Let's learn some helpful tips for learning American English pronunciation. [MUSIC] We've asked some UCI International Programs teachers and staff members to give you advice on learning American English pronunciation. So let's meet our interviewees. >> Hi my name's Vera Fujiura and I've been teaching at UCI for about 18 years. My first language is Portuguese. >> Hi, my name is Cindy Lin. I work at UCI as a staff. I came from Taiwan and my native language is Mandarin. >> Hi everyone, my name Ivelina and I am from Bulgaria. I came to the United States about ten years ago and my native language is Bulgarian. >> Hi, my name is Meg Parker. I'm an instructor at UCI, and my native language is English. I live in California, but I'm originally from the state of South Carolina. >> Hi, my name is Rachel Fernandez. I teach English as a second language at UCI, and I am from California. >> Today's question is, what are some vowel sounds that are particularly difficult for learners of American English. >> /iy/ sound instead of /I/. >> /)/ and /ow/. >> The sound /ow/. >> It is the /ae/ sound. >> The /e/ sound. >> In this video, the interviewees will talk about those vowel sounds that you've just heard and that you can see now on the screen. [MUSIC] First I'm going to give you a few tips regarding vowel sounds. I'm going to talk a little bit about my experience when I first started learning English. I was an exchange student in Michigan, and one of my greatest teachers was my host sister. And she would correct me a lot, and I remember the very first time, one of the first times when I was talking to her she mentioned the song 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson that was really famous in 1984 and I remember I pronounced it with an /iy/ sound instead of /I/. So I would say three-ler instead of thriller. And she kept correcting me until I finally was able to get it and to pronounce it correctly. I also had trouble with other words with the /iy/ and /I/ sound because in Portuguese we don't have the /I/ sound. So I would say for example instead of saying live I would say leave. And instead of saying for example sit, I would say seat. So there were a lot of words that I had to work on before I was able to master the sound. >> There are some sounds I find very difficult to pronounce when I speak English. For example /I/ and /iy/ like sit and seat. And also /)/ and /ow/. Like bought and boat. [MUSIC] >> The sound /^/ was my biggest problem. For example, hummingbird. I used to say hummingbird. And people corrected me a couple of times and that's how I learned how to say it right. [MUSIC] >> So one sound that's really difficult for my students is /e/, students from all kinds of different language backgrounds. And so my name Meg, M-E-G. And it's a little hard because it's got /e/, Meg and it's got a /g/ at the end, Meg. And those are sounds that aren't so common in a lot of other languages. So my students will call me things like, instead of Meg they'll call me make Or Mack or, I don't know, there are many other things they call me. So I know that it's a very difficult sound, the /e/ sound. [MUSIC] >> Okay, so one of the sounds that is kind of, universally mistaken among students is the /ae/ sound. So the difference between snake and snack, bake and back. In fact, one time in a class where I had a mix of students, I had these students from Taiwan talking about night market, and they were saying You can buy lots of snakes there to eat. And my Arabic speaking students were like, whoa they're eating snakes, that's so strange. And there was this miscommunication because they didn't want to say they were buying snakes to eat, they wanted to say they were buying snacks to eat, but the listener just assumed that it was a snake. >> So to sum up, as you've just heard, vowel sounds can be very tricky. But you can improve, don't worry. Stay tuned, in the next helpful tips video, you'll hear advice on actions you can take to improve your vowel pronunciation. So see you then. [MUSIC]
