Filed Under: Learning English, Pronunciation

Is English pronunciation also hard for native speakers?

July 27, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Yes and no.

It’s not hard in the sense of having to learn it in the way someone learning English as a second language does. We learn our “palette” of sounds along with our first language as kids.

But there are plenty of things we mispronounce, just like, I’m sure, people in your native language.

A couple of years ago one of my clients pointed out I was pronouncing the word “taciturn” wrong (taKIturn). I’m not sure when or why I picked up the incorrect pronunciation – but of course, as soon as I realised it was wrong my pronunciation simply changed (and no, it wasn’t difficult to do).

Being a “native speaker” means being completely unconscious of the way you use language. And yes, that means unconscious (most of the time anyway) of the imperfections, too.

My speech is full of imperfections.

No excuses or explanation — because I honestly don’t see why justification is necessary.

Humans are wrong about most things most of the time. Who cares if I make a mistake with my English.

But, and this is the important part, herein lies the paradox of language learning. You go to school and English classes focus exclusively on accuracy (it’s easy to measure, after all). Yet in reality, there is no true “accurate” model of English because the English I know is a collection of my own (often flawed) experiences.

And my experience of life (and therefore English) is very different to anybody else’s experience.

Of course, the concept of a “standard English” exists.

But that’s all it is.

A concept.

As an aside, a great exercise for developing good pronunciation—particularly rhythm and good “chunking” skills—in English as a second language is “Shadowing”. I’ve got a free guide here, for anyone who wants it.

Best,
Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English fluency, Speaking English

How many words must you know before you feel truly fluent in a language?

July 26, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Let me answer this by asking a similar question: how many pieces of spaghetti do you need to make a meal?

Obviously, there’s no answer to this.

Arguably just two pieces don’t make a full meal… but it all depends on how hungry I am. There’s no clear point where we can say “not a meal”, “now is a meal”.

Fluency in English doesn’t necessarily depend on the number of words you have memorised.

It just doesn’t work that way.

I remember this quasi-experiment I watched on Japanese TV many years ago. They sent reporters out on the street to talk to Japanese and American people. They asked the Japanese people “Can you speak English?” they would say no. When they asked the Americans (despite having had no Japanese education whatsoever) they’d reply with simple Japanese words like “konnichiwa” or “kimono”. If the only thing you need to do in Japan is to get some sushi, knowing the word “sushi” allows for a fairly fluent conversation.

But, say, you’re a sales rep for an international company. You’re going to need more vocabulary than simple words because your job depends on how you use specific words in your daily conversations.

The point is, how much you need will always depend on you and your life. The words you need to know to depend on your specific needs.

If you want to learn more about my approach to improving your English (without having to worry about pointless questions like this one) go here and sign up for the free daily English email tips I write.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English fluency, Speaking English

How do I speak classy English?

July 23, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

How do you sound classy when you speak English?

Good question.

Let’s look at the dictionary definition:

Classy: adjective
Stylish and sophisticated.

Speaking English well requires far more than just English. You’ve also got to have intelligent and interesting things to talk about.

Knowledge.

Stories to tell.

Ultimately, no matter how fluent your English is… boring is boring.

So it’s not about learning big, complicated words or rare grammar constructions. Instead, the first step is developing a stylish and classy personality (whatever that means to you, in your personal situation). Once you’ve got that, it’s all about communicating with other people in a natural, clear way.

Hope that helps.

I send free daily email tips to help you speak better English — you can get them by going here.

Best,
Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English fluency, Improve in English, Speaking English

How can I improve my English when I speak fast?

July 22, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Well, the brutally honest and probably not what you want to hear, answer to this is: SLOW THE FUCK DOWN.




You see, there’s this myth that native speakers of English speak very, very fast. And because you believe this myth, you imitate what they do, so you speak English like a teenager driving a car down country lanes at a maniac’s speed.

But this myth isn’t true at all. Most native speakers don’t actually speak really fast.

Sometimes, to non-natives, they only sound like they’re speaking fast. But what they’re actually doing is chunking and articulating their speech well.

And, you know, speaking fast doesn’t mean you’re actually fluent at all.

There are a couple of reasons why people may speak too fast in English:

  1. Their natural rate of speech (some do speak fast, some don’t).
  2. Their first language has a high average rate of speech compared to English. (e.g. Italian)
  3. Their fear of making mistakes (therefore they speak fast to cover it up).
  4. They want to impress people (they won’t).

When you talk about covering your mistakes and impressing people to sound fluent, what you’re actually doing is the complete opposite of that. People won’t understand you when you speak English fast and incoherently.

So instead of speaking fast, speak CLEARLY.

Focus on the clarity of your speech and of your speaking.

Work on the naturalness of your speech (native-like selection), which is speaking in high-frequency, native-like chunks of English. That way, you’ll sound better when you speak English.

If you want to learn more about how to speak better English, have a look at the free training I made. It goes into detail about how native speakers speak, and what learning (and speaking) in chunks means.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English learning, Pronunciation, Speaking English

The best way to know if your English is correct without asking

July 21, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

There are a few ways on how you can check if your English pronunciation is correct (or not) without asking.




One of the best ways to know if your pronunciation is correct or not is actually quite easy. If the person you’re talking to looks confused, your pronunciation is probably incorrect. But if the person doesn’t look confused, then you nailed it.

And you know, a person’s reaction is still the best feedback you’re going to get.

But for example, you ask them, “Is my pronunciation correct?”, you’ve now implanted an idea in that person’s head that your English is not very good. Because you’ve then shifted the focus from your conversation to the fact that you’re insecure about your pronunciation. In reality, however, they probably never even thought so much about your English at all.

So be confident with your English. If you want to check if your English is correct or not without asking, use their reaction as a reference.

Hope that helps.

I help high-level non-native English speakers use English better at work and in day to day life. If that’s you, you might like to sign up for the free daily email tips I send.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: Teaching English

What is the goal for English teaching in school?

July 20, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

This is a great question and somewhat of a contentious issue. I was a guest speaker in a discussion on Clubhouse last week and among other things, the topic of language educational policy came up.




This is what someone asked:

“My teachers didn’t prepare me for English in the real world — why doesn’t the way English is taught in school change?”

But what they never realise is…. it may only be you who wants it to change.

Now, I’m no expert in Educational Policy the world over.

But before I started down my current research path (chunking – have a look at this Quora post), before I was super interested in language-teaching policy. I even wrote my Masters dissertation on it (got a distinction — just saying).

What you’ve got to understand is this:

  1. Students have their own agenda (for some it’s getting through the boring English class as easily as possible… for others, it’s to actually get good at English).
  2. Teachers have their own agenda (often to do their job as hassle-free as possible; they’re overworked, undertrained and just want to be done and go home before they collapse from exhaustion… this isn’t always the case, but in my experience of Japan it often is).
  3. Governments have their own agenda (in many countries, like Japan, it’s simply not in the government’s best interest to turn everyone into intelligent, critically thinking fluent English speakers. Only a small percentage of people like that are required, and the rest are better off — in their eyes — funnelled into lower-tier factory work and the like).

So you see, all people involved have a different agenda.

I’m oversimplifying this.

But you’d be silly not to recognise that.

Of course, it’s the same in the private English teaching industry, too — in my posts here I’ve talked about my friend who got shouted at by his boss because his lessons were too good; the boss wanted him to slow down so they could get more money from the students for extra classes. This isn’t always the case. But it often is.

And yes:

I also have my own agenda in my business.

Two, actually.

First, and on a higher “mission” level I want to change the way people think about English education for the better and be recognised for that (otherwise I’d never write an email like this — instead, I’d feed you more of the same ‘just listen to these CDs and you’ll be fluent without trying’ bullshit or pointless conversation lessons).

Second, I’m in this to make a profit (of course I am — with three members of full-time staff, two part-time, and an additional full-time salary that I won’t get into now… doing this shit ain’t cheap yo).

Luckily for you, I choose to do this in a way that, while harder work for me, gets you results.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

P.S. I help high-level non-native English speakers use English better at work and in day to day life. If that’s you, you might like to sign up for the free daily email tips I send.