The InFluency Podcast

To download the practice sheet click here: https://hadarshemesh.com/the-r-in-english-podcast-freebie/ Many non-native speakers of English struggle with the R in English. Not only that this sound is challenging to pronounce (put the tongue where?!?) and makes us feel like pirates, but it also keeps changing depending on where it's positioned. So even though it might be easy to pronounce in some words, it could be impossible to pronounce in other words and that makes us feel like the R is impossible! To understand the R we need to do three things: Understand how to pronounce it Understand the different types of R sounds and what might be the challenge of each Practice, practice and then practice some more. In this episode I'm going to walk you through each and every one of those steps, and at the end, even offer you the perfect way to practice with my practice sheet and audio: https://hadarshemesh.com/the-r-in-english-podcast-freebie/ I'm also going to talk about the difference between the American R and the British R! But most importantly I'll give you tips and hacks on where and how to CHEAT, so you invest less effort, pronounce less R's and sound BETTER! Whether you're struggling with pronouncing it or you know how to pronounce it but you don't use it consistently, or sometimes you become too self-conscious about it, in this episode you'll find things you can do that'll help you use it naturally and easily. For more about the R in English, check out these episodes: The American R: https://hadarshemesh.com/magazine/the-american-r/ American Accent in 5 steps: https://hadarshemesh.com/magazine/improve-your-accent/ And remember #ClearIsBetterThanAccurate If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash 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.

A few months ago I invited you to ask me PERSONAL questions. I didn't think I'd get many questions but I was surprised to have received dozens of awesome questions, and in this episode, I'm going to answer a bunch of them:) You'll hear about how I met my husband, my life as a social activist, my biggest failure, my plans for the future, what I do with my hair (not much), if I miss acting and more! It wasn't easy for me. As an introvert, I don't like to talk about myself much. Besides, I'm here to share knowledge and help YOU with your English and not to speak about myself. But I decided to do it, because I believe that it's important for our communication and the connection that we have. In your emails and DMs, you often share your stories (and I'm grateful for every single one you send me) so, it's only fair that I share mine. I hope that this episode, my most PERSONAL video ever (!), will make us even closer! Let me know in the comments (or in emails) if you feel the same ? Practice with the transcript here: https://hadarshemesh.com/transcript/personal-things-about-hadar/ Want to know more about my English journey? How I lost my accent https://youtu.be/Y5emqoKN92A Why I Quit Acting and Became an Accent Coach: https://hadarshemesh.com/podcast/02/ 13 lessons I've learned in 10 years of Teaching English: https://youtu.be/QJM2Vrh-MRU Sign up to be notified when registration opens for Accent Makeover: https://theaccentsway.com/join-2/ Are you a teacher? Learn more about English Teachers Academy and join the WAITLIST: theaccentsway.com/english-teachers-academy-announcement/ If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash 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.

Taking small actions every day leads to great results. Author Darren Hardy calls it "The Compound Effect", and it holds for a lot of things in life. In this episode, I'll discuss how I've realized it's deeply relevant to English learning and speaking. I experienced it in acting school, in the accent training courses I took, and in the past decade in teaching and building my business. I see it in my students as well, as they put in the work day in day out, not seeing immediate results but then reach a breakthrough and impact other people around them. 06:42 – Defining the Compound Effect 09:02 – How daily practice changed my accent in acting school 13:05 – How weekly uploads led to a successful business 17:00 – Insisting on speaking English is making a difference 25:55 – Breaking it down is building you up 30:45 – The Ripple Effect, and how it has manifested in my life 33:12 – The outcomes of OUR actions 37:15 – The Compound Effect in English: What YOU can do After listening to this episode, let me know in the comments on my website if you've experienced the Compound Effect in your life, but more importantly – what you're going to do to build up your English until the end of the month! Yes. Break it down and build yourself up! Tune in to Brooke Castillo's episode on the Compound Effect on The Life Coach School: https://thelifecoachschool.com/podcast/236/ Get the audio book with Audible's Free Trial: http://www.audibletrial.com/accentsway Get a physical book https://amzn.to/2K6af3t You might find these videos interesting as well: What is the Compound Effect? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krweO8-CtMk The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO6XEMMFNOc Sign up to be notified when registration opens for New Sound: https://hadarshemesh.com/join/ If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash 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.

Download the English contractions practice sheet and the audio: https://hadarshemesh.com/contractions-freebie/ Contractions are words and phrases that are shortened by dropping sounds (in writing and in speaking). Contractions are all the you'd, she'll, we're, isn't etc. These contractions allow us to signal our listeners what is more important and what is less, and that makes our communication in English clearer. For non-native speakers these contractions might be a bit confusing. Have you ever thought to yourself, "these short words are not clear enough when they come out of MY mouth"? Do you find yourself separating them because of that? Many learners of English as a second language feel like that but actually, the truth is you can use these contractions, and sound clearer! In this episode, I'll tell you how to use contractions in speaking and how to pronounce the most common contractions in English. If you like this episode you might want to watch these videos as well: How to speak English faster (the qualities of GOOD fast vs BAD fast) Connected speech in English American INTONATION – What They don't Teach You in School + American Intonation podcast episode 12 If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash 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.

In this podcast episode I elaborate on how to practice it effectively and integrate it into your day-to-day speech. Because forming a sentence is not enough. And making the right sounds isn't enough. It's the intonation that determines the meaning of the sentence: is it a question or a statement? Is it a joke and you're just being sarcastic? This is also where culture and your inner feelings are thrown into the mix. Intonation conveys ALL of that. To do that you need to know how to practice! This is why I also share my most effective practice techniques that I've used myself and with my students, that are going to help you improve your intonation and deliver your message in a clear way. If you haven't listened to my previous episode about American intonation, don't miss out on it: https://hadarshemesh.com/podcast/12/ How not to be monotone when speaking English: https://theaccentsway.com/intonation-pitch/ And make sure to watch my speech analysis videos that touch right at the heart of American intonation. Martin Sinek's intonation, connected speech and phrasing: https://theaccentsway.com/speech-sinek/ Breaking down Bill Murray's Scrooged: https://theaccentsway.com/american-intonation-practice-pdf/ Reese Whitherspoon is all about rhythm: https://theaccentsway.com/rhythm/ Are you a teacher? Learn more about English Teachers Academy and join the WAITLIST: theaccentsway.com/english-teachers-academy-announcement/ If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash 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.

Why is it SO HARD to understand native speakers? And what do you HAVE to know to improve your spoken English and get your point across clearly and confidently? In this episode, you will learn the 3 fundamentals of American intonation: melody, rhythm, and stress. You'll learn how to use melody and rhythm to stress words, you'll learn the difference between content words and function words, why we need to stress content words and how we reduce function words. This episode will also help you understand native speakers better, as we'll talk about common reductions and shortcuts (remember that English sounds different than how it's written). If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash 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.

How does the Impostor Syndrome affect us when speaking English as a second language? And why do we feel that even when we do a good job in English – we, in fact, failed and we can't seem to understand how others haven't noticed just how bad our English is. Thinking that our English is a lot worse than what other people perceive it to be makes us feel like impostors. The Impostor Syndrome is a universal psychological pattern where you may doubt your accomplishments and have this fear of being discovered as a fraud. So even when people think highly of you, your mind basically tells you they're missing out on something and that sooner or later the "real You" will be revealed and they'll be disappointed. Do you feel that too sometimes? About 70% of us suffer from impostor syndrome: you can find it across genders, occupations and races. However, you'd probably find it more in underrepresented or disadvantaged groups, such as immigrants, minorities, people from the lgbtq community, women, people of color, and of course – non-native speakers. From my experience, as an accent teacher as well as an English learner, it has to do with the way we learned or learn English and how we consume it. We always compare ourselves to native speakers, and it makes us feel we're not enough when it comes to communicating in English. And on top of that, we constantly hear this saying, "Speak like a native", which only accentuates the gap between us and them – between how we are expected to perform, and how we really are. Even though we ALL make mistakes. Even native speakers make mistakes! Also, since our schools usually use conventional methods, you get a strong message that there's RIGHT and WRONG, and when you're wrong, you're criticized for your mistakes (and sometimes even not encouraged to persist), and then you get used to that feeling of being judged. But you can overcome this self-doubt. Realize that you're not alone in this and share your experience with others. If you want to find out more, this episode is a must for you. You'll get to hear about the experience of some of my students and how the Impostor Syndrome held them back in life. And not just my students' experiences, but mine as well. In this episode, you'll understand how this syndrome manifests itself when communicating in English, why it happens, and how to deal with it. After listening to my episode, let me know in the comments on my website how the impostor syndrome has affected your life and what you're going to do about it? : https://hadarshemesh.com/podcast/11/ Download 30 affirmations: https://hadarshemesh.com/freebie-30-affirmations/ Listen to the podcast where I talk about the 13 lessons I've learned as a teacher: hadarshemesh.com/podcast/07/ How To Get Over The Fear Of Being Judged By Native English Speakers: https://youtu.be/lEG4jn4Zfj4 Find out more about the Impostor Syndrome: The Impostor Syndrome, by The School of Life: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqhUHyVpAwE What is impostor syndrome and how can you combat it?, by Elizabeth Cox: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQUxL4Jm1Lo How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome and Stop Feeling Like a Fraud, by Marie Forleo: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVfG7Q9Twqk If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash course: https://hadarshemesh.com/audio-

In this episode, you'll learn the 10 most common mistakes Brazilian Portuguese speakers make, and understand why these sounds are difficult for you, but more than that – you'll learn how to improve your American English pronunciation. Download the FREE English pronunciation guide for Brazilian Portuguese speakers: https://theaccentsway.com/brazil-freebie/ Not a Brazilian Portuguese speaker? I bet that as a non-native speaker of English you can find at least THREE mistakes that are relevant to you Let me know what they are in the comments! Listen to my previous episode all about the Schwa sound If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash 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. You want to improve but you need to practice? Join our community on Facebook – the best place to practice English online for free.

I mention the schwa almost every time I speak about American English. That's because this vowel is all over the place, and once you hear it, you never stop hearing it The schwa is a very short and "relaxed" kind of vowel. It's a pretty tricky vowel for non-native speakers but if you get it, you get the secret to American English pronunciation and you become SO much clearer. Also, you will find yourself investing much less energy in speaking, which is also important Tune in and learn more about this special vowel and how to use it. And let me know what you think in the comments below. Check out a new episode about the schwa here: https://hadarshemesh.com/podcast/157/ You can also watch my older video about the schwa: https://goo.gl/tvDJ6o And you'll also find my video on American Intonation helpful. If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash 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. You want to improve but you need to practice? Join our community on Facebook – the best place to practice English online for free.

Learning to speak a new language can be challenging, no doubt about that. Especially English. All those funky words like knight, laugh, paradigm and psychology that have all these letters that are not pronounced. And what about the confusing pairs like celery-salary, back-buck, pool-pull that if we confuse them, we may sound unclear? Or words like beach, focus, spreadsheet and fox that if we mispronounce them, we might get a face-palm moment ?‍ Even when you know how certain words should sound like, you don't necessarily know what to do in order to pronounce them correctly. And this uncertainty leads to insecurity. But what if I told you Google has come up with a brand new feature just for that? Pronto is a tool I helped Google develop, and it's based on the experience and detailed feedback I give to my own students. How to use it: Open Google on your mobile phone and make sure you're logged in to your Google account (use Safari on iPhone) Type "how to pronounce" and add any word you're not sure how to pronounce. The Google search tool would spell the word for you as it should be pronounced. The transcription is plain and pretty straightforward Listen to the pronunciation of the word, and pay attention to the sounds that are most challenging to you Push the "practice" button Record yourself saying the word Pronto would detect the specific sounds that you mispronounced and let you know what you need to do in order to improve, as well as offer you more words to practice with. So you don't need to be confused anymore about whether you pronounce words correctly or not. Listen to the episode and find out how you can use Google's Pronto yourself. If you want to improve your accent and understand spoken English better, download my free American Accent audio crash 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. You want to improve but you need to practice? Join our community on Facebook – the best place to practice English online for free.