Lindsay McMahon (2:32)

Yeah. We're here for our listeners today, right, Michelle?

Michelle Kaplan (2:34)

I mean, exactly. We got a really good important listener question and a very nice one as well. So thank you to this listener. We're going to read it in a second. But guys, we want to remind you, please hit the follow button wherever you are listening to Allers English so that you don't miss anything from us. We do bonus episodes. We it goes straight to your queue. You don't have to go looking for us. All good stuff. Easy.

Lindsay McMahon (2:57)

Exactly. And if you happen to be watching this on YouTube, which is also a great way to consume all ears English, if you're a more visual learner, you can do that. Hit the subscribe button. So wherever you are listening or watching, make sure you are subscribed or following the show. All right, Michelle, now we saw this come in and we were overjoyed because we love this kind of feedback. First of all, do you want to read the first paragraph and I'll read the second?

Michelle Kaplan (3:20)

Sure. This is from Farah Salt. Oh, waiti6395. And I'm sorry for butchering your name. This name. I'm so sorry. But thank you for this. It says, I've been listening to Ollie's Eng English for over a year now, and it has truly made a big difference in my English learning journey. That's so great to hear.

Lindsay McMahon (3:41)

That's so good. I love it.

Michelle Kaplan (3:43)

Yeah. The way Lindsay, Michelle and Aubry teach is fun, practical, and full of real life examples. I love how the episodes are not just about grammar. They focus on connection, culture, and confidence. Wow. This listener really, like, picked up on exactly what we're trying to do, right? Exactly. Kind of our mission, right? Yes.

Lindsay McMahon (4:04)

The three Cs. Connection, culture and confidence, confidence. I love it. And here is the listener's question. I have one question for the Allers English team. I'm trying to make my speaking tone sound more American. Do you have any tips or exercises on how to change or improve my sound, my sound tone, my intonation or my rhythm so I can sound more natural and confident when speaking English? Such a good question. That is the question, right, Michelle? Super important.

Michelle Kaplan (4:31)

Yeah. We, we, you know, and, and we have discussed intonation in the. In past episodes. But I want to definitely answer this listener question just because this is not something that we. That can be overstated. Right. That we can pay too much attention to. We. This is very important. Intonation are in rhythm are huge in American English. And. Yeah. Lindsay, what do you think?

Lindsay McMahon (4:59)

Yeah, I really think you're right, Michelle. Especially when you get to the higher levels. So this summer we've been building professional English Level 2, which will be coming out in September. I'm still so excited. And in our curriculum development, the majority of what we're focusing on in terms of pronunciation points is actually intonation and delivery. It's no longer so much the sounds and pronouncing. You still have a little bit of that in the course but as you get into the C1, B2 level and higher, it's about delivery and what are the words we're punching and stressing. So people listen to us and frankly respond. Respect us, they hear us. It's one thing to be heard, it's another thing to be listened to.

Michelle Kaplan (5:40)

Ah. Oh, I like that. That's very. So, yeah, I mean, this listener wants to, quote, sound more American. I, I always think it's more about being able to be understood, not necessarily sound American. The goal is that you want to be understood and you can do that even if you don't sound American. Don't you think? Lindsay?

Lindsay McMahon (6:05)

I totally agree. You may have accent preferences. Personally, I love the Aussie accent. You know, if I were learning English, I'd want to sound Australian.

Michelle Kaplan (6:14)

Yeah, yeah.

Lindsay McMahon (6:14)

Because I think it sounds so cool. Yeah, but. So we all have our preferences. But what we want to be focusing on more so is again, being clear, delivering so that people actually listen to us and so that they want to hear more from us.

Michelle Kaplan (6:29)

Right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And a huge piece of that is that rhythm and that intonation. Right. Because you can say something in English. English. And not use rhythm and intonation. And not only is it just not as interesting to listen to, but sometimes it can actually impact the meaning. And because English is very rhythm dependent and it's very important for how things sound. So it's. It, it is, it's not just about, oh, let me show you my intonation. I'm so interesting. And, you know, it's not just that. We really have to think about all the layers and why this is important.

Lindsay McMahon (7:08)

Oh, for sure. Yeah. So we're gonna give you, our listeners today, a couple of ideas, some methods, some activities we can do. Right, Michelle? To actually, yes. Devote our time to developing that rhythm and intonation.

Michelle Kaplan (7:20)

Yeah, yeah. So one thing, and we've talked about this a bit before, is shadowing or imitation. Now, Lindsay, you mentioned you're a good mimic. So what, what kinds of things? I mean, is it just pretty much what you hear from people?

Lindsay McMahon (7:35)

Yeah, it's weird.

Michelle Kaplan (7:36)

Talk to them or how do you. Yeah, yeah.

Lindsay McMahon (7:38)

It's like a weird mental quirk. So when I'm learning, like I said, it works better when I'm actually living or staying in the place. But even if I go to like a meet up, a Spanish meetup in Denver in the hour or something, after the meetup, I'll go home and, you know, on the train or my, my scooter scooting around Denver and I'll be Speaking Spanish in my head. And I will carry with that not just the words, but the rhythm too. And I'll be narrating kind of, oh, there's a car over there. Right. And obviously you need a certain amount of vocabulary to start doing that. So that's not so much for the beginner level. What my method of speaking in your head. But we all have a dialogue going on in our heads, I think. It's not just me, I hope.

Michelle Kaplan (8:19)

And.

Lindsay McMahon (8:20)

And why not make that in the target language?

Michelle Kaplan (8:23)

Right.

Lindsay McMahon (8:24)

Especially if we've just consumed something. Right. From a native speaker and we're gonna then mimic not just the words, but the rhythm.

Michelle Kaplan (8:33)

Yeah, right, exactly. So you know one thing, even if you are not living in the place, if you're not living in the culture, so you can listen to it, do this shadowing. Yeah. Right. So you can watch a TV show. I think a talk show is really great because then you're listening to more natural ways of speaking or a podcast. Of course, more. Not anything with more natural conversation to me is better. Right. Yeah. You know, maybe not like listen to a Shakespeare play that might not, you know, think about who you want to sound like. What is it? You know, if you want to do it for work, you know, you can listen to YouTube, job interviews. I mean, anything. Yeah, I mean, for sure.

Lindsay McMahon (9:16)

And I think, I think when you choose, let's say a podcast, it's good. I think there are a lot of podcasts out there that are single hosted, which are great. You could spend some time with that single host.

Michelle Kaplan (9:27)

Yeah.

Lindsay McMahon (9:27)

But there is value, obviously, because our listeners are listening to Dollars English, they know there's value in listening to a, you know, a co hosted show. There is something that happens in the back and forth, Michelle, that's really important the way I wait for you because I think you're going to interject something. These are the nuances of high level conversation that eventually the B2, C1, C2 levels, we're going to start to want to mimic that too. So depending on what your level is, choose the right material to mimic.

Michelle Kaplan (9:53)

Exactly. That's such a good point, Lindsay. Yeah. So when you're shadowing or imitating, you know, you just let it play and then you stop and you repeat it or you repeat it right behind where the person is speaking. So as they're speaking, you are speaking too, like, just like a second behind them. So that's a really good exercise to try to really tune into the intonation as well. But another thing you could do is listen with a Transcript So to many different things and circle points where intonation changes. Right. So you're kind of doing a little case study. You're listening. And can you find some commonalities between different things you listen to? Does a talk show sound different than a movie? Movie does a. Right. All those different things. So do a little bit of research.

Lindsay McMahon (10:42)

Yeah, I love that. And you know, if this requires, as Michelle said, circling places where the intonation changes, you know, we do provide the transcripts for Allers English, so go to allersenglish.com subscribe. That will get you a weekly PDF of the transcripts of the entire week, all four of four episodes of the week. Not that Saturday, but we do do the four. You can get that delivered to your email inbox before the first episode goes live of the week. So all there's english.com subscribe. That's one way to do it. And Michelle, should we also, as another method, record ourselves? At what point do we want to do this?

Michelle Kaplan (11:17)

To me, I think that's great. I mean, record a conversation or a version of you reading some sort of passage, listen back to it, analyze it, play it for someone, whatever, you know, resources you have, then repeat again and again and listen to your progress. I mean, yesterday I was, I mean, this isn't the same thing, but I was looking up a drawing video on YouTube with my son for something to do, and he started it and he didn't like it and he didn't like how his was going and he was, he was making some mistakes. It was kind of a tutorial. And I just said, okay, let's get a new piece of paper and try it again. And even just the second one, he was so much better. And I know obviously this is very intuitive. We say if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Right. But it is true. The second time is just, just different. Even when you exercise, right. You first time you do an exercise, you might be totally winded. The SEC second time already, it's a little better. So 100. Keep going for it.

Lindsay McMahon (12:17)

Yes, you're right. You try again and again. I mean, even children, when they're learning a language at a very young age, they're mimicking their parents. They're trying again. They're trying many times, right? Yeah, it's so true. And recently we've just added some really cool AI pronunciation scoring activities, some of our courses, Michelle. So that's another place we could try and try again. But not only can we try multiple times, we can get a score each time. And Try to improve our score. So this is currently inside our B2 course. It will be in the B1 course very soon and it will probably be in Professional Level 2 when we launch it this fall. So check out our courses for that. Really cool. Really cool.

Michelle Kaplan (12:55)

Love it. Yes.

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Michelle Kaplan (14:23)

Right. So, yeah, I. I think another good thing is to journal, right? So keep some sort of an intonation. Pay attention throughout the day. Or maybe you say, I always say to students, you know, pick 20 minutes a day where you're paying attention to this. But with intonation, I would almost say make it Intonation Wednesday or something like that. You know, you don't have to do it all the time, but find moments in the day or a day a week where you can really pay attention to that and then write, how did it go? Is there something that you felt worked or didn't work and just kind of use it as a. As a journal? Right, Right. Yeah.

Lindsay McMahon (14:58)

Michelle, it sounds like you're inviting us to be more present. Right? Which is always a gift. Because so many aspects of our lives could improve when we're just a little bit more present.

Michelle Kaplan (15:07)

Right.

Lindsay McMahon (15:07)

We're not off in the dialogue in our head unless it's in our. The language. The target language, of course. But often I. I spend a lot of time just kind of spacing out. I don't know about you, but I do it. It's so bad, for sure.

Michelle Kaplan (15:18)

Of course, I'm sorry, what now? Where are we? No, I just.

Lindsay McMahon (15:22)

I just miss so much of life, and I think about how much better I would. Would like, life would be if I paid more attention to things. And language is under that bucket, too. Yeah.

Michelle Kaplan (15:33)

Yeah, definitely. So. And then, you know, practice saying the same thing in different ways. You know, choose an emotion to like, to match what you're trying to express and change it up so you can kind of make it a little bit of game. So, Lindsay, we're gonna play a game.

Lindsay McMahon (15:50)

Okay, let's do it.

Michelle Kaplan (15:52)

Okay, so we are going to say the same thing. So the neutral sentence is, I am going to my friend's house weekend. Very basic, very neutral. Okay, Lindsay, why don't you choose a way to say it and. And I can try and guess how you're feeling.

Lindsay McMahon (16:07)

Okay, I'm going to my friend's house this weekend.

Michelle Kaplan (16:12)

Very good. Doesn't sound like you're happy to do that. Sounds like you might be a little bit sad about it or you're just not maybe a little bit bored, right?

Lindsay McMahon (16:22)

Not excited. Yep, exactly. Bored slash sad slash flat.

Michelle Kaplan (16:26)

Yeah, Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay McMahon (16:28)

What about. What about one more, Michelle? What's.

Michelle Kaplan (16:30)

All right, I'll do one more. Okay. I'm going to my friend's house this weekend.

Lindsay McMahon (16:36)

I hear Fran of. What's the word? A sense of. There's frantic in your voice. Your voice is frantic.

Michelle Kaplan (16:43)

Like a little rushed. Right. So, yes, I'm gonna say. And then I have to do this. And then I have to do this.

Lindsay McMahon (16:50)

Yeah, for sure. You are rushed. Absolutely. Time is of the essence, Michelle. So we say things in different ways. And so we're.

Michelle Kaplan (16:57)

We're.

Lindsay McMahon (16:57)

But I think the key point with all of these suggestions is our listeners. You all need to take control of your learning.

Michelle Kaplan (17:03)

Right.

Lindsay McMahon (17:03)

We're not necessarily going to school, sitting in classrooms anymore. As adult learners, we need to create our own study plan.

Michelle Kaplan (17:10)

Right.

Lindsay McMahon (17:11)

And in our courses, we give you that. But if you're listening to the podcast, you need to be creating your own study plan here.

Michelle Kaplan (17:16)

I totally agree. So now we're gonna do two different role plays. One with no intonation. Okay. Initiation. One with no intonation and one with more intonation. And again, you know, intonation can mean a variety of things, really. It's number one, it's your emotion. But it's also in the rules of intonation and stress and rhythm and that we've done other episodes about as well. So today that we're just kind of focusing on this for this. The purpose of this exercise, we're Focusing on monotonous versus not monotonous. So Lindsay and I here in this. Both of these role plays, we're talking about summer plans. Okay. So in this one, we're speaking on a monotone. Okay. All right. And so then I'm going to the beach.

Lindsay McMahon (18:03)

For how long?

Michelle Kaplan (18:05)

A week. Nice. Yeah. I'm excited. Okay. Where is this bus? I'm nervous I'm going to be late.

Lindsay McMahon (18:12)

I don't know. It's really frustrating. Oh, my gosh. I struggle doing monotone, Michelle. I can't do it.

Michelle Kaplan (18:18)

I. I know.

Lindsay McMahon (18:20)

Struggle. I tried. I tried. I think I failed.

Michelle Kaplan (18:23)

No, no, it's okay. But, yeah, it's hard. I mean, you can't. I mean, really. To say, yeah, I'm excited. Okay. Where is this bus? I mean, it's hard to understand, right? It just doesn't. It feels the listener needs to work harder to actually understand what you're saying.

Lindsay McMahon (18:36)

It feels like one long string of words. It doesn't feel like a message, you know?

Michelle Kaplan (18:42)

Yes.

Lindsay McMahon (18:43)

Yeah.

Michelle Kaplan (18:43)

Right. Exactly. So it's not just about, oh, maybe this person doesn't sound that excited. That's actually a choice voice. It's more just if it's that string and not doing variations that can be hard to listen to or very uncomfortable or like the listeners to work or. You don't want that. Right. That can break the connection.

Lindsay McMahon (19:02)

That can break the connection if the listener has to work. Let's show it the same role play now in with actual intonation.

Michelle Kaplan (19:08)

Right. Okay. All right, here we go. And so then I'm going to the beach.

Lindsay McMahon (19:13)

For how long?

Michelle Kaplan (19:14)

A week. Week.

Lindsay McMahon (19:16)

Nice.

Michelle Kaplan (19:17)

Yeah. I'm excited. Okay. Where is this bus? I'm nervous I'm gonna be late.

Lindsay McMahon (19:22)

I don't know. It's really frustrating. Yeah. So there's a lot. We might be a little exaggerated here.

Michelle Kaplan (19:27)

Right.

Lindsay McMahon (19:27)

Versus real life. Of course, we do exaggerate a little bit on this show, but to show you, right, as an example, I mean, this conversation had connection. It had life. I felt urgency in your voice, Michelle, because you were worried you're going to be late. It had emotion.

Michelle Kaplan (19:42)

Yeah.

Lindsay McMahon (19:42)

The good stuff of life, right?

Michelle Kaplan (19:44)

Yes, exactly. So, yeah, we were basically talking about the beach. And so, you know, let's go back to. I mean, there's. We're not running through vocabulary here, but some highlights are. I said, yeah, I'm excited. And then I had this switch, Right? Yeah. Okay. Where is the bus? I'm nervous I'm gonna be late. So I'm sharing two. I'm excited about the Beach. But now I'm currently nervous, so I had to show that with my voice.

Lindsay McMahon (20:09)

And I had to mirror. And this is a connection point here, really important. I needed to mirror your. Maybe not mirror your anxiety, but mirror what you're frustrated about. So I punched the. Really? I said, I don't know. It's really frustrating. Okay, so then there's connection right there just in the intonation. So intonation is connection, Michelle?

Michelle Kaplan (20:30)

Yeah, for. Oh, for sure. I, I really. I think that if you match somebody's intonation, you can just really up that connection quickly. I mean, even when you're excited, he. How are you? Oh, my gosh, I'm good, you know, but it's just, it's. It's. And it's contagious, really. Or it should be how intonation is, right?

Lindsay McMahon (20:48)

Yes. So, so incredibly important. We focus so much on grammar, vocabulary, but we forget that intonation. You can get so far in your connections with just intonation mirroring how someone feels. Michelle, what's another episode our listeners should go to right away if they love our style?

Michelle Kaplan (21:05)

All right, guys, head on over to episode 2457. A few episodes ago was can you relate how to speak up with conf. Confidence in a meeting? So I love it.

Lindsay McMahon (21:14)

So, Michelle, we've got. We've given our listeners today a lot of good ways to practice. So one takeaway, guys, is you need to create your study plan. Here, take this episode. Create a plan. It's up to you to insert these activities in your lives. And then the next piece for me is intonation is connection. Like I said, that's what it is. If we don't have it, we don't connect.

Michelle Kaplan (21:34)

Huge. Love it. All right, thank you again to this listener for that great question. Such an important topic. And thank you for listening today. And Lindsay, this was fun talking with stuff.

Lindsay McMahon (21:44)

Michelle, I'll talk to you soon. Have a good day.

Michelle Kaplan (21:46)

All right, bye bye.

Lindsay McMahon (21:52)

Thanks for listening to Allears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.

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