Random Stuff – Perfectionism, English Word Chunks and Blind Faith

By Robby

If you are new here please read this first.

Improve Spoken English

Hi my fellow foreign English speakers ❗

Here’s a video I recorded on a Saturday night – I just thought “Why not just have a chat with my YouTube subscribers and blog readers? All my video Episodes are prepared and rehearsed; why not record something completely random and speak anything that crosses my mind?”

So I did – and in this video you can hear me sharing my views on:

And please – don’t take me too seriously in this video.

It’s not an official English Harmony video Episode; it’s rather a friendly informal chat with you.

Enjoy! 😉

Best Regards,

Robby

P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!

English Harmony System

  • Hi Pradeep,

    To practice spoken English you don’t necessarily have to stand in front of a mirror!

    I do it whenever others aren’t in close proximity, and basically you just have to verbalize your thoughts that you’re having in your mind – voicing them in English is a great way of getting used to thinking in English, think of words you might need to learn etc.

    I’ve written a bunch of articles dedicated to the topic, please read them here:

    http://englishharmony.com/category/practice-english-with-yourself/ 

    http://englishharmony.com/counting-in-english-helps-fluency/ 

    http://englishharmony.com/data-entry/ 

    Regards,

    Robby

  • Pradeep

    Hello Robby. You have been lucky to be in a country where everyone spoke English, but what about foreign english speakers who are living in their own country and do not always get a chance to practice spoken English. Could you provide a list of such techniques.  Standing in front of a mirror and speak to yourself is one of them, but I sometimes feel awkward doing it. 

    Thanks

  • I’ve never encouraged other foreigners to replicate my speech. What I’m always saying is – “if you CAN’T make it perfect, it’s better to substitute the ‘perfect’ ‘th’ sound for something that comes more naturally to you!”

  • Vanilla_soul10

     Yes that’s it thank you 🙂

  • Francisco Javier

    That’s fine if you live in Ireland but I don’t think it is something to be encouraged in other learners. They should pronounce as /θ/, the way British and American native speakers do.

  • Thanks, I’ll probably do this again sometime! 

    Did you mean the word ‘teetotaller’?

  • Vanilla_soul10

    i like this random conversation with us please keep it weekly as you can 🙂 , i jot down (my cup of tea) it’s useful idom , it’s soo good that you don’t drink but i didn’t got the meaning of (you don’t drink) can u write it here >> thank you very much Robby   

  • Hi Francisco,

    Yes, I pronounce my th’s more like ‘t’s or d’s because that’s the way Irish pronounce them and I also find it easier to speak that way. 

    An Irish person, for example, would pronounce ‘bath’ and ‘bat’ nearly the same way, ‘third’ would sound like ‘turd’ etc.

    It just goes to show that there’s no such thing as ‘proper’ pronunciation and anyway – I think pronouncing ‘th’ as ‘t’ is still a million times better than pronouncing it as ‘s’ (many foreigners do it because they’ve been told they have to get the ‘th’ sound right yet it wouldn’t come natural to them. So, they stick with whatever substitute sound they can come up with, but still no-one bothers to point it out to them that ‘t’ sounds so much more better!)

  • Francisco Javier

    Great video, Robby.

    PS: Did I hear you say “tings” or “things”?