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You're going to sound so natural speaking American English. Hey internet. So I just taught a live class for my students in Rachel's English Academy and something kind of funny happened and I wanted to share it with you. As I was working with the student on her overall sound and how to sound more natural, I realized that it actually helped her a lot to sound really good and really natural speaking American English if she did this thing that I named the monster voice. In case you don't know who I am, my name is Rachel and I've been teaching the American accent for over two decades. I'm so passionate about helping non-native speakers of English sound the way they want to sound speaking English and I would love to give you my free
cheat sheet that shows the mouth positions for all of the sounds in American English. So if you want to check that out, please scan this QR code or go to the link in the video description. So I'm going to show you some clips from the live class. I actually worked with two students on this and I'm going to say if you imitate this and you get the monster voice, you absolutely nail it, you absolutely figure out how to do it and you do it a lot and get used to the feeling of it and then you drop American English into that shape of the body that you have to make to make the monster voice, you're going to sound so natural speaking American English. So please give it a try. Here's the first student I worked
with. Her native language is German. I actually thought it was better. Okay, do it again? two weeks Yes. Just see what happens if we bring it down to a unreasonable pitch that we would never actually speak with but just to see what it feels like in the body. two weeks two Yeah, like I can't go lower than that as much as I would like to. two Oh, try that. two Uh-huh. So that sort of has this openness to it. You know, I said the two weeks felt a little narrow when we go two It's like we have to open everything. Obviously it'd be crazy to try to speak that way but what if you worked on that feeling? two And then try to put regular speech into it. two Uh-huh. That's mellow. I like that a lot. I think that would be an interesting exercise for you to work
on. two I mean, I feel like God, I just really have to let everything be open and relaxed for that. two And then okay, let's put regular speech in that shape of body. two Uh-huh. Let's try that. two weeks Oh, let's just do two. two You know [snorts] what? I want everybody to work on their monster voice. two Feel it just like really feel your body in that moment. two And now two. two And now two weeks. two weeks That's getting better. It was a little emphasis but I actually thought it was better. Okay, do it again? two weeks Yes. That was smoother. There was less punch to it. I also love that you heard, right? You're like you did it and then
you're like no, no. That's really what I'm wanting to build for all of you is the ability to when you're working on something here that you there's a tweak that you still want to make. Like that is a great sign. Um okay, so we're going to find another phrase and I want to think about bringing the monster voice. That's what we'll call it. Two. That openness. that mellowness that space is where we're going to put regular speech. Is it What time is it there? Is the afternoon early evening? In Germany it's 4:00 17 p.m. Okay. What did you do today? Uh today I'm pretty much still on vacation because as I told you, yeah, I had this intensive Zelda course and it was like
60 hours per week and five weeks and I'm pretty much running on fumes and that's why I took a little break and yeah. It's like in the nose quite a bit. A little bit nasal. I took a little monster I took a little Yes, wow. Let's play it safe. That was very different. That was great. I took a little break. Yeah. That's nice. It's come down a lot. It's much less nasal. It feels a lot more like it's coming from the chest. What does it feel like to you? Does it feel like you're just imitating something or does it feel like there's a feeling you're going for? It's a feeling because
you know, like 1 year ago I worked on my placement actually. But then I stopped it because it was pretty much not on point but it was I had it down pretty much. Yeah. But now I took a break from it and I feel that even now I just felt it that it's still sometimes too high. Uh-huh. So I think maybe I need to revisit it. When you were working on the placement, what were what content were you using? All your videos and then I was also doing humming exercises like humming scales and putting the hand on the chest for the vibration and yeah.
Yeah. In the past year, I've created quite a bit of new content really focused on placement and it is the first three modules of the daily plan. I've redone the daily plan. So we're talking about placement which has a huge effect on how natural you sound speaking English. If you've never heard about this before, please check out this video on placement. I'll also link to it in the video description. It's so important to understand this if your goal is to sound more natural speaking English. And the first three modules of that focus heavily on placement and can really help I think you discover new things about it. You know, also you said you were doing humming exercises and that feels
to me a little bit like monster voice. You know, it's like a similar kind of feeling. So I can see how that would be really relevant and I would definitely invite you to you know, this video of us working together will be in the academy in like two weeks. Watch that several times. You know, as you're working with the soundboard in the academy, let's say you're working on a conversation, one of the conversations and you're working with the soundboard, I would say it would be interesting to even try it in monster voice. Like whatever you're you know, a little teeny tiny phrase you hear it like let's say it was I took a little and you're hearing I took a little and you're saying I took a little.
And you're just really trying to work that relaxation and if you are speaking from that body shape, I took a little I took a little. There's no way the placement's going to be too high and up in your nose but it's going to take a while to establish knowing that body shape. What do you think? Monster voice. Is this something you're going to use? Is it something you're going to try? Let me know in the comments below if you're experimenting with it right now. Here's the second student I worked with. Her native language is Polish. monster The ending. I want to be er. Okay. All right. Let me Let's just do the ending. I just want to hear the ending. er Uh-huh. Even shorter. er You know what? Here's
what I'm hearing. er And here's what I want. er So when I'm imitating you er I'm putting it there. And when I'm doing it a different way er It's very here. er [clears throat] Let's do monster voice like I did with Claudia. Okay. faster Okay, now we're going to try to lower the pitch with that. Okay, now we're going to take that feeling and we're going to just bring it into the ending. er That's better. Before it was very er and now it's more er Let me hear it again. er Uh-huh. Right. er Okay, so what do you what like what's happening in your throat when you do that? I can hear the sound coming from my like almost from my chest.
Yeah. Um my tongue is flat. Mhm. Like almost melted. Your tongue? Mhm. Uh-huh. Uh Yeah. I love this. You and Claudia are both giving me like cool new words to use and to think about it. Mellow and your tongue is melted. Uh [clears throat] Uh That's right. It's like we're not really engaging it very much. Okay, now thinking about all of those things plus your monster voice, let's try faster. Faster. Yeah, faster. Yes. That's a lot Mhm. less here. Faster. Yes. Faster. Okay, the other word is this word. Raider. Okay, yeah, this was just a mispronunciation. It's actually radar. R. Radar. Yes, exactly. If something's on your radar, that word is radar,
like car. I see. Yeah. Radar. Exactly. So, it was just that a mispronunciation that word. It wasn't that you're you knew the pronunciation and couldn't quite get it. Okay, then the last word I wanted to work on is this word. Um reduction. Yes. So, there were two reasons why I wanted to work on it. When you first said it, it was like re you know, just like what we're doing with faster. Er. Re reductions. R reduction. Mhm. Monster voice, right. Reduction. And then the other thing was your vowel was very uh re da Uh Let me just hear you monster voice that uh a little bit. Uh [panting and sighs] Uh [clears throat] Uh bring your pitch down even more. Uh Yes. Uh
Uh [clears throat] Okay, now feel that feeling. And now keep that feeling. Uh Hold on. Uh I think we let's try lowering the pitch. Uh Yes. Now from all the way down there, uh just hold it out. Uh Yes. Uh I love I'm seeing you think beforehand about the feeling. You're locking in the feeling before you're speaking and it's the right sound. Mhm. That's what we want to try to do. Uh Feel it in the body before we even start to phonate, before we even start talking. Obviously not all the time, but just when we're doing this focused work.
Reductions, that's a long word, so we're going to um we're just going to start by shortening it to the animal, duck. Okay, hold on. That was a little bit duck. Do you hear a difference when I say it like that? Yes. Duck. Duck. Yes, keep playing with it. Duck. Okay, I really like what I'm hearing. To me, it sounds like you're saying duck and dog. You know, it which makes sense cuz when the aw vowel isn't placed low enough, it sounds more like the aw vowel like in dog. Uh duck. Yes. Very different from dock.
Yes. Yeah. So, that right there dock versus duck. That change in body position is like the one overall overarching thing that if you could do that all the time and somehow get all the speech to fit into that, it would change everything. I mean, already you've changed so much. Um like I said, when I was listening to your two recordings, I was like the placement improved. The linking is now perfect. Um and then plus all of these little things, but there is sometimes still the duck kind of feeling in it. Mhm. And we can take that out. And just like I said with Claudia, sometimes we're going to think specifically about placement like we just did. Duck.
Duck. Other times you're really focused on a reduction. And by getting the reduction right, you're automatically having to change that cuz you can't really make the reduction Right. in that high way. Oh, when you just said right, that placement was so good. So, I think keep approaching it from these many different ways. It sounds very good. And I think, you know, maybe do play around just like I said to Claudia, this is going to be my new thing. Do play around with that monster voice because it does sort of open up a new shape of the body. Mhm. Which is so which impacts the overall sound so positively. Yeah, I'll do that. If you want to join Claudia or Mon in my Academy, please check out rachelsenglishacademy.com.
I would love to have you as a student. You can also keep your learning going now with this video and don't forget to subscribe with notifications on. I absolutely love being your English teacher. That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
