Skills in English for the non-native professional
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  • Skills in English for the non-native speaker
    • Native Proficiency: La filosofía.
    • Native Proficiency: La metodología.
    • PLANNING YOUR LEARNING: WELCOME TO COACHING FOR ENGLISH
      • TRAINING FORMATS
      • Modalidades de formación
    • THREE LAYERS: UNDERSTANDING THE NATIVEPROFICIENCY APPROACH
      • LANGUAGE SKILLS
      • COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS
      • PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
  • Contacto – Acerca de esta web / Contact – About this website

Skills in English for the non-native professional

Category

Listening Skills

CoachingEn EspañolFAQLanguage SkillsLearning TipsListening SkillsPronunciationSpeaking Skills

Cosas que ocurren cuando hablas.

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Esta web y su blog están dedicados a aprender inglés. Este post va de cosas que tienen que ver con hablar… cualquier idioma. ¿Qué pasa cuando hablas? ¡Empezamos!

Cuando hablas, llevas a cabo acciones – o al menos las desencadenas.

Cuando hablamos, estamos llevando a cabo actos, porque no hablamos si no hay una razón para ello, aunque solo sea interrumpir el silencio: hablar por hablar. Siempre hay una motivación, y hablar es parte de ciertas acciones, como por ejemplo convencer a alguien. O que alguien haga algo por ti como traerte la comida del restaurante chino porque llueve y te da pereza cocinar.

Cuando hablas controlas y manipulas el flujo de aire.

Para hablar y pronunciar sonidos, el mecanismo más frecuente es controlar y manipular el flujo de aire cuando sale. Es lo más típico en la mayoría de los idiomas y en la producción de la mayoría de los sonidos en casi todos los idiomas. Sin embargo hay sonidos en algunos idiomas que se pronuncian al coger el aire con la boca. Otra posibilidad es la de retener el flujo de aire en la boca, manipulando la presión del aire y soltando ese aire de golpe. En este video lo explican muy bien:

Aunque no hayas entendido todo lo que este experto y habilidoso de la pronunciación explica, lo básico es que hay lenguas en el mundo que usan alternativas al aburrido sistema de echar el aire hacia fuera. Que somos unos sosos, vamos.

Cuando hablas utilizas una gran parte de tu cráneo.

Si entras en una cueva y gritas, probablemente te vuelva un eco de tu voz. Tu cráneo, más allá de alojar órganos sin demasiada importancia como el cerebro, tiene una serie de cavidades en su interior. Por eso cuando vas en avión “se te taponan los oídos” y cuando tienes catarro tienes una sensación de tener parte de tu cabeza llena de ¿algodón? (realmente es mucosidad…).

Al hablar usamos todas estas cavidades, el aire avanza por ellas salvo que algo se lo impida (los ya mencionados moquetes). No solamente usamos las fosas nasales y la boca, sino que usamos los senos, que son unas cavidades que tenemos en la cara y que nos sirven como cámaras de resonancia al hablar.

Cuando tienes catarro no hablas por la nariz, sino todo lo contrario.

¿Cómo vas  a hablar por la nariz si la tienes llena de “mocos”? De hecho cuando hablamos y tenemos congestión nasal (o peor aún, sinusitis) no podemos usar esas cavidades para emitir sonidos. Por lo tanto lo que nos suena “nasal”, es en el mejor de los casos, un sonido nasal muy forzado (si nos queda algo de apertura nasal sin bloquear) o directamente denasalizado. Es decir, lo que notamos no es que usemos la nariz, sino que hablamos sin usarla.

Cuando hablas tus pliegues vocales vibran a velocidades alucinantes.

Los pliegues vocales, los  mal denominados “cuerdas vocales” son las puertas que abren y cierran, regulando el flujo de aire entre los pulmones y el exterior. son una válvula estupenda que no solamente nos permite regular la respiración, sino que en algun momento de nuestra evolución nos ha permitido crear el lenguaje. La glotis es el espacio entre ellos si están abiertos: si están cerrados la glotis no existe.

Lo más alucinante es el papel que tienen en el lenguaje. Los pliegues vocales regulan y doman el chorro de aire que sale de los pulmones, que tiene la misma sutileza que un matasuegras, y lo modula en vibraciones regulares creando una señal acústica que luego modulamos en la boca. Esas vibraciones rara vez bajan de los 85-100 ciclos por segundo en una persona adulta. Las mujeres por lo general suelen tener una frecuencia más alta y los niños y niñas hasta la pubertad tienen una frecuencia mucho más alta (ahora entiendes por qué los gritos de los niños en el restaurante el domingo te molestaban tanto…).  Las frecuencias a las que se mueven los pliegues vocales vienen  determinadas por la fisiología, pero dentro de lo fisiológicamente posible, cada comunidad lingüística tiene unas preferencias que se aprenden copiando a la gente que te rodea. Es uno de los factores  por los que hay gente que nos suena rara, porque no encajan en esas preferencias.

Cuando modulamos de forma voluntaria el flujo de aire y esas vibraciones de los pliegues con motivaciones artísticas, eso se llama cantar.

 Cuando hablas, te oyes a ti mismo por los oídos y dentro de tu cabeza a la vez. 

He hablado más arriba de los senos que rodean la cavidad nasal y que nos sirven de cavidades de resonancia. El sonido es una vibración con lo cual todo lo que entra en contacto con esa vibración se contagia de alguna manera de ella. Además a través de las Trompas de Eustaquio, nuestra cavidad oral está conectada con los oídos. La vibración de nuestra voz, por lo tanto nos llega desde dentro de la cabeza y desde fuera a la vez.

Por eso cuando nos grabamos y nos oímos después nos suena raro (hasta que te acostumbras): porque solo lo estamos oyendo desde fuera. Y por eso para practicar un idioma está muy bien grabarse a si mismo y escucharse. 

Espero que os haya resultado interesante. Creo que saber estas cosas te da una perspectiva diferente de la voz humana y de lo que es hablar un idioma.

Como siempre, si tenéis dudas, preguntas, quejas. sugerencias… escribid:

info.nativeproficiency@gmail.com

 

Cosas que ocurren cuando hablas. was last modified: November 5th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
5th November 2018 0 comment
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CoachingEn EspañolFAQLanguage SkillsLearning TipsListening SkillsPronunciation

Mejora tu “listening” y tu “speaking”: los sonidos africados en inglés

written by Francisco Sanjurjo
Mejora tu “listening” y tu “speaking”: los sonidos africados en inglés
Mejora tu “listening” y tu “speaking”: los sonidos africados en inglés

Dos sonidos de nada.

En el post de hoy os presento a dos sonidos del inglés, los únicos que tiene el inglés en su categoría fonética. Esa categoría se llama en español “consonantes africadas”. Si no has oído hablar de ellas es porque seguramente cuando fuiste al colegio (yo soy de la época de la EGB…) no te enseñaron nada de ellas. Más vale tarde que nunca, aquí llego yo al rescate, para hablarte de dos sonidos fundamentales del inglés.

Nota 1: Aparca en tu cabeza el alfabeto con el que estás leyendo ahora lo que he escrito. Eso es el alfabeto ortográfico, el que te permite leer y escribir. Pero el que tu cerebro tiene interiorizado sin tú saberlo es el alfabeto fonético, mucho más sutil, sintonizado a distinciones muy, muy finas y que es el que te permite hablar y entender lo que te dicen. Los fonetistas y fonólogos, que son los científicos que estudian estas cosas, han creado y pulido a lo largo de los años un alfabeto con símbolos (como las letras del alfabeto ortográfico) que representan a los sonidos que se pronuncian y que permiten decidir que palabra es la que estamos oyendo. En el video a continuación podemos ver a un fonetista en acción torturando a su víctima. Quizá en tiempos pudo ser así, pero hoy en día no somos tan brutos y usamos software en vez de productos inflamables!

Nota 2: Todos y cada uno de los sonidos de todos los idiomas son importantes, porque tienen función distintiva. Si tienen su propio símbolo fonético es que para ese idioma son sonidos que distinguen a una palabra de otra. Esos señores (¡y señoras, cada vez más!) de los que hablaba arriba, unidos en la International Phonetic Association (IPA, pero nada que ver con la cerveza), han creado un alfabeto fonético internacional con todos los sonidos de todas las lenguas conocidas.

IPA chart 2018

También han creado una versión de dicho alfabeto para el español. Si quieres aprender sobre los sonidos del español haz clic aquí.

Nota 3: La palabra correcta para referirse a los sonidos que crean distinciones de significado en un idioma es: fonema.

via GIPHY

Repite conmigo: fonema.

Esta la tenemos en Español. (La “sorda”)

Vale, ahora ya sabes lo que es un fonema, el alfabeto fonético y si has echado un vistazo al alfabeto en sí, habrás localizado los símbolos que encabezan este post. Voy a empezar hablando de estos dos sonidos que tiene el inglés, presentando a esta amiguita que no es ni más ni menos que nuestra “ch”, la de “chorizo” de toda la vida.

Lo interesante de este sonido y del que te presentaré luego es que son la unión de dos sonidos individuales. En el caso de la “ch”, los sonidos son por una parte la “t” (si, en el alfabeto fonético no se complicaron con el símbolo) y el sonido que hacemos en español para mandar a alguien callar “¡Shhhh!.

Haz la prueba: pronuncia una “t” y después una “sh”. Primero separadas y después cada vez más seguidas, más rápido. Al final lo que pronunciarás será una “ch”. Este sonido ya lo tienes controlado. Y los dos sonidos que lo forman, que son también fonemas del inglés, los sabes pronunciar perfectamente. A continuación voy a presentar la otra consonante africada del inglés.

Nota 1: (O nota 4, según se mire) La diferencia entre el sonido del que te acabo de hablar y el que viene a continuación es una característica física y acústica que es la fonación. En Español hablamos de sonidos “sordos” y sonidos “sonoros”. En inglés hablamos de “voiceless” y “voiced”. De lo que se trata es de que la mayoría de los sonidos se producen  expulsando aire por la boca y a la hora de explusar ese aire a través de la laringe, tenemos dos opciones. La primera es mantener los pliegues vocales (las mal llamadas cuerdas vocales) abiertos y que salga el aire sin más, con lo  que lo que pronunciemos no va a contar con la modulación que crea la vibración de dichos pliegues. El resultado son los sonidos “sordos” (en inglés “voiceless”. Si por el contrario, cerramos los pliegues vocálicos y el aire solo sale a intervalos mediante un proceso de vibración, hablamos de que los sonidos que se producen son “sonoros” o “voiced”.

Esta es la que tienes que aprender. La “sonora”.

Este sonido no existe en español estandar. De los sonidos que los forman, solo el primero forma parte del español estandar (pronunciación centro-peninsular), aunque lo podemos encontrar en variedades argentinas, chilenas y uruguayas. La única diferencia entre esta y nuestra “ch” es que nuestra “ch” y sus dos componentes son “sordos” (se pronuncian sin necesidad de vibración de los pliegues vocales) y esta segunda está compuesta por los equivalentes “sonoros”. En todo lo demás, ambos sonidos son idénticos.

¿Y a que suena este sonido? Este señor os lo explica todo y le podéis escuchar pronunciándolo con un montón de ejemplos estupendos. Os pongo también el vídeo del otro sonido que probablemente también os tenga turulatos. (Me apetecía usar ese adjetivo. Si pincháis el enlace tenéis la definición…)

 

Este otro sonido que es el que realmente nos produce quebraderos de cabeza a los hispanohablantes peninsulares, es muy frecuente en palabras inglesas de origen francés. Si bien su sonido equivalente “sordo”, el “sh” no nos produce ninguna dificultad, este se nos atraganta. La diferencia en realidad es muy pequeña pero significativa: tanto la africada como la fricativa son “sonoros”, cosa que siendo hispanohablantes peninsulares nos sienta fatal, porque por lo general nos hemos ido quitando de en medio las consonantes sonoras a lo largo de la historia. Que nos ha quedado muy cómodo para hablar español, pero tienen grandes desventajas para aprender a hablar como dios manda idiomas que si tienen consonantes sonoras.

Estos dos sonidos, aparte de ser bastante más comunes de lo que uno pueda pensar, son muy significativos a la hora de sonar como un nativo o que te pillen a la primera como extranjero. Una ruta alternativa para llegar a ellos es a través del francés, pero claro, a lo mejor no te interesa aprender francés… pero si ya sabéis hablar – y pronunciar – francés, este sonido lo tenéis ya en el bote.

Más allá de pronunciarlos bien para sonar mejor en inglés, hay algo importante que ya señalaba arriba: pronunciar y distinguir estos sonidos es importante porque son fonemas del inglés, es decir, cambiarlos por otro puede cambiar el significado de la palabra. Y si cambias una palabra por otra, igual no pasa nada… o igual sí.

Espero que hayáis aprendido, que os haya resultado interesante y que vuestro inglés mejore gracias a esto. Como siempre, si queréis contactarme:

info.nativeproficiency@gmail.com

Mejora tu “listening” y tu “speaking”: los sonidos africados en inglés was last modified: November 5th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
5th November 2018 0 comment
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CoachingEn EspañolFAQLanguage SkillsListening Skills

CÓMO MEJORAR TU INGLÉS CON TU SUSCRIPCIÓN A NETFLIX, HBO O AMAZON

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

¿Tienes una suscripción a Netflix, Amazon o HBO y la disfrutas viendo tus programas favoritos? Hoy os voy a contar como usar estas plataformas para aprender inglés sin estropear demasiado el disfrute de los shows.

Aunque quizá, dependiendo de tu nivel de inglés tengas que cambiar de shows, al menos un tiempo.

La principal y maravillosa herramienta a tu alcance con todas estas plataformas es algo que el españolito de a pie, hasta hace pocos años procuraba evitar: los subtítulos.  Antes de que dejes de leer este post vamos a clarificar cuales son los objetivos. Si no te sientes identificado con ellos, puedes volver a youtube a ver videos de gatitos (o echar un vistazo a alguno de los canales que sigo, porque de momento no me da tiempo a crear mis propios videos, pero ya se andará).

Puedes buscarme como usuario en youtube por mi email: info.nativeproficiency@gmail.com

Si aún sigues aquí, estos son los objetivos:

  1. mejorar tu inglés en general: “afinar tu oído” (listening), incrementar tu vocabulario y practicarlo, ver como hablantes nativos usan (o maltratan, que de todo hay) la gramática.
  2. Al conseguir los objetivos del punto 1, hacerte disfrutar aun más tus shows favoritos. Porque en versión original todo es mejor. Porque te estás perdiendo cosas maravillosas. 

Cómo no frustrarte.

Se realista con tu nivel de inglés, pero también se consciente de que el trabajo compensa. La fama cuesta, pero se consigue. Y mientras tanto, aprendes sin pasarlo tan mal.

Si no estás acostumbrado a ver cosas con subtítulos te recomiendo que primero te entrenes con subtitulos en español y sonido en español. Baby steps. Una vez que te asegures de que los subtitulos no te dan migrañas ni ganas de matar al que te sugirió que los usaras, puedes pasar a trabajar tu inglés. Te recomiendo, ya que uno de los aspectos interesantes es mejorar tus habilidades en listening, que leas mi post sobre el tema.

Ten paciencia. No pretendas ver Juego de Tronos en versión original a la primera, si tu nivel de inglés es intermedio/bajo y especialmente si no tienes muchas “horas de vuelo” oyendo inglés. Te puede dar un yuyu, desanimarte completamente o lo que es peor, acabar odiando tu serie favorita.

Cómo aprovechar los subtítulos.

Si tienes un nivelón de inglés (que puede ocurrir, pero siempre suele llegar “paco con la rebaja”), puedes saltarte algunos pasos.

Elige un programa que cumpla los siguientes requisitos:

  1. No te hace sentir perdido a los cinco minutos sin subtítulos. (tendrás que hacer pruebas y te llevarás sorpresas. Hay muchos factores para que esto ocurra. Aunque vayas a verlo con subtítulos, no abuses de tus umbrales de atención. Más vale ver un cuarto de hora bien que una hora mal.
  2. Salvo que tengas el ya mencionado “nivelón”, evita en la medida de lo posible los contenidos con mucho ruido de fondo (efectos especiales, peleas, batallas…). Estos te van a distraer de dos maneras: objetivamente, porque enmascaran los sonidos de lo que se está pronunciando. ¡Cosa que afecta a cualquiera, incluidos hablantes nativos a pesar de que lo ven en su propia lengua! Por otro lado subjetivamente, tu mente se va a centrar más en la acción que en la conversación de los personajes.
  3. Que sea relevante e interesante para ti, en la medida de lo posible. Las plataformas de las que hablamos tiene una gran variedad de contenidos. Ten varios diferentes de reserva. Igual estás viendo algo que te interesa por motivos profesionales, ¡pero ese día estás hasta el gorro de todo y lo que necesitas es reírte!

Los siguientes pasos son totalmente personalizables y dependen de varios factores: tu nivel de inglés y lo ambiciosos que sean tus objetivos (ve poco a poco); el tiempo que tengas, tu capacidad de concentración…

Con subtítulos, sin subtítulos. Y vuelta a empezar.

Básicamente se trata de alternar una o más veces el visionado con subtítulos y el visionado sin subtítulos. Ten en cuenta mis consejos acerca de los problemas de listening. No te vuelvas loco con el vocabulario. Si es algo que sale mucho y te hace perderte, apúntalo y cuando termines de ver el episodio o escena, búscalo en el diccionario. Si no, si quieres apúntalo, pero no te estreses con ello.

Ten en cuenta si los personajes hablan alguna variedad dialectal: dos de mis shows favoritos de netflix son “Happy Valley” dónde se despachan en acento cerrado de Yorkshire y “Hinterland” que se desarrolla en Gales. Tú pon a un inglés con un nivel de español equivalente al tuyo a ver “Allí Abajo”. Pues eso.

No tengas miedo a perder el tiempo viendo un episodio o un documental varias veces. No es una pérdida de tiempo: el aprendizaje de un idioma es exponencial y cuanto más sólido quede lo que aprendas, mejor. Por otra parte si los personajes tienen un acento que te resulte extraño o dificil, es la forma ideal de hacer inmersión lingüística sin necesidad de gastarte una pasta en ir allí.

Fuera complejos y ridículo.

Finalmente otra cosa que puedes hacer, requiere una habilidad especial: la de perder totalmente el sentido del ridículo. Gracias al bendito botón de pausa, puedes ir parando los subtitulos y diciendo el voz alta lo que ves en pantalla y compara con como suenan los actores o locutores. Una vez que mandes a la porra en sentido del ridículo, lo pasarás como un enano. Piensa en una especie de karaoke hablado. Imita las voces. Levántate del sofa e imita los gestos. Aunque si estás en un medio de transporte mejor no.

Resumiendo: elige bien, se prudente pero confía en tus capacidades, repite lo que haga falta, que no es tiempo perdido, prioriza y disfruta sin sentido del ridículo. Y si tienes dudas, comentarios, sugenrencias o preguntas… ¡silba!

Bueno, mejor me escribes: info.nativeproficiency@gmail.com

CÓMO MEJORAR TU INGLÉS CON TU SUSCRIPCIÓN A NETFLIX, HBO O AMAZON was last modified: November 6th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
6th November 2018 0 comment
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Language SkillsLearning TipsListening SkillsSpeaking SkillsUncategorisedVocabulary

Sing along to improve your English.

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Do you like listening to music? Do you like going to concerts? Do you like singing in the shower? All these things can help you improve your English skills, specially listening and speaking.

Listening is the most obvious since that is what you are doing: listening to the music. But if you have no idea what the song is about, you will never improve. Songs are usually short and repetitive, so they are ideal language bites that you can handle better than a film or a TV show. By singing along, you let yourself experiment at the same time as you have fun. It is a great way to practice your speaking and feel safe. And eventually try your skills at karaoke night.

As I have mentioned in other post about listening, there are many things that can go wrong when you listen to something, which can be summarized into “whatever is new and or unexpected“. It could be a new or unexpected grammar item, complex, unfamiliar vocabulary or an accent you have not been exposed to.  Many of these things could happen to you occasionally in your own language – it happened to me on a trip to Seville years ago. In any case, none of those problems are related with your ability to discriminate words or even sounds. They just make it harder. If it is new, you can not possibly understand it.

Songs, specially pop music are a controlled territory, a sandbox where you can play. In the old times we swapped photocopies of the lyrics. However, now there are lots of online resources. But beware, more often than I would like, those lyrics have been uploaded by fans and their listening skills can not be trusted. Even if they are native speakers. Why?

Because they have their own problems with grammar, vocabulary and spelling, and unless they take the trouble to check things… and you know, nobody likes to admit that they have to improve their spelling or their grammar in their own language! That’s why grammarly and similar services thrive.

So provided you got the lyrics right, you kill several birds with the same stone:

  1. you learn some new vocabulary and expressions but without being overwhelmed.
  2. you are going to listen to the songs you like many times… repetition is good practice.
  3. you may probably learn new cultural aspects.

Other useful resources you may need to use are genius and urban dictionary. These two are very useful: genius is a database of song lyrics. Those with a green tick sign have been verified. The others… up to you! Urban dictionary, like genius, is a collaborative platform in this case people upload definitions and explanations, as well as examples of slang terms and expressions (which may well be what you were not understanding in the lyrics). Careful with the definitions, sometimes they are not very scientific.

A warning: these days in commercial hip-hop music and other types, they include commercial brand names (drinks, clothing, fast cars…) in the lyrics (and you can see them in the music videos). That is product placement, just like the breakfast room in “Médico de familia” where all possible brands were visible, even on the calendar on the wall.

 

 

 

Sing along to improve your English. was last modified: September 18th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
25th September 2018 0 comment
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Language SkillsLearning MaterialsLearning TipsListening SkillsMusic Video reviewSong reviewVocabulary

Nicky Minaj’s lyric videos

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

One of the useful things about the internet is that you can find almost anything and that also applies to sources of information and learning materials, whatever your needs might be. If your needs are learning about your favourite artist’s lyrics, no matter how bizarre they are, you can find that out too!

The first source of information is obviously the artists themselves: lyrics still come with the CD, don’t they? But if you like an artist and you don’t have the CD… there is still hope for you!

One of the trends for artists to promote themselves has been to create lyric videos: it is cheaper and you help your fans or potential fans learn your lyrics which may bring them to attend your concerts. Let’s face it, concerts bring the money today, not selling records.

Anyway, in order for a lyric video to be successful you need to mix two ingredients: appealing lyrics and good visuals.

Some artists like Katy Perry have taken this seriously. Others have great material… but they did not do it themselves! It was the fans instead. This is the case for Nicky Minaj’s song starships. A fan made this video, which I think is visually great. Judge for yourselves!

Now this is real fun, isn’t it? It also helps you teach some stuff:

1) Lyrics are well timed with the sound so you can use them to work on stuff like vowel length or even intonation.
2) If your students often whine about not learning “real English” and fancy themselves streetwise, this is something you can retaliate with.

Now about the lyrics themselves, as you may have noticed there is a couple of problems: first, non-standard spelling (you can also use that to teach pronunciation as well as to emphasize how there is a place for bad spelling but out of it you should use the correct one!). Besides, you can challenge your students to find out where the video-maker went wrong with the lyrics: at some point in the lyrics he writes nigga, where Ms Minaj says “my name is Onika, but you can call me Nicky”. A great example to work on the difference between /k/ and /g/.

Additionally you can use the contents you will find on Rapgenius:

Rapgenius.com Nicky Minaj’s “Starships”

This is an interesting source for both teachers and students: it is a kind of wikipedia for lyrics. There is a lot of debate between comments and that is a great excuse for discussion in class.

Now, sit back and enjoy!

Nicky Minaj’s lyric videos was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
3rd October 2013 0 comment
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Language SkillsLearning MaterialsLearning TipsListening SkillsMusic Video reviewSong review

Katy Perry’s Lyrics Videos

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Hello everyone,

When I was a teenager, listening to music helped me a lot in order to boost my confidence in speaking and to improve my listening. Usually people tend to listen to some music over and over, because they are their favourites. That means they end up memorizing some songs and those can become a very good guide to expand your abilities in those two skills.

In this post I am going to use as an example one of the most popular artists in pop music these days, Katy Perry. She is probably the artist who has made most official “lyric videos” (as they are known). You can find many of these videos for many artists, but they are usually made by fans. For each of them, there is a conventional video, of course.

PART OF ME

The first video is for the song “part of me”. The conventional video features a story about a girl who finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her and leaves him to start a new life… as a Marine! The lyric video transmits the energy and determination which can be found both in the lyrics and in the story told in the video.

But the reason I have chosen this video is, obviously, because we can learn english with it! The most interesting thing about this song is how packed it is with … phrasal verbs! I keep repeating to my students how phrasal verbs are useful, condensed pieces of meaning and that is why native speakers use them so often. So here is a list of the interesting vocabulary in this song, including its phrasal verbs:
  1. To drive away: to go away, to leave a place driving a car. Other similar phrasal verbs include sail away (by boat), fly away (by plane or helicopter…), run away, and many other possible combinations with similar meanings.
  2. Shadow: it is easy to confuse shadow and shade. Shadow is the shape projected by something which stands in the sun or any other source of light. Shade is the effect created by a shadow or also a reference to very small differences in colours. See “50 shades of Grey”. Check out the word nuance, with a similar meaning.
  3. To fade: to disappear gradually.
  4. To chew up: to chew (break in pieces with your teeth) something completely. Here in the song she is referring to how she felt her boyfriend treated her. There are probably hundreds of phrasal verbs in which “up” creates a similar meaning (doing something completely or with great intensity).
  5. To spit out: to expel from the mouth. Spit is also the liquid we produce in the mouth to prepare food for digestion. Someone or something which is nearly identical to another thing or person is said to be its “spitting image“. By the way: it is an irregular verb: spit-spit-spit or spit-spat-spat.
  6. Like I was: In red because you need to be careful. This is a colloquial way of saying “As if I were“. Feel free to be colloquial, but be aware of it!
  7. You drained me down: the lyric video effect at this point is perfect, because to drain down means to extract all liquids from a place or thing. What a vampire would love to do with your blood, actually!
  8. To take away: extremely common phrasal verb. Also found as a noun: tonight we are having Chinese takeaway; or as an adjective as in “Chinese takeaway food”. 
  9. Throw your sticks and stones: a reference to a nursery rhyme in english “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. The meaning is that if you are insulted that does not really hurt, only physical violence.
  10. Throw away: another phrasal verb. Get rid of something by putting it in the garbage bin.
  11. Find out: another phrasal verb. I lost count, honestly!
  12. To rip someone off: To rip means to separate two things which are naturally connected. For example to rip a piece of clothing in two pieces. To rip someone off has the meaning of making someone pay an abnormally high price for something which should be much cheaper. In this case the price is not money, but the singer’s unhappiness. 
  13. Tearing at the seams: this means that something is at full capacity and a little more. Seams are the connections made with thread between pieces of clothing, for example at the side of a pair of trousers. So if something is tearing at the seams, it is probably near breaking.
  14. To let down: to make someone unhappy because they expected something better from you.
  15. To put out: to extinguish a fire.
  16. It don’t mean nothing: again a colloquial, grammatically incorrect expression. It should be “it doesn’t mean anything.

 

WIDE AWAKE
Here the video is cleverly structured as a Facebook timeline. Here are the interesting expressions in this song:

 

  1. I’m wide awake: it means that you are completely awake, not sleepy and your eyes are wide open.
  2. I was in the dark: I was completely ignorant.
  3. To read the stars: to be able to predict the future or to find which way to go, as sailors do.
  4. ain’t: this verb form is colloquial and it is used instead of “aren’t”, “isn’t”and “am not”. 
  5. to dive in: Literally to jump head first into the water. Instead of water it could be any kind of situation.
  6. to bow down: to lower your head showing submission or respect.
  7. falling from cloud 9: cloud 9 means a place or situation of extreme happiness. So to fall from cloud 9 is very bad, isn’t it?
  8. I’m letting go tonight: to let go means to eliminate self-control.
  9. to lose sleep: as in spanish, it refers to the idea of not sleeping for an unimportsnt reason.
  10. to pick up every piece: after something falls to the floor and breaks, you pick up every piece. In this case, it must be her heart.
  11. To land on your feet: what cats are supposed to do when they fall! See here.
  12. born again: after some traumatic experiences, people feel they are born again.
  13. the lion’s den: where a lion and his family sleep. A very dangerous place.
  14. thunder rumbling: the sound of thunder. 
  15. castles tumbling: to fall rolling on itself. So a combination of rolling and falling. Also what ice cubes do in a tumbler, which is a kind of glass used for drinks such as whiskey. After you wash your clothes, you can put them in a tumble dryer, and they will come out all warm and dry. Your clothes tumble inside it. For an example of a building (not a castle) tumbling down, see here.
  16. To hold on: to stay in a position or situation, for example on the phone.
  17. To see the bright side: to be optimistic. See the expression “every cloud has a silver lining”. (Lining, the inside protection layer of some clothes like jackets, coats, etc. )

 

ROAR

 

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/e9SeJIgWRPk&source=uds

This one, “roar”, is a bit tricky. The “emoji” icons from the well known app “whatsapp” are used but you can still follow the meaning. As with the other videos we can discover or review a number of useful words and expressions.

 

  1. To bite my tongue: exactly the same as in Spanish. What you do when you would love to say something but if you say it the effects will be negative.
  2. To hold my breath: to stop breathing. For example under water. Here it is a figurative meaning. 
  3. Rock the boat: to rock means to move from side to side. If you rock a boat what happens? And this is a rocking chair.
  4. To make a mess: to make something dirty, disorganized, chaotic or create a problem which is difficult to solve.
  5. To push someone past the breaking point: to annoy or make someone suffer so much that they can’t stand it anymore.
  6. To stand for something/anything/nothing: to defend something, to show that you are in favour of it.
  7. To brush the dust: Usually when you fall to the ground, you get dirty and you need to brush the dust from your clothes. If you fall in a metaphorical, non-physical way, when you recover you brush the dust too.
  8. The eye of the tiger: from a song in the 70’s which became famous for being part of the film “Rocky”. It means absolute focus.
  9. Stinging like a bee: bees have stings at their back, so they can defend themselves or their beehive (colony).
  10. To earn your stripes: the expression comes from the military. The more stripes you have, the higher ranking you are and the more merits you have made to achieve it. Also, bees have stripes and fight (a reference to the previous expression.

 

Katy Perry’s Lyrics Videos was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
8th February 2014 0 comment
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Listening SkillsMusic Video reviewSong reviewSpeaking SkillsVocabulary

Lyric video: “Happy” by Pharrel Williams

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

When I originally wrote this post, this song was everywhere and it had made it to the Oscar awards nominations! for best song. This is Pharrell Wiliams’ “Happy” for the film “Despicable me 2”. I found it interesting as an excuse to talk about several things:

1) The love of double meanings by English speakers, in this case songwriters.
2) The importance of stopping (or rather, slowing down) at the right places and how it changes meaning.
3) Using “like”, that slippery dangerous word.
4) And other stuff, but that will be after you watch the video.

Honestly, I did not look at the song credits, so I don’t know if Mr. Williams himself or other people wrote this song, but it is very clever. It is constantly playing with the word like, or more specifically with the expression “feel like” in contrast with feel… like “x”.

The first expression as in:

“I feel like going to the cinema today.”

Here “feel like” means “I would enjoy/love doing that.”

The second expression as in:

“I feel like a rat in a trap.”

Here “feel like something” is a comparison. You are not that something but you feel in a similar or equivalent way.

So sentences in the song can be understood as either about what someone wishes for, or the description of their feelings.

“… if you feel like a room without a a roof.” (so either you are wishing you had one or your feelings can be compared to a room without a roof).

Moving on to my second point, we can look at this:

“… if you feel like happiness is the truth.” which can be read as:

[if you feel like happiness][is the truth] (meaning: the truth is you feel like happiness, you would like to feel happy, that’s what you want.)

Or:

[if you feel] [like happiness is the truth] (meaning: your feeling is equivalent or similar to thinking that happiness is the (only, most important) truth.

The most important thing about these lyrics is how all meanings are perfectly combined in a way that the message is absolutely positive and optimistic, every and any way you look at it.

Ok, so here’s the video, finally. An after that, there’s more to comment!

 

What I’m ’bout to say. Recently I was explaining my students how in words like about, the initial sound is the neutral vowel known as “schwa”. Thanks Pharrell for helping me by showing how weak that vowel can be, to the point of disappearing in some varieties of colloquial English.
Sunshine she’s here. He’s playing with us again. Sunshine is a word used in the same way as dear, honey or other endearing terms. So it could be Sunshine! she’s here! or a double-subject, nonstandard way of saying “She’s here and she is like sunshine for me.”
Like I don’t care. colloquial way of saying “as if I don’t care”.
Clap along. A phrasal verb. What does it mean? If you are familiar with go along, that means to go in parallell with something, as opposed to following someone. So the meaning here is to go along someone or something, and at the same time, clapping your hands. So walk and clap! (Which I think he does at some point in the original music video). Also, when you are doing a music performance, like a concert, if the public claps following the music, they are clapping along!
Give me all you got, don’t hold it back. Make an effort, use all your strength. Show me all those bad news, I am not afraid! (Because I am happy…). Don’t hold it back, don’t keep any bad news for yourself.
Can’t nothing bring me down: he is a rap singer! Using inversion for emphasis! (=Nothing can’t bring me down).
I hope you enjoy this post. Feel free to leave your comments below or contact me here.
Lyric video: “Happy” by Pharrel Williams was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
4th March 2014 0 comment
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Communication SkillsLanguage SkillsLearning TipsListening Skills

Troubleshooting listening.

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

I have seen many learners of English panicking in class and in exams when the time came to do a listening activity or a listening test. people feeling sick and me feeling sick mfor them, because many of them were suffering for the wrong reasons: not knowing what to do about it, having spent endless hours frustrated, not understanding why they weren’t making as much progress as they wanted, as they needed. And in some cases, no progress at all.

Obviously I have spent a lot of time thinking about ways to help people. I looked in many places: I looked in books, I looked for answers asking colleagues over the years. And I looked into my own experience, reflecting in how I came to the listening skills I have now.

I am going to state the obvious now: if you are learning English, it is a foreign language for you. It is a language you are not familiar with. In teaching and learning it (I will speak about practising it which is a whole different matter), emphasis has been made on grammar (good!) and vocabulary (good!). However  something has been traditionally neglected is learning something that belongs alongside grammar structures and vocabulary items: the sounds of English and the rules to combine them.

Building blocks: not only words, but sounds too.

It is funny: I like to think of grammar and vocabulary as the building blocks you need to start combining to produce linguistic messages, to communicate in any language. Grammar structures and vocabulary items, abstractly considered, are what you need for the four traditional skills: speaking, listening, writing and reading. However, if you do not know how they are pronounced you will not be able to understand spoken messages and if you are not able to pronounce things correctly, your spoken messages will be problematic.

Therefore, establishing a comparison, the individual sounds of the English language are the building blocks, like vocabulary items. And the rules for combining them would be a kind of grammar. I would say we were missing a whole area that was very important.

A quick historical aside.

The reasons this has been neglected in the traditional language classroom  in Spain are predictable. The languages that were taught in Spain for many years were mostly dead languages – Latin and Greek. Until schooling became widespread, the only people who were likely to be bilingual were those in regions where there was a local language, like Gallego and Catalan.  French was for the elites and it was a symbol of status that very few people used outside the classroom.

To cut the story short, hardly anybody was learning to speak any other languages than their own. Therefore, why bother with pronunciation, if speaking and listening hardly ever happened. And if they happened “We can manage”.

So what’s wrong with me doctor?

The attitude to learning, as with any other task in life, is always important: if you see something as a problem – it becomes a problem for you. If you do not understand what your problem is, the solution with elude you. Unless you have some congenital or acquired medical condition, you are perfectly able to acquire a language, including speaking and listening skills. Here is a list, however, of the things you might need to pay attention to. They are not your fault… until you don’t do anything to solve them!

You are not tuned.

What do I mean by this? Imagine you are listening to the radio. if you do not tune to the exact frequency, you will have background noise or the signal will come and go. When we listen to people we are in the right frequency too. Sometimes it happens with people in your own language: you do not understand them. That is because you do not know their “frequency”: they speak differently enough so you have trouble understanding them:

 

 

This is a trailer for the Wreck it Ralph! sequel. Here, the other princesses who all speak standard English (Including Pocahontas!) complain that they cannot understand Merida, who speaks in Scottish English (I don’t think that’s gaelic, you would understand even far less). This is a joke among native speakers. So it could happen to you. If you happen to find yourself in such an extreme situation, do not blame yourself, ask for help!

But my point here obviously is that if you are not familiar with the way that native speakers – at least speakers of standard varieties – pronounce things, then you will be expecting whatever your brain makes up.

Solution (for this and other problems about your listening): Listen to video with subtitles in English or books with audio version. reading and listening to what you are reading. Look for lyric videos of popular songs on youtube (you can look at my posts on Katy Perry or Nicky Minaj) or use apps like “Learn English Podcasts” from the British council.

Obviously, no matter how much you have listened to native speakers, you could come across new vocabulary. That is not a listening problem, that is in the first place a vocabulary problem: you need to know the word, know its meaning and then hear it being pronounced. Even if you are a native speaker, if the word or the meaning with which it is used is new to you, that will create interference. But your listening skills are not to blame. The same applies to unfamiliar or new grammar structures, or simply new accents like Merida’s.

Therefore, be careful not to blame your listening skills when the reason may well be other deficits.  Even someone saying something completely unexpected: there is this line from the film “As good as it gets” where Carol (Helen Hunt) is packing for her first holiday in years and says “here is a suitcase, surprised to be used”. If you think about it all the words she uses are rather basic, it is the way she has created the sentence that is totally unexpected and anybody could reasonably ask her “Sorry, what did you say?”.

Expectations about what is coming next are a fundamental pillar of listening, it is actually our radio frequency tuner. The more we listen, the more samples we gather, the more precise our listening machine becomes. The good news is that our brain is very capable of extrapolating efficiently, so once you cross a certain threshold, your listening skills improve dramatically. But you need to give it food! The first day you work with a colleague from Australia you will probably feel lost, after a week, you may even speak a little like them!

Another factor that helps a lot, specially with the foundations of your english listening skills is repetition. I mean, listening to the same things over an over. I cannot thank enough those music casettes and CDs with the lyrics printed on when I was a teenager. I would listen to the music over and over and eventually, what they were saying became absolutely familiar. And then I thought, OK, let’s expand on this.

I could ramble on about this and other anecdotes… but this is getting long, right? So one final sentence: be objective and do not blame your listening skills when you might have other problems working against you.

And if you feel you need help and guidance, you can contact me here!

Troubleshooting listening. was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
15th May 2014 0 comment
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