Hello, Goodbye, Thank You, and Sit Down!

A podcast for English learners!  Improve your listening skills, practice your pronunciation, learn new vocabulary!     
  
This episode, I'm chatting with Tamara!   We chatted about her first English words, learning English at bartending classes, working on texts for website interfaces, and the name of her new puppy...

Quick Grammar tip = the difference between the Present Simple and the Present Continuous.

Pronunciation tip = Making the difference between the unvoiced /f/ (eff) and the voiced /v/ (vee) consonant sounds.

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

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

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

Transcript

EPISODE 27 = HELLO, GOODBYE, THANK YOU, AND SIT DOWN!

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 Tamara.  Tamara is originally from Russia and is currently living in Finland, and she is a UX Designer – so she works with digital design with websites and apps to make them easy for us to use.  We spoke online and there were no glitches, so that is a win!

We chatted about her first English words, learning English at bartending classes, working on texts for website interfaces, and the name of her new puppy(!), but I started by asking Tamara to tell me a little bit about herself… 

INTERVIEW

T:  Hi, I'm Tamara. I'm a junior UX designer. I (have) live(d) in Helsinki for four or five years already… I don’t remember it …and yeah!

S:  Where are you from originally?  

T: I'm from Russia. 

S: And when did you start learning English? Do you remember?

T: Well, I thought about it when you asked m, but I don’t really remember because my first foreign language was French, actually, because I was studying at French school. So, I think I got some lessons there in English, but it’s something really, really basic. I think I also got lessons in my kindergarten, for some reason… I don't know why. And I remember, the first thing it's like something like “Hello”, “Goodbye”, “Thank you” and, for some reason, “Sit down”!. That's one of the first words I learned, I think - I don't know why?!

S: I suppose an instruction from your kindergarten teacher?

T: Probably yes, yes!

S: So when did you start developing your knowledge of English? 

T: Well, after school I, I took some bartending classes, and they introduced me to some basic English like “What can I get you?”, “What would you like to drink?” or something like this, like some “service” English.  It was nice to start and to gain at least some basic experience and some knowledge.  Then… actually I learned German, because I applied for German, not German university but university with a German language.  And then, when I moved to Germany finally, I started to watch a lot of series in English with subtitles, with Russian subtitles. And then I finally started to talk to people in English… slowly. Then I developed my English, so… 

S: When you started speaking to people, did you feel nervous? 

T: Oh my god, yes!  It was… it was terrible.  First, like…at some point, I could understand almost everything, what people said, and I could watch movies and series in English with subtitles, but still, but it was so hard to start to speak actually. So, this language barrier is not a joke!

S:  But then I guess you felt more and more confident as you started speaking…

T:  Yeah, I have to say that it's easier to speak with non-native speakers, because they also make some mistakes. They don't really care about how, what exactly what… as long as it's understandable and you can communicate, then it's fine. And all these people, like in Germany where I have, like, a lot of friends from different parts of (the) world - Israel, China, and India and everybody has, like, different accents and different, like, you know, these small things that make their language special, their English language special, so, you just try… try to communicate, you're less embarrassed.

S: It's important not to be embarrassed!  It's interesting - when you listen and speak to international people, friends, speaking English, do you notice if you make the same mistakes or do you all make different mistakes?

T:  It’s an interesting question. I think we make different mistakes, but mostly I notice it about phrase structure. (Okay). Yeah, and pronunciation but it's understandable because… yeah, I think it's mostly phrase structure I noticed.

S:  Tell me about mistakes - and is there anything that you notice with your English where you think “Oh, I always find that difficult” or “I could improve that.”?

T:  Tenses!

S: Tenses! 

T: They are so different from French, which is my first language… from Russian of course, which is my native language.  I still don't… don't really understand which is I’m supposed to use in different situations. (Okay) So I choose like, intuitively, or I choose like, whatever – people would understand…that's fine! Yeah, so like, continuous and, like, past simple, past continuous, present continuous… But there are a few tenses that I think I used never, because they consist of (a) few parts, and I'm like “oh, no, I give up!” So…

S: You must never give up!  So, do you feel like it's not necessary to learn these things because we can communicate just fine, or do you think…

T: I think it depends on the goals because, like, just to order, to go somewhere… to order some coffee, to have a chat with people about, like, everyday things - it's not necessary to learn proper grammar, as long as you can understand each other. But if you want to work with text, for instance, because my job is kind of related to text and it would be great to… to feel it the same way I feel my native language, not just to apply rules, but at some point to feel it that I speak properly and make sense and it sounds good. Not just…not just, like, I can communicate facts, but it also sounds nice. 

S: Yeah. Okay.  Tell me more about your job. So, you work with English text or Russian or French text?

T:  I was working with Russian texts for a long time, and then I decided to switch my field a little bit. So, I'm applying for UX designer roles and but it's still important to, like… so basically, it's design of interfaces, but every interface has some text. And it's really, really important to make it clear and understandable and nice… ideally!  So, yeah, it is important. It has some specifics, because interface texts are usually really short. But it's an interesting field.

S:  So when you're writing these texts - the goal is to be clear, but is it that you always have to have ‘this’, ‘this’, ‘this’ information in the text, or does it just change depending on the?

T:  It depends on everything. I mean, you can have (an) interface without the text, if it's, like, visually understandable. For instance, you have this ‘cross’ sign ()which means like ‘close’, you don't need this here – or, but if it's some kind of a new feature, it might need some text under it so to explain what’s this – stuff like this, or some pop up message explaining what's going on, or is there some kind of error and you have to explain with kind of error it is. (Okay). So yeah, and working in English it’s actually… I think it's kind of easier in general because we have more information in English about current trends, current situation, about, like, more articles, because English is, like, the common language now. And English is more… more concise than Russian.

S:  Ah, that's interesting. So, is it difficult to be concise in Russian?

T:  I think so. It's not difficult, but sometimes it requires more words in Russian than in English, I would say so. Yeah. I mean, it depends, of course – there are some words which are, like, shorter in Russian or there is… something that there is no English word for this, but usually English is shorter and concise and more clear.

S:  So I understand that you have a new puppy!  Do you speak to it in Russian or do you speak to it in English?

T:  No, I speak with him in Russian but since he's not still small and not very attentive, so he's okay with saying, like, usual commands and in English or Finnish and he understands it, as he doesn’t really care!

S:  Tell me the story about his name!  It’s a fascinating name!

T:  Okay, so yeah, his name is Barry, but his full name is Barclay – Barclay, it's a famous Scottish clan but, the thing is, there is a famous Russian General it was… yeah, in Russian pronounced “Bar-clie” [/aI/] and the thing is ‘bark’ means ‘bark’, ‘to bark’, and “lie” in Russian means the same - it also means ‘bark’. So basically, it's Bark Bark. Yeah, we decided it's, like, a perfect name for a puppy!

S: “Bark Bark” – I think that’s wonderful, but also Barclay is a great name as well!

T:  Yeah. Yeah. That sounds good! Yeah, and I when I was reading about these clans, they also have, like, there's Barcly, Barclay, some other variants and one of them is Barkula - like Dracula but Barkula!  (Really?) Yes, you can find it on Wikipedia and it’s so funny, since the puppy is really bity, of course, he's Barcula now. It’s a perfect name! 

S:  That's fantastic!  So do you think your aim, then, with your work is to work more in English?

T:  Well, I think so. Since I'm working with interfaces, they usually are still in English, especially if the company is aiming to conquer the international market. So yeah, yeah, I will probably work more and more in English… with English.

S:  It's fascinating, isn't it - the idea of interfaces with no text at all.  Are more people trying this or is it very dependent on the company, like only video game companies can do this?

T:  It's actually a nice, nice idea about video games. Yeah, there are some interfaces without words, actually, and it makes sense because part of the game and part of the, like, this “how do you feel inside the game?”  It's a good question. I don't know. I will, I can try it. And it's a good… maybe it's, like, a nice idea for a startup or something.

S:  Maybe! Maybe, because I think we were saying before that there are different sort of signs that interfaces have so no words, but we all understand what the signs mean.

T:  Yeah, I think some basic interfaces could be without words, of course, when you have, like, buttons and, like, simple icons, like cross icon or something like this. Yeah, I think it's possible to some extent.

S:  So final question then, Tamara.  What advice would you give a learner if they're starting out learning English?

T:  Well, really obvious but just try to use it!  Even if it's scary, even if there is a language barrier.  The only way to conquer it – it’s just to start to use it. Maybe start to speak with yourself in front of the mirror – nevermind - just to start. And the second thing, what's helped me a lot is, like, to watch series or movies with subtitles. I can read fast, so it's not interfering with my experience, but it helped me a lot to just get used to this - how it sounds and what means what, and some kind of, like, you know, not official language, but informal language - so yeah, it helped me a lot. It's fun, nice and you can do it, like, every time you do nothing over, like, cook or something!

S: Yes! It's always a good idea to cook with English recipes. 

T: Yeah! 

S:  Hey, listen, thank you so much for doing that!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai
 

Lovely advice from Tamara – and I’ve probably done this, so try it for yourself – practice speaking by talking to yourself in the mirror… nobody has to watch you!   

Tamara also said that tenses are sometimes a difficult area… well, most learners ask themselves “which tense should I use?” at one time or another… and in any language, really. Tamara mentioned the continuous tenses… my quick advice is: think about if the action is happening now / as you speak, or if you are talking about facts or information.

An example: 

“I speak English” – the present simple, this is a fact.

“I am speaking English” – the present continuous, this is my action now, as I speak.

So, this episode’s pronunciation tip is about the difference between the unvoiced /f/ (eff) and the voiced /v/ (vee) sounds.  Let’s think about mouth shape first – for both sounds, we need your top teeth to touch your bottom lip, but the main difference is that we need lots of air and no vibration for the /f/, and less air and lots of vibration for the /v/.  Feel the difference = /f/ … /v/….  Here are 3 sentences to help you practice:

First: The words “van” (a vehicle usually bigger than a car) and “fan” (a machine that keeps you cool). 

Try this sentence = “Does the van have a fan?”

Next:  The noun “proof” (meaning “evidence”) and the verb “prove” (to show or demonstrate something with evidence).

Try this sentence = “We need proof to prove our point.”

Finally:  The words “fancy” (meaning “special” or “elaborate”) and “vest” (a sleeveless top (it doesn’t have sleeves) or sometimes a top you wear under your shirt to keep warm in the winter!)

Try this sentence = “That’s a fancy vest!”

So, to recap: /f/ needs lots of air, /v/ needs lots of vibration, both need your top teeth on your bottom lip.   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 Tamara and, for her music, a huge thanks to the wonderful Mara Carlyle.   Bye for now!