How fast should you speak in English? What’s the best way to teach English?
Should you learn the phonetic symbols to help your pronunciation?
We’ll answer these questions, and more, in this episode.

Voice message from Eric from La Gomera
Should he learn all the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)?
walk and work
sin and scene
Using the IPA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU7p-RptAfI

Pronunciation | Some Difficult Words for Spanish Speakers – https://inglespodcast.com/310
Learn the symbols with the Mansion Inglés intermediate course.
Pronunciation course: 223 commonly mispronounced words: https://store.mansioningles.net/

Email from Marlana from Brazil
Hi Reza, Hi Craig. I’m Marlana from Maranhão, Brazil. Well, I have been studying English for a long time and I (have) always had a lot of difficulty learning languages despite I love it loving it.

I would like to thank you guys for helping me. When I started listening to you, I was barely able to comprehend you. Now I can understand most of the things that you say and knowing that you’re the best teachers that I have known, my question is what is the best approach, method or manner to teach English in your opinion?

How can I associate listening, reading, writing, speaking with grammar without being boring or heavy? How could I teach it in a simple and effective way? I’d be delighted if you replied to me considering that my aim is to be able to teach in the future.

Voice message from Sergio from Valencia, now living in Ireland.
Word stress on Acquaintance
I was struggling with the traffic.
Heard a bad joke from Reza in episode 261. An Irishman pointing a gun.

Voice message from Lucas from Brazil
Pace is not the same as stress. Pace is the rate at which you deliver your words.
The standard average for television, etc., is 150 words-per-minute (WPM).
In many parts of India, people speak English at a much higher word rate – around 180 to 200 WPM.
As a non-native speaker, it will possibly be much slower. But don’t worry too much about that – the goal is to be understood. A common mistake among many non-native English speakers is to try to speak too quickly to match the speed of their own native language. If your pronunciation isn’t great and/or you have a strong foreign accent, or you make lots of mistakes, speaking too fast will make it even harder for a native speaker to understand you!

The more you control and vary your pace, the more effective you will be as a speaker. In other words, don’t always speak quickly or slowly or even always at a moderate pace. Variation is the key. Obviously, a moderate pace is suitable a lot of the time. However, it’s typical to use a (slightly) quicker pace when saying less important phrases and a (slightly) slower pace for more important phrases or things you want to emphasise.

Example: “ (Moderate pace-) Do you remember that man over there? (Slightly faster-) The one we were talking about yesterday, (Even faster-) during the morning coffee break. Well (Pause), (Moderate-) you’ll never guess who he’s married to. (Slightly slower-) You won’t believe it. (Even slower-) Crazy Mary Mitchell (Pause), yes (Pause), (Slightly slower-) the boss’s secretary!

Also be aware that increasing the pace of your speech can sometimes indicate annoyance, impatience, or nervousness, whereas a slower pace can indicate importance or confidence. Example:
A- (Moderate pace-) Can I borrow another pencil, please?
B- (Faster-) No, you bloody well can’t! You’ve already lost three!
A- (Faster-) Oh, sorry. It’s true. I’m really really sorry, but I…I.. just can’t remember where I left them. (Slower-) I promise I’ll be extra careful in future and I’m going to get you some new ones.
B- (Moderate-) No, you don’t need to. Look (Pause), (Slower-) just don’t lose any more. (Moderate-) Take this one.

So, use pace to give more meaning to your words.

Useful tips on pace in these websites:

https://www.write-out-loud.com/quick-and-easy-effective-tips-for-speaking-rate.html

https://medium.com/@confidentvoice/american-english-how-to-speak-with-the-right-pace-4fd2b208325c

…and now that you’ve listened to us, we want to listen to you. go and record a sentence or two and send us a voice message using…..https://www.speakpipe.com/inglespodcast

Send us an email with a comment or question to [email protected] or [email protected].

Visit our online store: https://store.mansioningles.net/

Thank you to all of you who are helping us by supporting this podcast. You can see a list of all our Patreon supporters at Patreon.com/inglespodcast
Welcome to our new Patreon supporters who have joined us this month:
Jessika Ramos
Jose Vazquez
Roque Montiel
Luis Gil

Email from Patreon supporter Maria También who’s real name is not Maria También:
Hello Reza and Craig, I am Also Maria.. This is not my real name. I have it as a result of a sort of fight I had with my phone company a time (a while) ago.
I bought a new phone and I couldn’t fix my email address. I tried to get a new address with my real name and I couldn’t. After a long time trying to find a free name and password I wanted to throw my phone out the window. I said to my phone: ‘up yours!’ and I started again.
Name: Maria
Surname: También
Password: Something not very polite
And it worked!! And now, every time I use my phone for sending emails I have this new identity. I think it suits me, because at last, I am only one more Maria among all the Marias in the world. I think it’s funny.

I wish I could send you a voice message but I feel very embarrassed because I speak really badly.
Reza, please, say hello to Coco. My dog, Beker, loves to hear him barking in the background. He answers him! It’s hilarious!
Yours aircoholicly,
Also Maria
PS.How can I get access to the transcriptions? I receive emails from Patreon but I’m doing something wrong. Do I need a code or a number? Give me some advice please! Thanks again.

Would patreons like an email every time a new transcription is ready?

Join our Patreon program for a minimum of $1per month (+ VAT) and you get instant access to recent transcriptions. https://www.patreon.com/inglespodcast

On next week’s episode: Craig’s Story

The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called ‘See You Later’