THE ART OF SPEAKING AMERICAN ENGLISH (3 page)

How many “sandwiches” are in
the
example
paragraph
below?

I drove
the boss’ car
to
the factory
yesterday to pick up
a
new employee
who had flown in from
the U.S
. just
the day
before. He was
a
very tall
fellow
, wearing
an
expensive gray
tweed suite
and
the
finest
pair of designer shoes
I had ever seen. It was
a
bit
difficult to understand his New York accent. Surprisingly, he began speaking Japanese in
the Osaka dialect
. From that point, we had no problem communicated, since I’m from
the county
of Minamikawachi deep in
the countryside
in west Japan.

Counting Words

As childish as it might seem, this is one of the best tricks I know to memorizing that sentence or phrase in a speech you have practiced a hundred times but have not been able to say the words in the correct order. Read the following sentence aloud and then cover it with a hand. If you cannot repeat it without looking, read it again, counting the number of words in the sentence with your fingers. It might take a few tries, but in no time at all, you will have your once difficult sentence nicely tucked away in your memory for when you need it. Try it!

Breaking The Habit Of Repeating Dialogue Verbatim

Someone once said,
“The best person for
a
job is
a
lazy man, because he is sure to find the easiest, fasted way to get things done”
. This sounds like a fair assumption, and may actually be true in a variety of scenarios, though
usually not
when it comes to explaining what someone else has previously said. Quoting someone verbatim is the
lazy man
in conversational English, and should generally be avoided except in cases where it is necessary for purposes of
relating
exclamatory statements, sarcasm, humor, and so forth.

Note the differences in case 1 and 2 among examples A, B and C. A and C are both preferable to
B
. While
A
is a basic description of what Mary said, C makes use of quotation marks punctuated by an exclamation point to make Natsuko’s statement exclamatory. The quotation marks in
B
attempt to imitate C without making use of the emphasis an exclamation point provides, but sounds much like A in tone. This combination is seldom used in contemporary conversational English.

Example 1

*A. Natsuko said she was unprepared to take the exam.

B. Natsuko said, “I’m unprepared to take the exam.”

*C. Natsuko said, “Oh my gosh! I forgot to study for the exam!”

Example 2

(the word
me
here is optional)

*A. Natsuko asked (
me
) why I decided to return to the United States.

B. Natsuko asked, “Why did you decide to return to the United States?”

*C. Natsuko asked/said, “Why in the world would you return to the United States!”

SIMPLE STEPS TO IMPROVING YOUR PRONUNCIATION

I. The Two
r’s

There is a lot of debate over pronunciation of the letter
r
. To some students, it sounds like the letter
L
, and to others, the letter
D
, and there are those who will even tell you it sounds like a combination of
L, D
, and
R
. I am not going to try to convince you which if any of these opinions are correct or incorrect. What I can tell you, is that the usual study approach to this is precisely what stands in the way of properly articulating the letter r.

It is important to understand that there are, in a sense, two very different sounds assigned to this letter. Learn them both, and you will find yourself pronouncing the letter correctly as fast as
you can bat an eye (idiom
extremely fast)
.

1. Lets start with what I’ve termed the
kissing r
, for the sake of easy memorization. Read the following words aloud. When you pronounce the letter r, purse your lips as if you are going to kiss someone.

2. Next, we have the other r sound I call the
smiling r
. When you pronounce the
r
in the following set of words give yourself a big smile in
a
mirror.

3. It is sometimes a bit difficult navigating through words that contain both the
kissing r
and
smiling r
sounds. Even so, if you keep in mind the
kiss
and the
smile
, you are sure to get the hang of it. Try sounding out the next set of words.

II. Double Consonants

1. The silent Consonant Pattern

Patterns are always a good thing when it comes to learning something new, which is why the following is relatively easy to remember. Generally, when
a word contains two consonants together that are the same, the first of the two letters is silent while the second is clearly pronounced. As previously covered, it is important that the vowel that proceeds the voiced consonant is stretched or sustained. Take your time with this.

Example Words:

2. Exceptions To The Silent Consonant Pattern

I. Words that contain double consonants that are pronounced with different sounds, such as the following, are the exception to the silent consonant pattern. The first
c
is pronounced with a
k
sound, while the second
c
is pronounced with an
s
sound.

Example Words::

3. Words That Contain Double
t
/Double
d
Followed By
en, an, on, in
.

Luckily, we have another pattern here to facilitate memorization. Generally speaking, double
t
and double
d
is silent when directly followed by the letters
en, an, on, and in
. Special attention must be given to
stretching
and sharply pronouncing
vowels
that precede and follow the
silent double consonants
.