Working with prefixes these days, the adjective `interracial´came out and I could not help recommending this film, “Loving”. It is based on actual facts – click here to read about the couple the story is based on, the Lovings.
“Oversleeping,” here´s a word students learn right away thanks to its repetitive use during the first minutes of the first lessons in the morning.
Student: Can I come in?
Teacher: Why are you late, -student´s name?
Student: I overslept
That´s why this image reminded me of Pablo, Luis, Lucia, Iago, Marcos, Carlos….and I could go on and on….
English pronunciation is really difficult and sometimes beyond comprehension; take this first example:
Ghoti= fish. Click here if you don´t believe me as for its meaning and here to check its pronunciation
Sometimes making yourself understood, even in relation to the most basic sounds of the English language, can turn out to be a pretty hard task. Watch this clip from the television game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.” This show offers large amounts of money as prizes if you answer correctly a series of multiple-choice questions; in this case, the contestant faces big problems when trying to word his answer: something as simple as saying the first letter of the English alphabet.
And accents…well, that´s another story. Understanding people with, let´s say, a strong (or not so strong) Scottish accent is difficult for most native-English speakers from other English speaking countries -and for some voice-recognition technology in elevators, for that matter…
When preparing your oral exams or speeches, make sure you know how to pronounce all the words. Click here to listen to the pronunciation of the words which are new to you, then repeat it till you feel it sounds right.
Correct pronunciation is probably one of the most important things to make oneself understood when speaking English; accent, however, is not something that you should worry about. Very few people actually manage to speak a language like native speakers (I can only think of our colleage Pili, right now); the rest of us can barely hide our accent even in our own language!. Remember what happens when we travel to other regions in Spain: as soon as we say the first word, people immediately say,”You are from Galicia, aren´t you?” That´s because of our accent.
Here´s a video that shows what speakers from very different origins sound like when they speak English: Amy Walker does a little tour of 21 accents ranging from different places in the UK and Ireland, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, France, Australia, New Zealand, and around North America. If you close your eyes and listen to her, you´ll get the feeling you are listening to all those people.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlll
Liam Dutton, a weatherman, pronounces it with no hesitation whatsoever.
