Stress The Right Syllable!

A podcast for English learners!  Improve your listening skills, practice your pronunciation, learn new vocabulary!     
  
This episode, I'm chatting with Suzanne from @EnglishSmarts!   We chatted about using Twitter for learning languages, Suzanne’s first language lessons, using phonetic symbols to help your English pronunciation, and making sure you stress the right syllable...

Pronunciation tip = Looking at how words that look similar, or exactly the same, have different syllable stresses for different meanings.

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

Guest = Suzanne  @EnglishSmarts, @DazzleEnglish, @150phrasalverbs (Twitter), www.recipesforenglish.com 

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

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

Transcript

EPISODE 25 = STRESS THE RIGHT SYLLABLE!

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 Suzanne.  Suzanne is originally from the UK and currently lives in Spain, and for those of you who follow excellent English language accounts on Twitter, Suzanne runs @EnglishSmarts as well as @DazzleEnglish and @150phrasalverbs, so when we met online, as we’re in different countries, I was very keen to hear the voice behind these accounts!

We chatted about using Twitter for learning languages, Suzanne’s first language lessons, using phonetic symbols to help your English pronunciation, and making sure you stress the right syllable, but I started by asking Suzanne to tell me a little bit about herself…

Interview

S:  So, my name is Suzanne and I am originally from London, but I have been living in Barcelona for well over 20 years (Wow!)… despite the fact I thought I was coming for about a year. I’m still here!  So, I teach English on social media, particularly Twitter, which is a super platform for learning languages, not just English. It's a great place for connecting with other language learners - it really really is, and it's growing and growing as a community called… if you look for the hashtag, #Langtwt – L-A-N-G-T-W-T. That's a great way of connecting with people learning all kinds of languages, and I mean all kinds of languages. Wonderful. I also have a website called www.recipesforenglish.com, where I post lots of vocabulary and grammar quizzes.

S: And you yourself are also a keen language learner!

Su: I am indeed! Yeah, it's a big hobby of mine. Yeah. My first language lesson was when I was about eight years old, and it was in Cyprus, in a taverna that we used to go to with my parents and my family, and I remember the owner one day writing out a couple of the very typical expressions like “Kali mera”, “Kali stera” “Kali nychta” - those are three I remember, which is like, “Good day” or “Good morning”, “Good evening”, “Good night”. So that was the first thing, and then forward a couple of years to starting with French at school - and I remember my first first class, I was 11, and most of the girls had already done a year, okay, so the first lesson of the autumn term was the teacher went round and she pointed to every student and everyone said “Je m’appelle Sarah” “je m’appelle…”, and it just didn't go in!  I didn't know what was going on!  It didn't even click that they were giving their names or I couldn't understand that “je m’appelle” (Yeah).  And it was pretty awful. But that was just the first class and then from there on, it was absolutely fine and exciting and I loved it, and I've never fallen out of love with French - I think it's the most beautiful language, I think…yeah, I'd love it if we all spoke French. 

And then the next one was German, and I enjoyed that. That's very different from French and it wasn't easy, and that's what I’d like to say that I have never found languages particularly easy – I’ve found certain aspects of them easy - learning vocabulary, and I've always been very motivated by them, which helps a great deal but I've always struggled with grammar, particularly. (Uh huh). Yeah, for those who are listening, just because we teach English doesn't mean we are experts at grammar! 

S: So French, German, Spanish…Greek?

Su:  Yes - during the pandemic I decided that I wanted to go back to Cyprus, and I thought it would be very cool that, when I finally do return to Cyprus that I can actually speak at least some conversational stuff. I would be very proud of myself if I could do that. Little did I know that Greek is actually quite a tricky language, and it's not just the alphabet!

S:  So do you then feel with Greek that you're like an absolute beginner? 

Su:  And I'm still feeling like that two years in… (Oh, gosh!) yeah, I am. I've been quite surprised by it. I thought, I mean, it always helps the more languages you learn, the more you learn about language, and that does help you. I do think the struggle with the alphabet is really holding me back and I've really got to knuckle down and really get that sorted. Why? Because for me, the best way to move forward quickly with vocabulary is to read like… like there's no tomorrow.

S:  Okay!  You have such a really interesting insight as an English teacher who's also a language learner. Do you think that helps you when you're teaching, that you can really hear when people have difficulties with English pronunciation and the ways in which you can try and help them out?

Su:  I think the way that I help is that I can sympathise with how difficult it can be to produce a sound that your mouth is not used to pronouncing. One tip that I have found that helps is phonetic symbols. I just have this theory, for example, when Spanish people have… Spanish students have a struggle with a particular word, maybe something like…let's see… “literature” - I tell them instead of looking at the word written out in English – LITERATURE - well, first of all, they’ve got to learn the phonetic symbols, but it really doesn't take that long. And to see it written in the phonetic symbols and pronounce it looking at that, okay? Why? Because it just… I have this theory that, yeah, that your brain is so trained to see letters and to think that they're pronounced in certain ways - for example, the word “soap”, okay - a Spanish person in their mind is probably thinking it's “so-ap”, because an O and an A would be O-A, and that can be a really hard habit to break. So, I’ve found that if it's written in the phonetic symbols, seeing it there, following that and then the brain is not looking at the S-O-A-P = problem’s gone. So I think the brain, yeah, your brain can be a great tool but also a great hindrance to learning, because you've got to reprogram your brain, you've got to rewire it.

S:  Um, have you used these techniques yourself when you've been learning Greek and Spanish and German? I think you said you've also learned Japanese?

Su:  Yeah. I'm very greedy – yeah, I can’t help myself!  At University, we had the option of studying Japanese in our last year, so I just did it for a year and we had a really good teacher. Lovely, lovely teacher.  And actually it was my best grade for all of my study. But it was just one year of Japanese, it didn't get too complicated, but the pronunciation is a lot easier. Yeah, and I think it's phonetic..it's, yeah… whoever's listening to this may be saying “You're wrong there!” - and if I'm wrong, please I'd like to know but I've got a feeling that once you know what a symbol… the sound a symbol represents, it's always the same, (okay!)  I think I might be right about that. Pronunciation is not difficult, but I'm not a big pronunciation expert. I managed to get a more or less decent French accent I think - my Spanish accent not so much, though. I really… I've kind of…I've kind of given up trying to not sound British. And I just hope that people are charmed by it!  The only time I really will have to make an effort is when someone obviously can't understand what I'm saying, because I’ve mispronounced something. So, I have a little anecdote about that: About I don't know how many years ago, I hadn't been here too long, and I was at the supermarket and very often at the supermarket, alcohol is in a locked cabinet…a glass cabinet. So you would go to the till and ask for a particular bottle that you want. And so that day, I wanted a bottle of Bacardi Rum, Bacardi – ba-car-di – it’s, like, three syllables and I said it and I repeated it. She just did not understand, and I thought, “What am I doing wrong?”  And then I thought “hang on a second. it's not Bacardi, it’s Bacardi. You have to put the stress is on the last … and just by changing the stress to a different syllable - to the right syllable, her eyes lit up and off she went. She knew what I meant. (oh, that’s funny!) You know, for a word that, you know, that I had the letters right (Yeah), you know, and my accent wasn't really awful, but I was stressing the wrong syllable. But it's just an example of the fact that, you know, it does… pronunciation to a certain extent does matter - don't get stressed about that you have to have a native accent. Don't.  Don't do it. Because it's just… you'll be expending a huge amount of energy, and I think people would be better suited to working on their vocabulary, which leads me to another point: To get to a really good level of English, the thing that I hear among people - even with a high level - is not using vocabulary correctly, not understanding the nuances (Aha), and idioms and - I adore idioms, I can't get enough of them!  And I know lots of learners love them too, and I think that is wonderful. I think that is wonderful, but I do think it can be incredibly tricky to understand the nuances. I think people's time is better suited to getting plenty of exposure, and reading an awful lot so that you get all this vocabulary in different contexts. For example, you can have an idiom that will have an exact translation, but there is a slight difference in meaning between the two, and that… you won't pick up on that unless… there really is no way around it but you couldn't you need to get hundreds, 1000s of hours of exposure, and so that's why it's so important to find a way to love that language that you're studying so it's a lot easier, but I see that a lot - people that I know are really good at English, but they will still stumble over and - same here, I mean, I have advanced Spanish, but for sure I'm not using that the right word… right expression, you know?

S:  On your Twitter accounts, the more advanced students and making sure they understand the nuances - is this your aim or is it a mixture of everything?

Su: I never really had a strategy, but I would find… but I just started off quite early, I mean, I've been on there for about eight years or so, and I would put out some simple quizzes and people really enjoyed them. I had… because sometimes I announced that I'm about to… in about half an hour, I'm going to post a quiz and I'd have people, you know, saying “look, I'm going for my run now, can you just postpone it a bit longer?” because I would announce who answered the question first (Sure) and second, whatever. So there was a bit of a competitive element. Anyway, so I didn't have a strategy particularly to go for a certain level or anything, but I kept coming back to the fact that people would be telling me that it was too easy, so then I pushed it up because that… also I’d get a buzz out of like stumping them, you know, giving them something that's, you know, they're gonna find hard, that they have to work for – then there’s the people who haven't been studying so long, and it's too hard for them. So, I try and do a bit of a mix. It's just… Twitter has been an experiment for me. It was… it kind of started out like that, and it's just kept going. But, yeah, mostly it's quizzes, because I feel that it's a way I like to learn, and it appears that people love that too, so…

S:  Absolutely! And it's a really lovely way to be interactive with the person posting the quizzes as well.

Su:  Exactly, yes. Super interactive, yeah. I mean, I think a lot of fun Twitter friends over that over the years. (Oh, that’s nice) Yeah, that’s very nice.

S:  Well, I'm just gonna finish them by asking you - apart from reading a lot, I suppose that's maybe that your main takeaway, are there any other tips that you would give out to language learners?

Su:  Yes. Again, go back to Twitter - use Twitter as a resource, not just for learning but for finding language partners, or for just practising your English or French, or whatever. Because I find that the fact it is such a short format, you can't write too much – you know, you could just write one sentence and that's enough, and if you, you know, are fairly shy, and you don't want people look at, you know, your mistakes or whatever, once you've done it, after a couple of weeks just remove … just delete it. I'd also recommend it for teachers to get visibility on there, but that wasn't your question (it’s a good point, thought) But I think Twitter is a great place to get visibility if you’re, like, looking for more students or you have courses or whatever. And this, I think, is a good tip which I apply: Students have an obsession with the fact that they have to practice English with native speakers all the time. No! no! “oh, but what if I learn their mistakes and what have you?”  On balance, you will do way better just getting that extra practice. My German got immensely improved with me hanging around with my Turkish friend, and we knew that we would make mistakes but we were chatting all the time. And because we're chatting all the time, we quickly knew, you know, what vocabulary was…we were still missing. And it was just all this practice, and I knew, of course, we weren't speaking perfectly but my fluency improved dramatically because our shared language was German. (Yeah) And did I end up speaking German with a Turkish accent? No, no, I didn’t!  But it's one of my big… it's a big frustration, I've heard it so many times. You can practice English with someone who's French, you know, the same level as you, but the important thing is just to be speaking - you won't learn to speak until you speak. I mean, it sounds real, such common sense when people are so scared to speak - if you are scared to speak, well start writing - write 10 sentences a day, notice what vocabulary you still are lacking, you know, especially if you can… the sentences you're writing you can make them relevant to your of your daily life, the vocabulary that you'll need, then all the better. But please don't use it as an excuse…I do sense that sometimes it's used as an excuse.

S: I think that is so right, it’s an excellent point to make…

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

(Music)

I was over the moon speaking to Suzanne, and, as she rightly says – it’s not important to find a native English speaker to practice with, speaking is so important, so get that extra practice in wherever and whenever you can!  You can find Suzanne on Twitter or via her website www.recipesforenglish.com.

So, this episode’s pronunciation tip is about words that are from the same family, or words that look exactly the same, but the stress is on a different syllable – or ‘beat’ like in music – because they have different meanings. As Suzanne explained in her great example when saying “Bacardi” in Spanish instead of “Bacardi” as we say in English (other rums are available!), finding the right beat to stress can really help you be clear when you speak.  The right stress can also ensure you have the right meaning… do you want “desert” or “dessert”?   Hmm… 

So, I have 3 sentences with examples of similar or the same English words that need the right stress for the right meaning:

First: Words from the same family: The verb “to analyse” (BA-ba-ba) and the noun “analysis” (ba-BA-ba-ba) (= meaning the close examination of something).

Try this sentence = “We need to analyse the analysis.”

Next:  Two words that look the same: The verb “to perfect” (ba-BA) and the adjective “perfect” (BA-ba) (meaning = to be 100%).

Try this sentence = “I can’t perfect this perfect work!”

Finally:  Two more words that look the same:  The adjective “content” (ba-BA) (= meaning to be pleased or happy 🙂) and the noun “content” (BA-ba) (meaning = what’s inside, so a ‘table of contents’ shows you what is in a book or a thesis). 

Try this sentence = “I’m content with the content of this thesis!”

This, I’m afraid, is a case of learning by doing… by reading, by listening, by writing, and by speaking.  There is no one rule – but the more you do, the more you will remember the differences! 

And the difference between “desert” and “dessert”?  It’s not only the extra ‘s’ in “dessert”, I also think of it as the difference between “sand” and “chocolate”, so be careful when you’re ordering in a restaurant…!

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 Suzanne and, for her music, a huge thanks to the wonderful Mara Carlyle.   Bye for now!