majority of scientific research is published in English. And this is a bias that negatively affects all kinds of pockets of talent in the scientific world, all over the globe. So because science publications favour English, somewhat unfairly, most scientific language that’s very specific in the area of Neuroscience has an English root -  and you'll notice that in Nordic languages, in Arabic, in all kinds of languages I've come across, there's an English root because some of these terms are new. 

So Business English, for me as a scientist, is far easier than Conversational English to find understanding across different cultures and backgrounds. Conversational English, if I walked into a lab somewhere overseas, is not necessarily easily understood, but all scientific terms will be. 

S: So people have got it right when it comes to work and business - we're sort of finding an international language that we all understand, English that is.  What tips would you give someone if they're trying to improve their Conversational English? 

L: For me, as someone who's a very poor language learner…

S: No!

L:  No, I really am!  I don't have a gift for languages. But there are techniques I found helped me, and one of them is - talk about household items a lot, so that when you need to refer to something in the home, you can start building sentences in the other language with the aid of someone else, but also exclude your home language. So a bit like a total immersion, but what I used to do was only exclude 1 word a day. If I was feeling very confident, 3 words a day. So instead of using the word for “bed”, say you're in Finland, and the word for bed is “sänky”. Instead of using the word “bed”, just forget it from your vocabulary. It's now “sänky”. There is no other word for it. You're never going to forget your home language - you don't need to make a mental note of it and use it to remember it anymore, not now that you're an adult. So, you can just get rid of it. Just park it and bring in a new word or 3 words every day, because I find that very digestible, and I find habit seems to reinforce, and that's one thing that we know from looking at the brain - if you build a habit, if you keep doing it, even when it feels impossible, do it badly. By all means - make a mess of it! But keep doing it. Because just like when you were a baby and you learned to walk, or just like when you got on a bicycle, you've got to say “I'm not going to invest my ego in being good at this, I'm just going to do it” and then you will be good at it - before you even realise it. Give it a month, you'll be good at it. The more you say the word, the better your pronunciation will get.  So that would be it - replace your usual vocabulary, 1 to 3 words a day, and just keep practising and in your head, don't call it a “bed” anymore.

S: Or in this case, switch your normal word for “bed” for “bed”? 

L: Yes, yes! So if you're listening to this and you're a non-native English speaker, and you're thinking about making your bed - when you write that little note in your phone or on your calendar, write it in English = “make the bed”, and the more you repeat it and read it and say it out loud to yourself, the easier it will get.  I think another tip is if you live with people, ask them to help you in this and do this together, because if you're… you have to use your mirror neurons to learn speech as a baby, so it makes sense that you must use mirror neurons to learn anything as an adult. The way the brain does it, you have to have other people around you - but nothing in life can be learned alone. So, if you're not living with people who will do this with you, you've got to get somewhere online - on Reddit, on Twitter, subscribe to foreign Twitter accounts, read the tweets. Do the translation, yeah by all means, go back and untranslated it and look at it again, and just get familiar with strings of words or familiar with one or two words every day but you need other people to mirror that back at you to engage the mirror neurons to learn. 

S: So mirroring and repetition. 

L: Yes, absolutely. Like you would learn a language as a baby. That's how I looked at it - how would I have learned a language as a baby? I didn't just pop out and say “Mother, can you pass me the rice pudding?” I had to learn “rice”, “pudding”, “please”, “mum”, “dad”, “spoon”, “me”, “you”. It's …language is all about relating to others. It's your currency in expressing thought. So, one of the things that you learn as a Clinical Psychologist early on, just because you feel you said something doesn't mean other people understood that same meaning (right).  So, when you think about that, in terms of everything you do - learning to walk down the street without bumping into people, learning to speak a language - it's the connection between you and others. So, it's not possible to learn without others.

S: I think that's beautiful. How fabulous, yes, or I should say “Mate! That was amazing!”

L: “Mate!  Check out my syrup!”

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

“Nothing in life can be learned alone” – I think that’s beautiful!  Great advice from Lucy – exchange 1 to 3 words a day to build up your vocabulary when learning a language.  So – as you’re learning English – you can only use the words “bed”, “chat” and “podcast” from now on!

So, this episode’s pronunciation tip is about the letter ‘t’ and when we don’t need it…it!  Technically, the English ‘t’ comes when the front of the tongue hits the roof, or top, of your mouth, a little away from your top teeth – so you produce a sound like a cymbal ‘t’.  This sound is sometimes described as ‘splashy’, a bit wet, as a ‘t’ in other languages sounds more like a ‘d’. So, sound-wise, be more like a cymbal in English!   

Now, different parts of the English-speaking world will have different habits when it comes to dropping, or not pronouncing, ‘t’s – for example, the words ‘important’ and ‘certainty’ in some places are ‘important’ and ‘certainty’, and in other places are ‘impor-nt’ and ‘cer-n-ty’… (this is called T-glottalisation!). Don’t listen to people on social media who tell you “stop pronouncing the ‘t’ in English” – there is no one rule…both options are correct and learners should be aware… but here, I want to identify three main times when you see a ‘t’ and you don’t need to pronounce it! 

First: The verb ‘to listen’ – why is there a ‘t’? English spelling can be really tricky sometimes!  Nowhere in the English speaking world… I think… says “list-en”, so never say this ‘t’! 

Try this sentence = “I listen to music when I cook!”

Next:  The modal verb ‘must’ in the negative is “must not”. When we say both words, we only tend to say the ‘t’ of “not” – so “must not”. Even more often, though, these words are contracted = so “must” and “not” (2 words) become “mustn’t” (1 word).  When we write this word, it looks like we should say “must-nt” because it has 2 ‘t’s, but we only sound one ‘t’ = [mussnt].

Try this sentence = “you mustn’t enter that room today.”

Finally:  When you have two words in a sentence where word 1 ends with a ‘t’ and word 2 begins with a ‘t’, we tend to only use one ‘t’.  

Try this sentence = “don’t try this at home!”

So, sometimes, we speak slowly for emphasis (maybe when we are very angry or very happy) and we sound every word, so if I wanted to be very clear, maybe I would say “don’t / try / this / at / home” and sound the ‘t’s of ‘don’t’ and ‘try’, but in everyday speech, we only use one ‘t’.  So, thinking about which ‘t’s are important in a sentence can help you find an easier way to link your words and make them flow more naturally.

But, hang on, what about that word… O-F-T-E-N?!  ‘T’ or no ‘t’?  Do you ‘often’ read books or do you ‘off-en’ read books?  The answer is – they’re both fine!  And I think I use both!

Anyway - over to you to practice!

So there we are!  The transcript of this episode is available to read on the podcast’s webpage, so take a look!    Join me next time for more pronunciation and grammar tips, more advice and, most importantly, more chatting!   My thanks again to Lucy and, for her music, a massive thanks to the wonderful Mara Carlyle.   Bye for now!