Spanish Speakers like Yellow

It's yellow! No, I mean it's jello! Well, jou know what I mean!

I get tickled with how my Spanish speaking accent reduction clients always get the "Y" and "J" sounds mixed up. I love the yellow/jello problem. It's typical in the accent of Spanish speakers speaking English. Why does it always happen and how do we stop it? That's a question they always ask me. We both know that they know how to make both sounds correctly, but it always happens.

What's going on with that? Well, first of all, it's not a speech mix up, it's a brain mix up. The brain gets confused and wants to switch the sounds in the Spanish-speaking mind. You want to say J when you're supposed to say Y and vice versa and you keep getting it mixed up. It's because the language of Spanish switches it. So how do you fix it?

Well I like to suggest tricking the brain. Say it wrong, and say it right, say it wrong, and say it right. Stand up and change positions as you say, this will signal the brain that something different is happening. Say each sound until the brain understands.

If you've ever seen fresh snow, kids love to make a path through the fresh snowfall. If it's deep, all the kids follow the same crooked path to school. That's what you have done for the sounds these letters make in your brain. You will keep following the path until you build a new one.

Here's a trick for jou (I mean you!)

To make sure you say the Y sound correctly, say i as in "it". Hold the sound i, then push your toungue forward, but don't let it touch the gum ridge. So here's how you practice:
i-yellow
i-you
i-young
i-yes
i-yell

It sounds strange at first, but the more you practice this technique the easier it will be to say the y sound instead of the j sound.

Then, move on to sentences and have some fun! Here are some practice sentences:

Joe dropped the jo-yo into the yam-flavored jam.
Jill will yell if Jake Yates drops the yoke on her jacket.
You young jury jerks just yell and yell and you jeer too!

Accent reduction does not have to be a miserable, tedious process. It can be fun if you can laugh at yourself while correcting yourself. My accent reduction clients often begin correcting themselves in about the third week of accent reduction coaching. That's when the miracle happens!

For more information on accent reduction coaching, classes and helpful hints, visit my website and sign up for my mothnly newsletter. http://www.crossingborderscommunication.com/.

How To Pronounce "the" in English

THEE and THUH Problem:

English is confusing. We don't often pronounce words the way they are written. One of the biggest mistakes I hear when people are reading out loud is that they say THEE when they should say THUH. If you read from a tele-prompter on TV, or you are reading from a written speech, you might make this mistake. I've heard many people make this error, even leading politicians who speak English as their first language!

There are some simple rules to help you pronounce it right. Normally we pronounce "the" with a short sound (like "thuh"). But when "the" comes before a vowel sound, we pronounce it as a long "thee."

A - we write "the apple" - we say "thee apple"
E - we write "the egg" - we say "thee egg"
I - we write "the ice cube" - we say "thee ice cube"
O - we write "the orange" - we say "thee orange"
U - we write "the uncut bread" - we say "thee uncut bread"

Here's a tip: If you are reading out loud from a script, you might want to spell out the word "THEE" when you precede it with a word that begins with a vowel, to make sure you do not mispronounce the tricky "the."

Remember that what we SAY matters, not what we write. It's the SOUND that matters, not the letter.

When preceding a consonant, we say "thuh". But it gets tricky with consonants that have vowel sounds. So remember, if it sounds like a vowel.... say "thee" not "thuh". Here's some examples:

H - we write "the house" - we say "thuh house" (consonant sound)
H - we write "the hour" - we say "thee hour" (vowel sound "our")
U - we write "the university" - we say "thuh university" (consonant sound)
U - we write "the umbrella" - we say "thee umbrella" (vowel sound)

Now, once you learn that simple rule, remember to distinguish the right sound for "the."

There is one more use of the sound "thee". It's the emphatic the (thee). We use the sound "thee" when we want place emphasis on something.

Sam: I saw the (thuh) CEO yesterday.
Joe: You mean The (thee) CEO of our company?
Sam: Of course!

So be careful when you read out loud. Many people make this mistake, as it's often not one of those things that pointed out in school. It's one of those invisible rules of good pronounciation.

Hooray for Dylan!

Hooray for Bob Dylan! Homer would nod with approval, T.S. Elliot would cackle with delight, and Abraham Lincoln would grin and say bravo! I myself was delighted when I was driving in my car and heard the news story about some blogger who discovered that Bob Dylan used the lines of the civil war poet Henry Timrod, the poet laureate of the Confederacy in his new album. "Oh, this is wonderful, this is perfect," I yelled at oncoming traffic... Whaooooooo! In keeping with my series on "Steal like Crazy until you Make Yourself Up", thanks Bob!Bob Dylan has only done what every great speaker, great poet, and great songwriter has been doing for centuries, for millennia. I don't like that they are calling it 'borrowing' though. Motoko Rich of The New York Times called Dylan a magpie... now that's more like it!
"In Mr. Dylan's case, critics and fans have long described the songwriter's magpie tendencies, looking upon that as a manifestation of his genius, not unlike other great writers and poets like T. S. Eliot or James Joyce who have referenced past works."T.S. Elliot said that ""Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different." Homer himself said that "Poetic License" which we now call "Artistic License" is being able to take what you want for your yarns, speeches and songs. I have a license, Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill had one, and now Dylan does too! And in doing so, not only do we enjoy his songs, but we learned about about an obscure poet who was lost in American History!This is why I always say to my clients and students: read, read, read, watch, study great speakers, find sparkling words, copy their STYLE! Then.... play like you are them! Chances are, the style of the speaker you like is the same style you have deep in your psyche. Until you become a pro at it, this is the best way to "make yourself up."Anyway, the words Dylan used from Timrod were fantastic: “More frailer than the flowers, these precious hours,” How magic is that? Heck, Dr. Martin Luther King stole words from Lincoln, who stole words from the Bible!
"The opening words that resonated to the ear were about cadence as well as content. He began with two rhyming words: four score. This set in motion a symphony of melodious sounds. The Hebrew cadence, rendered in Elizabethan English, would have been stated slowly by Lincoln: “Four . . . score.”
The biblical ring of his opening words was rooted in lines from Psalm 90: The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years."So there you have it. I'll have more on "Steal Like Crazy Until You Make Yourself Up" later as I become a magpie myself and look for more goodies to "steal." (And Homer nods....)

Thucydides and Lincoln