

The InFluency Podcast
Hadar Shemesh
The InFluency podcast is your go-to resource for learning, speaking and teaching English.
Hadar Shemesh is a pronunciation expert and fluency coach with thousands of students around the world, though she herself was an intermediate speaker of English once.
In this podcast she will share her best strategies for learning English, speaking English with confidence and mastering the American accent.
Discover how becoming fluent has everything to do with acquiring the right mindset, setting goals and learning how to overcome challenges.
Hadar will also share her teaching philosophy and techniques to support English teachers looking to help their students become fluent.
Hadar Shemesh is a pronunciation expert and fluency coach with thousands of students around the world, though she herself was an intermediate speaker of English once.
In this podcast she will share her best strategies for learning English, speaking English with confidence and mastering the American accent.
Discover how becoming fluent has everything to do with acquiring the right mindset, setting goals and learning how to overcome challenges.
Hadar will also share her teaching philosophy and techniques to support English teachers looking to help their students become fluent.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 27, 2020 • 4min
83. How to pronounce 'vulnerable'
English words can be really confusing sometimes. In the how-to-pronounce episodes released every Friday, I’ll help you with the pronunciation of confusing or challenging words. This week we’re going to talk about how to pronounce the word “vulnerable”. Here’s a loose transcription of the word as explained in the episode: Word: vuhl-nuh-ruh-b'l or vuhln-ruh-b'l IPA: [ˈvʌl.nə.rə.bəl] or [ˈvʌln.rə.bəl] If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course: https://hadarshemesh.com/audio-accent-course/ You can also download an interactive list of 50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words: https://hadarshemesh.com/50-most-mispronounced-words/ Join our Facebook community to connect with non-native English learners from all over the world: https://hadarshemesh.com/influency-community/

Nov 24, 2020 • 15min
82. 10-min Powerful Pronunciation Practice | HADAR’S SPRINT
Improve your pronunciation skills with exercises on diphthongs, tongue twisters, transitions, and the ED suffix. Explore rising intonation and learn examples of questions with different intonation patterns. Discover the Sprint Master program with 30 different sprints for daily pronunciation practice and learning.

Nov 20, 2020 • 15min
81. Introverts Learning English
What is the best way for you to learn English as introverts? If you are an introvert you know that some of the English learning methods out there are not as effective for you. Introverts need to acknowledge and understand their needs and use the right learning methods that work best for them. In this episode, I will share with you some strategies that can help you improve your English without going against your nature. If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course: https://theaccentsway.com/audio-accent-course/ You can also download an interactive list of 50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words: https://theaccentsway.com/mispro-signup/ Join our Facebook community to connect with non-native English learners from all over the world: https://theaccentsway.com/influency-community/

Nov 17, 2020 • 20min
80. Do you sound FRIENDLY in English? (What you need to know about TONE OF VOICE)
Tone of voice in English – Is it possible to change the meaning of what you’re saying, without changing your words? The answer is – YES Go to my blog post to watch the video, learn more & practice: https://bit.ly/35y81Fh We use our voice to express our emotions and feelings. It plays a huge role in our communication with other people. We often put more meaning into the speaker’s tone of voice (how they say things) than into the words they use. And sometimes it only takes a slight change in our voice for something to be taken as a joke, an insult, or a friendly comment. If you want to become more expressive and engaging, and help people connect with you – exploring your tone of voice is the way! In this episode, I’ll show you how the same sentence can be said in many different ways. Go to my blog post to find a list of example sentences and practice using a different tone each time. More useful videos for your voice: Do you change your voice when you speak English? Here’s why (+ listen to my voice in Hebrew?) https://theaccentsway.com/change-your-voice-in-english/ How to Use Your Voice in ENGLISH to Sound Powerful and Confident https://theaccentsway.com/improve-your-speaking-voice-in-english/ How to Practice Your Intonation In English [Podcast] https://hadarshemesh.com/podcast/13/ If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course: https://theaccentsway.com/audio-accent-course/ Join our Facebook community to connect with non-native English learners from all over the world: https://theaccentsway.com/influency-community/

Nov 13, 2020 • 8min
79. How to pronounce words ending with ‘-ial’
English words can be really confusing sometimes. In the how-to-pronounce episodes released every Friday, I’ll help you with the pronunciation of confusing or challenging words. This week we’re going to talk about how to pronounce words that end with the suffix '-ial'. Get your FREE '-ial' Suffix Pronunciation Practice here: https://hadarshemesh.com/suffix-download/ Here’s a loose transcription of the words as explained in the episode: memorial: me-mo-ree-y’l [IPA: məˈmɔːriəl ] testimonial: tes-tuh-mow-nee-y’l [IPA: ˌtestəˈmoʊniəl] editorial: e-duh-to-ree-y’l [IPA: ˌedəˈtɔːriəl] trivial: triv-y’l [IPA:ˈtrɪvjəl] When this suffix appears after a SH sound, it changes: financial: fai-nan-sh’l [IPA: faɪˈnænʃəl] social: sow-sh’l [IPA: ˈsoʊʃəl] commercial: kuh-mur-sh’l [IPA: kəˈmɝːʃəl] martial: mar-sh’l [IPA: ˈmɑːrʃəl] influential: in-flu-en-sh’l [IPA: ˌɪnfluˈenʃəl] potential: puh-ten-sh’l [IPA: pəˈtenʃəl ] controversial: kaan-truh-vur-sh’l [IPA: ˌkɑːntrəˈvɝːʃəl] If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course: https://hadarshemesh.com/audio-accent-course/ You can also download an interactive list of 50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words: https://hadarshemesh.com/50-most-mispronounced-words/ Join our Facebook community to connect with non-native English learners from all over the world: https://hadarshemesh.com/influency-community/

Nov 9, 2020 • 16min
78. Kamala Harris’s Victory Speech – American Intonation & Rhythm Analysis
Download a transcript with my visual intonation notes of the stressed words, reductions and rhythm notes: https://bit.ly/3leOlvM Kamala Harris, the new Vice-President-Elect of the US gave an inspiring victory speech this week. In this episode, I’ll break down a part of her speech and analyze the way she uses American prosody to send her strong and clear message to every woman and girl out there. Learn more about American Intonation: American INTONATION | What They don't Teach You in School https://hadarshemesh.com/magazine/american-intonation/ How to Practice Your Intonation In English [Podcast] - https://hadarshemesh.com/podcast/13/ How to practice intonation? | Bill Murray movie speech analysis + script https://hadarshemesh.com/magazine/american-intonation-practice-pdf/ How to sound interesting in English | varied pitch vs. monotone | intonation - https://hadarshemesh.com/magazine/intonation-pitch/ What makes a voice sound natural??| Intonation Analysis of Google Assistant - https://hadarshemesh.com/magazine/natural-voice/

Nov 6, 2020 • 5min
77. How to pronounce 'world'
English words can be really confusing sometimes. In the how-to-pronounce episodes released every Friday, I’ll help you with the pronunciation of confusing or challenging words. This week we’re going to talk about how to pronounce the word “world”. Here’s a loose transcription of the word as explained in the episode: World: w’rld [IPA: wɝːld] If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course: https://hadarshemesh.com/audio-accent-course/ You can also download an interactive list of 50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words: https://hadarshemesh.com/50-most-mispronounced-words/ Join our Facebook community to connect with non-native English learners from all over the world: https://hadarshemesh.com/influency-community/

Nov 3, 2020 • 13min
76. what really helped me become fluent…
In this episode, the speaker discusses strategies to combat negative thoughts when speaking English, emphasizing gratitude and embracing the present moment. They also share personal experiences of breaking patterns and using pattern interrupt in English speaking, as well as overcoming negative thoughts and beliefs to improve English fluency. The concept of breaking negative thought patterns in speaking English is explored, with the suggestion to use the phrase 'stop it' to interrupt these patterns and replace negative thoughts with positive ones.

Oct 30, 2020 • 4min
75. How to pronounce 'schedule'
English words can be really confusing sometimes. In the how-to-pronounce episodes released every Friday, I’ll help you with the pronunciation of confusing or challenging words. This week we’re going to talk about how to pronounce the word “schedule” in American English. Here’s a loose transcription of the word as explained in the episode: Schedule: ske-dj'l [IPA: ˈskɛdʒəl] or ske-djuw-w'l [IPA: ˈskɛdʒuwəl] If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course: https://hadarshemesh.com/audio-accent-course/ You can also download an interactive list of 50 of the most mispronounced words in English and master the pronunciation of those tricky words: https://hadarshemesh.com/50-most-mispronounced-words/ Join our Facebook community to connect with non-native English learners from all over the world: https://hadarshemesh.com/influency-community/

Oct 27, 2020 • 15min
74. Tired Of Making The SAME Grammar Mistakes Again And Again? TRY THIS
Do you get frustrated when you forget to use all the new words, correct tenses and prepositions when speaking EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW THEM?!? The English that we know and the English that we speak are not the same. When we write, we have more time to think, retrieve words, and organize our thoughts. When we speak sometimes we go into ‘survival mode’ or ‘autopilot’ – and we forget to use all that lovely grammar that we know. Why is that? And does it mean that we need to learn it again and again until we ‘get it’? If you want to use spontaneously the grammar that you know when speaking, one of the things that can really help you is to think about it like habits. You have gotten used to speaking with certain speaking habits, and to change them you need to create NEW habits. How do we create new habits? Through consistent repetition. But here’s the catch – how can you create new speaking patterns if you don’t use them? Listen to this episode to find out:) Sign up to learn about Beyond – our community and program where you can change your speaking habits! https://hadarshemesh.com/beyond-early-bird/ Here are some of the episodes I mentioned that can help: How To Learn New Vocabulary? Build Pronunciation Confidence ? https://theaccentsway.com/how-to-learn-new-vocabulary/ Boost your PRONUNCIATION, GRAMMAR and VOCABULARY with this 10-min daily exercise | Hadar’s #SPRINT https://theaccentsway.com/sprint-with-hadar/ 15 Minute Morning Pronunciation Practice for English Learners https://theaccentsway.com/pronunciation-practice-english/ R in English – make it easy with this 10-min daily practice https://theaccentsway.com/american-r-sound/ Want to improve your speaking vocabulary? STOP LEARNING NEW WORDS https://theaccentsway.com/improve-speaking-vocabulary/