Long Listening · Section 6

Seminar

So, every seminar, every listening practice seminar, we always want to focus on the four

Level: A2 · 492 sentences

Transcript

So, every seminar, every listening practice seminar,
we always want to focus on the four
essential elements of English listening comprehension, okay?
So if you have trouble understanding people
when they're speaking, even though you know the words that they're saying,
like you can understand their speech
if you see it written down,
but you can't understand it if you hear it.
This is because you're unable to understand
these four elements in their speech.
Okay. These elements are stress, reduced speech, linking, and phoneme distinction.
So in every seminar, we practice with identifying
different patterns regarding these four elements.
Okay. So let me show you an example of each one.
All right. We're going to look at this phrase right here.
Okay. I can only wonder.
So first of all, let's talk about stress.
Stress refers to which syllables
and which words are said longer and louder when we're talking.
When we stress a syllable, this means that we say it longer
and we say it louder than other syllables.
If a syllable is unstressed,
then it can become very short, very quiet,
and its pronunciation might change, actually.
So let's take a look at that in this phrase.
So listen to it as I say it.
I can only wonder. I can only wonder.
Notice that there are a couple stressed words here.
I'm going to say it one more time.
I can only wonder. Notice that the word only is stressed
and notice that the word wonder is stressed.
I can only wonder. I can only wonder.
Okay, these are both stressed in the sentence.
However, this word can this modal right here is unstressed.
And so because it's unstressed, in this case, it becomes reduced speech.
So unstressed syllables often become reduced speech.
This means that they become so short
that their pronunciation actually changes a little bit.
So you, as an English learner, might say, I can only wonder.
However, native speakers would not say can we would say
can I can only notice that it's not stressed, right?
I can only we don't say I can only
so this word becomes reduced and it kind of sounds like this.
I can I can I can only wonder.
Okay, so if you're expecting to hear
can You're not going to understand this phrase
because that's not how native speakers say it.
This word is reduced. Okay. So next, let's look at linking.
Linking is what happens when a word ends with a consonant sound
and the next word starts with a vowel sound.
Okay. So what happens? We're going to see an example right here.
We have a word that ends with a consonant sound
and end sound. And the next word starts with the vowel sound.
Only. All. Right?
So what we see here with this linking is that the final
consonant goes to the beginning of the next word
and at the front of the next vowel.
So instead of saying I can only, we say I can only.
Okay? We connect this N to the next vowel.
Okay, instead of I can only,
I can only, I can only, can only.
Okay. So this happens in English almost every time
that we have a final consonant and a beginning vowel.
All right. So you might have trouble understanding two words
if they're linked together like that.
Lastly, let's look at phoneme distinction. Phoneme just means sound. Okay.
So sometimes you might misunderstand a native speaker
because you're expecting a different sound
because you don't actually know which sound is in that word.
You are mistaken when it comes to the sound.
So this is a good example with this word right here.
Wonder. Most of my students would say this as one wander, right?
However, we have another word in English.
Whoops. that sounds like that, wander.
This is a completely different word, okay?
So that causes a lot of confusion, of course.
But the other problem is that when you're listening,
you might expect us to say wander.
And when we say wonder, this might be confusing
because you're expecting a different phoneme.
You're expecting ah, but in this case, it's a wonder, right?
Sometimes this letter O becomes an sound okay all right
so we just saw examples of these four essential elements
so now we're going to
take a look at our target paragraph for today
and we're going to examine this paragraph
and look at these four elements
to see why it might be difficult
for you to understand the paragraph
and to actually help you train your listening
so you can start to identify these factors, these elements,
so that little by little you can start to improve your listening
because you can notice these patterns more
and you can expect to see these patterns.
So before I show you the target paragraph,
I'm just going to read it out loud.
I have it written down on my phone here,
so I'm just going to read it. I want you to listen.
and I want you to see how much you can understand
if I read it fast without you seeing it, okay? You ready?
You couldn't have picked a worse time to take a trip.
We wanted you to be here next week
because it's your last chance to see her this year.
Okay, how was that? Did you understand what I said?
I'm sure it probably wasn't easy
to understand all the words that I said there,
but that's okay. That's why we're here.
We're gonna take a look at this paragraph together.
and we'll see why it's a little difficult for you, okay?
So let me scroll down here and we'll take a look.
So this is what I said, all right?
You couldn't have picked a worse time to take a trip.
We wanted you to be here next week
because it's your last chance to see her this year.
All right, we're gonna take a look at this paragraph
and see these four elements in the paragraph.
So we'll do it word by word, phrase by phrase.
So you couldn't have picked. You couldn't have picked.
Notice where the stress is. You couldn't have picked.
Couldn't have picked. So we have stress on this word
when we have a negative modal like couldn't, can't, wouldn't, etc.
These are often stressed.
And then our main verb is almost always stressed,
or maybe it is always stressed, right?
So couldn't have picked this word
is stressed and this word is stressed.
All right. But let's see what happens with these two stressed words
and this word in the middle.
So the way it sounds like
it's kind of like this couldn't picked.
Okay. So this have right here couldn't have couldn't have picked
this have when it's an auxiliary verb like this.
depending on the phrase, it can become reduced,
oftentimes, to this, a word that kind of,
or a sound kind of like the word of.
So, for example, I should've, I would've, I could've gone, right?
It sounds like we're saying should've, could've, would've.
Actually, many native speakers think that this is the real phrase,
but in reality it's should have, could have, would have.
But even native speakers think,
many native speakers think that the word is of
because that's what it sounds like
when we say it at normal speed.
We don't say should have, would have, could have.
We say should've, would've, could've, right?
However, If this phrase is followed by another verb, right,
if I have a word afterwards,
if it's not just the end of a sentence,
it can become even shorter.
And instead of of, it can become a.
Couldna, shouldna, wouldna. Okay? So listen to this.
You shouldna gone. Shouldna gone. Right?
I'm saying you should not have gone,
but I would shorten it to shouldna.
Okay, shouldn't have gone. If you've watched some of my other seminars,
you might have already seen something similar to this
because the word of often becomes reduced to a, right?
A box of chocolates, right? A bag of raisins.
Okay, so because that happens
and I showed you that could have sounds like could of,
then this of also becomes reduced to a.
Okay, so really strange pattern here.
But this is really, really common in English.
You need to expect this. Couldn't have picked.
Shouldn't have gone. Wouldn't have done.
Right. So you're going to hear these phrase spoken very, very fast.
Okay. All right. So you couldn't have picked.
Couldn't have picked. Notice that this word is not pronounced.
Pickid or pick it this ed
just becomes a t sound right picked Okay,
so there's no extra syllable. There's no pick it.
It's picked picked Okay, the k the ck sound is not aspirated.
It's not Right, it's not picked Right we say picked picked.
Okay, that might be a little hard for your ears to hear
but this is how These kind of words
are same thing with this kit Okay,
you shouldn't expect a sound, right?
You should just expect it like that.
Okay. So here we have an ending consonant sound.
And then the next word is a vowel.
Right. So we're going to have linking here.
So you couldn't pick. Okay.
So this T goes to the next vowel sound.
This word right here is always pronounced.
We never pronounce it as a, right?
It's a. So in this case, the linking makes it picked, okay?
So you couldn't have picked the worst time to take a trip.
So here, worst, notice that the pronunciation of or
is just like, whoops, is just like this.
Er, er. We don't say worst or warst. We say worst, right?
Like we're saying this word, were, were, worst, okay?
So you couldn't have picked the worst time.
Notice that the next word right here
has the same letter at the beginning
as the last letter in the word before it.
So here we have an ending T
and then we have a beginning T.
So when this happens in English,
usually these T's kind of blend together.
All right. So instead of saying worst time,
we would say worst time, worst time.
It's like if I say it like this, right?
Worse without the T and then
the T in the next one, right?
Worst time. This is how we would say that, okay?
We wouldn't go worst time, right?
When we end with a consonant
and the next word starts with a consonant, we don't go,
we don't let this air out, right?
We mute this letter. And in this case,
because it's the same sound, It just blends together, right?
Worst time, okay? So many students, they get confused between this word
and this word because a lot of times
they sound similar to students when they're listening
because they don't understand that maybe
the next word starts with a T
and it's just blending in and they think we're saying this word.
So that can cause some problems for sure, okay?
So you couldn't have picked the worst time to take a trip.
If you've watched other seminars, you also know this by now,
but the word to is always reduced.
We never pronounce this as to, okay?
We always pronounce it as ta, da,
or uh, depending on the context,
depending on the letter before it, okay?
So in this case, time da,
right, the last sound before it,
This is an M sound and we have vibration with the sound.
It's called a voiced sound. Because of that, this becomes reduced to.
Okay? So another, a similar one if I say had to, right?
This has vibration, this D sound.
So this is also reduced to.
I had to go. I had to start, for example.
So this word to is always reduced.
We never say to. To is the number, right?
T-O is to. This is reduced speech, okay?
So if we look at this phrase,
you couldn't have picked a worse time to take a trip.
So time, take, trip. Those are all stressed words,
but the words in between them are unstressed, okay? They're reduced.
Okay, and then we just have a little bit of linking here
because we have the word take,
which ends with a K sound,
and then the next word is a vowel.
It's only one letter. It's just one vowel.
So instead of take a, we would say take a, right?
We don't say take a trip.
We say take a trip. Take a trip, right?
When we say that fast, English learners
might think that it's like one word or something. Take a. Right.
They're not understanding that we're linking the consonants with the vowels,
but that's what's happening here. All right.
Next sentence. We wanted you to be here next week.
So let's look at this part here.
So we wanted you to be here.
So notice that the stress we wanted you.
We wanted you to be here.
The stress is on the word wanted and be okay.
Verb verb. Okay. These little pronouns here, we, you, me, her, etc.
These are usually unstressed in our sentences.
Okay. When I talk to my students, usually they stress every pronoun.
They say you, I, we. This is unnatural.
Okay. Native speakers don't stress pronouns.
These are unstressed in our sentences.
And so sometimes they can be reduced.
And this is one of those cases.
When we have a word that ends with D
and the next word is a pronoun starting with Y,
like you, your, yours, y'all, etc.,
then we have an interesting pattern.
So instead of saying wanted you, we say wanted,
I'll put it like this, wanted you.
We wanted you, okay? That's how we say this.
We wanted you to be here.
native speakers do not say wanted you.
We say wanted you, okay? This combination of the letter D
with one of these Y pronouns, you, your, yours,
etc., becomes this J sound, okay?
So, for example, if I say I did your work,
the way I would actually say this is I did your work.
I did your. I don't say did your eyes.
I say didger. I wanted you. I didger. I had you.
We don't say had you say I had you.
Right. So notice that pattern when you're listening.
You're going to hear it all the time
because when people are talking to you,
they often say you, yours, your, your, etc.
So there will be many times
when the word before it ends
with a D and you'll hear this pattern.
Okay, so you need to expect that.
We wanted you to be here next week.
So here we have another two
as we already saw this word becomes reduced. This is reduced speech.
So in this case wanted you to same thing.
We have a sound. We wanted you to be here.
Listen to how fast that sounds.
We wanted you to be here.
Wanted you. Wanted you to be here.
Wanted you to be here. So the you and this part,
this word and this word are pronounced very fast, right?
I wanted you to, wanted you to,
we wanted you to be here.
Okay? So this next part, well, this word is stressed.
Pretty easy to understand, right? We wanted you to be here.
This word is also stressed. No problems there.
We wanted you to be here next week.
So In this phrase here, next week,
notice that we have an ending consonant and a beginning consonant.
And this one is a T right here.
So the T often becomes muted at the end of words.
Okay, just like with this combination right here.
Worst time, this T was kind of muted
or we could say that it kind of blended together with the other T.
In this case, it's kind of muted.
So listen again. Next week. Next week.
When we say it fast, it just sounds like this.
Next week. Okay.
It's a little bit too much for us to say.
There's too many consonant sounds. We don't want to say next. Right.
So as native speakers, we reduce this and we say next week.
Next time. We don't say next time.
We say next time. Right. Next Monday.
Again, we just mute the T next Monday.
All right. So this muted T at the end of words
like that is really common, especially
if the next word starts with a consonant.
Okay. So we wanted you to be here next week
because it's your last chance to see her this year.
So the word because I read it as cuz
because this is usually how we say the word
if we're speaking fast. All right.
So when I'm speaking in my videos, in my podcast episodes,
I speak a little slower than how I would normally speak,
so I often say because,
but this isn't how we would normally say the word.
We would normally pronounce it as cuz, right?
We just take off the first syllable
and this second syllable just sounds like cuz.
We don't say cause, we just say cuz, all right?
And sometimes it's even faster than that
and it just sounds like Just like a CZ sound.
So this can be hard for English learners to hear
when they're listening. They're expecting to hear this whole word
because and what they hear is just like that.
Because it's your only chance. Because it's your last chance.
Right? So you want to expect this word
right here to be reduced to. Okay?
All right, because it's your last chance.
Here we have this final z sound,
this voiced s sound like a z.
And then we have a beginning vowel right here.
So we have some linking.
So we would say, I'll write like this.
Because it's your last chance. Okay.
So that's a little bit of linking right there.
Because it's your last chance to see her this year.
Let's look at the stress. Because it's your last chance.
Because it's your last chance. Alright? So, in this case,
because it's your last chance, we have the word last stressed, right?
We have the word chance, which is stressed.
But remember that this pronoun, right?
These pronouns that we have, you, your, his, her, etc.
These are unstressed in our sentences.
OK, so in this case, it becomes reduced speech.
Let's listen again because it's your last chance.
It's your it's your last chance.
Notice that we don't say it's your in this case,
we say something kind of like it.
Sure. I'm going to write it like this. It sure it sure.
OK, so if I say it's your only hope,
the way I would pronounce this is it's your only hope.
It sure only. It sure only.
Okay. So this is just another case of this Y
kind of changing its pronunciation when it gets reduced.
We saw that with this phrase, right? Wanted Jew, right?
The D with the Y in front of a pronoun
is it makes it become a J sound.
A T with a Y makes
it become a CH sound, for example.
I know that you're mad.
We would say I know the chur mad.
The T with the Y changes it to a CH.
I know that you're mad. Okay.
So this Y and these pronouns you, your, yours, y'all, etc.
This Y can often change its pronunciation.
This is another time. So itcher.
Again, if we have like this word right here
that's your only hope same thing that sure
that's your only hope all right
so a word like that's ending with t apostrophe s
or it's ending with t apostrophe s
this is going to cause the y
to become an sh sound right
so it sure that sure okay
So I know this seems strange and you're probably wondering why.
That's just how English works. OK.
When we have reduced speech letters oftentimes change their pronunciation.
And I can't give you just an overall rule.
There is no overall rule.
There are little patterns that you have to recognize.
And that's what I'm showing you right here.
So it's difficult but That's what we're practicing with.
Right. You're going to see these patterns
and you're going to start to notice them when you're listening.
Okay. All right. Let's look at the last part here.
It's your last chance. So here, last chance.
We have an ending T sound and it becomes muted.
We don't say last chance. We say last chance.
So it just sounds like this last
chance with an S sound at the end.
No T. Right. It just becomes muted.
Last chance. So don't expect to hear this last right.
You're not going to hear this sound right.
It's just last chance. The last one.
Okay. This word practically always reduces to this word.
Okay. Even though it's stressed in the sentence, the T is reduced.
Okay. It's muted.
So it's your last chance to see her this year.
And we have another two here.
But in this case, the sound
before it is a voiceless sound, a sss sound.
There's no voice. So the to becomes reduced to tuh, okay?
So in this case, instead of saying chance to, it's chanceduh, okay?
It's your last chance to see her, okay?
It's your last chance to see her.
The stress, chance to see her, right?
Chance is stressed and see is stressed.
The to is reduced, okay? Last chance to see her this year.
Okay. And then we have this phrase right here. See her. Okay.
This H on pronouns like him, his, her, hers, etc.
This becomes reduced and we usually skip over this H
depending on the sound before it.
Okay. So in this case, see, right, this E is a vowel,
but it ends with the Y sound. Okay.
So notice, see, yeah, my mouth is in position for a Y.
So it really ends with the Y, a consonant sound.
Okay. So this is going to link to the next word.
It's going to skip over the H sound
and we're going to hear, we're going to say, see your seer.
Okay. The same thing, if I say see him,
it would be see him, see him, okay?
So the H on her, him, his, hers is very weak, okay?
It's usually skipped over, right?
The consonant in the last word just skips the H
and it links directly to the er or the im, okay?
So in this case, it's seer instead of see her.
seer this year so if you're not expecting that
this can be very hard to identify
when you're listening you're going to think we're saying
like this word for example seer
seer right it sounds like what we're saying
but really we're saying see her right seer okay
so this is another pattern that you're
just going to have to start to recognize
And you're going to hear it a lot
if you really try to recognize it.
You'll notice it again and again
because every time someone says her, him,
hers, his, any of these words,
chances are they're going to skip over the H
if there's a consonant sound before it.
Okay. So I want you to listen
for that and really try to notice that pattern.
Okay. Lastly, the phrase this year.
OK, first of all, notice the stress.
We don't say this year. We say this year.
Last chance to see her this year.
So years stressed. This is unstressed.
OK, we don't say this year.
That's what many of my students would say.
But this is not natural. Right.
We want to stress this noun right here.
OK, so there's one last thing you probably noticed
when I said this this phrase here.
is we don't say this year,
we say this year, this year, this year. Did you hear that?
Your last chance to see her this year, this year.
It's just like what we saw here, right? Itcher.
So as I said, this Y sound on pronouns is very weak
and it gets changed when it's reduced.
It can also happen with words other than pronouns.
So in this case, it's just a completely different word year.
It's not you or yours or you'll or any of those.
But it also happens here.
So in this case, instead of this year, it's this year.
Okay. So you want to look out for that.
You want to notice that when people are speaking,
notice the Y sound changing.
especially if it's a pronoun like you or your
and notice that with the h on pronouns
him her those words like that start to notice those patterns okay