How To Speak American
With no formal training in phonetics or ESL, West Philly's Rachel Smith has congenital a growing YouTube audience didactics foreign-born speakers how to talk like a native. The secret? Her friendliness and…opera
How To Speak American
With no formal training in phonetics or ESL, West Philly's Rachel Smith has built a growing YouTube audience pedagogy foreign-born speakers how to talk like a native. The cloak-and-dagger? Her friendliness and…opera
May. 26, 2015
It was in Deutschland that Florida-born Rachel Smith beginning thought near what it means to speak like an American. An aspiring opera singer, Smith spent six months of 2008 in an intensive linguistic communication program with swain students from all over the globe, including a beau from Turkey, who loved to talk with Smith about America and the English he grew up hearing in Hollywood movies. Every bit they spoke, Smith started informally correcting his accent, in particular around sounds he didn't accept in his native Turkish, similar the curt A, as in bat: She opened her mouth wide, demonstrated the sound, then told him to keep his natural language high in back and low in front end.
"He fabricated the sound perfectly after that," Smith recalls. "And and then he said, 'Oh, you're really good at that.'"
Smith, who graduated college with a triple major in music, computer science and applied math, had been looking for a reason to build herself a website while she was in Germany. Suddenly, she had i. In her apartment later class, Smith sat in front of her figurer, turned on the camera and started filming herself pronouncing words in American-inflected English. Then she loaded the videos on to YouTube, where she explained (to a nonexistent audition) the mechanics of, for case, the curt O, of canis familiaris: Natural language downward all the way, like when a doctor is looking down your throat.
Rachel's English is now a humming YouTube business organisation with 370 live videos, 280,000 subscribers and 100,000 Facebook fans. In addition to online seminars, Smith offers one on one online tutoring, and she has just published her first e-book, American English Pronunciation.
This was before social media was the giant it is, and Smith at first had no viewers at all. Slowly, though, an audience built up through people searching for pronunciation assistance on YouTube. Now Rachel's English is a bustling YouTube business with 370 live videos, 280,000 subscribers and 100,000 Facebook fans. Smith, who moved to West Philly in early 2014, earns enough from Rachel'due south English language to live on (modestly). And now, she's branching out. In addition to online seminars, Smith offers one on one online tutoring with her or a colleague, and she has just published her offset eastward-volume, American English language Pronunciation, which she plans to launch on her site this month. She has several other books, on specific topics, planned out. And she is busy developing more and varied content to depict in even more viewers in the coming months.
"A lot of people are seeking to speak better English to make for ameliorate opportunities," she says. "They're trying to go promoted or trying to get into schoolhouse, but find their communication is holding them back. The more I can give them what they need for their goals, the improve it will be for Rachel'southward English, also."
Smith has no formal training in phonetics or instruction English as a Second Linguistic communication—she never even picked up an academic pronunciation book until she came back from Deutschland in 2009. What she has is music, and opera, which she gave upwardly that aforementioned twelvemonth. (The highlight of her opera career? Delivering one line in the Boston Lyric Opera'south performance of Madame Butterfly.) They gave her the nuts for understanding give-and-take pronunciation, and an instinct for sound—without the complexity of academia.
"I had an awareness and vocabulary for how to talk about this through opera," she says. "I can hear someone speaking, mimic them, and then say how they need to move their tongue. From music, I understand rhythm, pitch and overall character. I drew 100 per centum from my own experience."
In the terminal seven years, Smith has recorded about 450 videos. (She took some early videos downwardly considering she developed a better way teach a sound, or considering of their depression production values.) Most include Smith alone on a screen, enunciating clearly into the photographic camera, explaining the nuances of American English—everything from how to innovate yourself (her favorite video, with well-nigh 600,000 views) to how to say "hullo" (250,000 views). She as well takes the camera with her on vacation, where she interacts with other Americans effectually the country; to dinner with friends; even to her wedding ceremony, and then students can go a feel for what Americans sound like when they talk to each other. Some videos have every bit few as 10,000 views; others go twoscore,000 within a few weeks, and go along growing.
"I had an awareness and vocabulary for how to talk almost this through opera," Smith says. "I can hear someone speaking, mimic them, and then say how they need to motility their tongue. From music, I empathize rhythm, pitch and overall character."
1, chosen "How To Amend Spoken American English language—Sound Like A Native Speaker," has reached i one thousand thousand students. It is seven minutes long, with a lengthy breakup of how Americans would pronounce the phrase, "A lot of people inquire me if it'southward possible to sound similar a native speaker:" A-lod-of as one word; no gaps between words; an upward lilt at the end of the phrase. In between closeup shots of Smith, she writes out the phrase, and marks it upwardly with a carmine pen, like to the manner Kahn University writes out math problems on a digital blackboard. And so she asks viewers to put away their papers, and watch her echo the phrase over and over, practicing along with her. It is simple, endlessly loopable and pleasant to the ear: A Florida native born to midwestern parents, Smith has no discernible inflection to her speech. (Come across her video on the correct American pronunciation of wooder, uh, water, for an case.)
Rachel'south English is primarily a YouTube business organization, a category that can include wacky viral videos and straight-upwardly academics. Unlike Kahn Academy—the online math behemoth—information technology is a for-profit visitor, though making a profit through YouTube tin be hard. Smith attended YouTube grooming in New York, and has a network of swain entrepreneurs on the video site, who share ideas for how to earn an income. Most of Smith's videos are free while she builds an audience. Some take ads, from which she gets a meager income, after YouTube takes its cutting. She sells out around 10 online seminars a year, with 30 students each paying $100 to $800, depending on how many weeks and how much one-on-1 interaction they get. Occasionally, she does subscription events—as when she took a two-month route trip final yr with her husband, and invited her students to follow along for a mini-bout of the country for $25 each. (About 125 signed up, and another 75 bought the videos later.) She plans to kickoff translating her captions into Chinese and Castilian to gain an even larger audience. Meanwhile, the new ebook is Smith's first foray outside of video, and one she hopes volition prove a lucrative way to grow her business.
"My passion is the content," Smith says. "I've been building an audience, and know there's a desire for this. Now I'g getting gear up to bring in someone with a passion for the business side. That'southward where I need to grow next."
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/how-to-speak-american/
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