Resources: Notes on Life and Language in the United States

So you want to sound like a native English speaker and you have been trying to do this for years, right?

Do you want to sound like a native English speaker?

Do you sometimes have trouble figuring out if the person you are speaking with said "can" or "can't"?

Do you know what a Boston English accent sounds like? If you have recently moved to the United States to work or study English in Boston, maybe you are trying to improve your pronunciation and develop an American accent. But the Boston accent is a bit different from what you might consider a "typical" American accent. The most obvious sign of a local Boston accent is when someone drops the "R" sound. The famous saying "Park the car in the Harvard Yard" is pronounced with a Boston accent in this way: "Pahk the cah in the Hahvahd Yahd". If you have ever watched Good Will Hunting or other movies that are set in Boston, you have heard the Boston accent. However, because Boston is a world famous center for academia, medicine and technological innovation, which attracts an international population, you might not hear a thick Boston accent every day or in every part of Boston.

Welcome to today's American English pronunciation lesson! Does English pronunciation seem complicated to you? It might be difficult at first, but you can improve your pronunciation as well as your listening skills by learning with videos prepared by native English teachers like the one that we have today. In this video, I will talk about three words that look similar but are very different in meaning, they are "quit", "quiet" and "quite". Do you know how to pronounce each of these words correctly? Can you tell the difference between the words when you hear a native English speaker using them? If not, practice your American English pronunciation with this video. At the end of the video, don't forget to practice your pronunciation skills with our tongue twisters. Enjoy!

Today we have an English pronunciation lesson. This is our third lesson in the silent letters series. What's the difference in pronunciation between "hair", "heir" and "air"? How about "hour" and "our"? The best way to really understand English pronunciation is to practice as much as possible with native speakers. You can start by watching this video! After you have practiced your pronunciation skills using video lessons, it's a good idea to join an English meetup or another activity where you will get to practice in a casual environment. Another suggestion is to work with an English tutor once per week and practice with a meetup group twice per week. Enjoy the video!

Today we have a pronunciation English lesson on silent letters.  Unlike other languages, in English we don't always pronounce words in the same way that we spell them. For example, did you know that "climb" and "crime" end with the same sound? Do you know any other words which have a silent letter "B"? I can think of 3 others- "crumb" "dumb" and "comb". How do you remember which letters are silent in different words? First, you need to listen to English as much as possible. Try to create an English-only environment at home. Second, you need to speak as much as possible using the correct pronunciation. Third, in order to be sure that you are using the correct pronunciation, it might help to work with a qualified English tutor. Watch this video on silent letters to get started!