American English Club

Life is Short, Live It.
Love is Rare, Grab It.
Anger is Bad, Dump It.
Fear is Awful, Face It.
Memories are Sweet, Cherish It.

Improving your English pronunciation
Here are some tips to help you improve your English pronunciation.
First of all, don't worry about not having a native-English accent. It's important to be able to speak clearly, so that people can understand you. However, it's almost impossible to sound exactly like a native English speaker if you are learning English as an adult in a non-English speaking country.
However, there are many things that you can do to improve your pronunciation and your speaking skills.
1. Listen to spoken English as often as possible.
Listen to how speakers pronounce various words and phrases and "model" your pronunciation on what you hear.
2. Learn the phonetic alphabet.
Use the phonetic alphabet page (at the beginning of most good dictionaries) as a guide to pronouncing new words.
3. Don't forget to learn the word stress of a new word.
Every English word has its own stress, or intonation. For example, the word "believe" has two syllables (be and lieve), but only the second syllable is stressed. We say be'lieve and not 'be lieve. Your dictionary will show the syllable stress by an apostrophe (') before the syllable to be stressed.
Word stress is important. In fact, it is more likely that someone misunderstands you because of wrong word stress than because of the wrong pronunciation of a sound.
4. Work out which sounds cause you most problems in English.
Depending on what your first language is, you may have problems with certain sounds. For example, French speakers have difficulties with "th"; speakers of Mandarin have difficulties with "r" or "l", and Arabic speakers have difficulties with "p" and "b".
5. Practise the sounds you find difficult.
A useful exercise is a "minimal pair" exercise. For example, if you have difficulty distinguishing between "p" and "b", try practising pairs of words which are the same except for the sound "p" and "b":
For example, "pair" and "bear"; "pond" and "bond"; "pie" and "buy" etc.
6. Be aware of intonation and sentence stress.
Not all words in a sentence have equal stress, and generally only the "information" words (nouns and verbs) are stressed.
'Where's the 'pen I 'gave you?
'Where's the 'red 'pen I 'gave you?
Where's the 'red and 'blue 'pen I 'gave you 'yesterday?
The unstressed words (such as "the", "I", "you" and "and") don't carry as much "weight" as the stressed words. They become much smaller in length, and are almost abbreviated. For example, "and" becomes "un".
Changing stress
Sentence stress isn't "fixed" like word stress. In fact, you can stress words that are normally unstressed in order to highlight different meanings.
For example:
I 'love you. (Love, rather than just like.)
'I love you. (With the stress on I to highlight that it's me rather than another person who loves you.)
I love 'you. (And nobody else.)

Common Idioms:

A Chip On Your Shoulder:
Being upset for something that happened in the past.

A Piece of Cake:
A task that can be accomplished very easily.

Back To The Drawing Board:
When an attempt fails and it’s time to start all over.

Bite Off More Than You Can Chew:
To take on a task that is way to big.

Down To The Wire:
Something that ends at the last minute or last few seconds.

Go The Extra Mile:
Going above and beyond whatever is required for the task at hand.

Hit The Nail on the Head:
Do something exactly right or say something exactly right.

Mumbo Jumbo:
Nonsense or meaningless speech

Out Of The Blue:
Something that suddenly and unexpectedly occurs.

Stressed and unstressed words when Speaking English

Not every word in a sentence is stressed in English. We tend to stress “information” words, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Grammatical words, like prepositions, auxiliaries and articles tend not to be stressed.

This means that it can be hard to hear grammatical words in a sentence, as they become shortened.

In the following sentence, all the words are stressed:
I drive an automobile.
In the following sentence (which lasts the same length of time) the word “can” is not usually stressed:
I can can drive an automobile.
The “can” is shortened to fit into the space between I and play, and so it sounds more like “kun”.
In the following sentence (which lasts the same length of time as the first and second sentences) the words “can” and “the” are not stressed:
I can play the piano.
“The” is shortened to fit into the space, and sounds more like “th”.

Want to find out on Facebook stalks you the most?
1. Go on to your page
2. Right –click anywhere
3. Click “View Page Source”
4. Press “Ctrl+f”. Type “initialchatfriendslist”.
5. Copy the first the first long number (something like 10004394245). Dont copy numbers after (-)
6. Paste the number after your Facebook address
7. Press enter/go and you will see your biggest stalker’s profile!

Party idioms

People who love parties
The life and soul of the party = the person who's at the centre of all parties!
She's the life and soul of the party.
let your hair down = forget all your inhibitions: "Go on! Let your hair down for once and have a good time."
have a whale of a time = have a great time: "We had a whale of a time at Sonia's birthday."
a party animal = a person who loves going to parties: "John is a real party animal. He's never at home."
a wild child = a young adult who goes to lots of parties: "Emma is a bit of a wild child."
a social butterfly = a person with lots of friends and acquaintances: She's a bit of a social butterfly."
throw a party = have a party: "We're throwing a party next Saturday."

People who hate parties
party-pooper = someone who doesn't like parties: "Don't be such a party-pooper!"

Dancing
a slow dance = a slow, romantic dance: "She had a slow dance with Tony."
burn up the dance floor = dance a lot: "They like burning up the dance floor."
dance the night away = dance all night long: "Those two danced the night away."
dance cheek to cheek = dance very close to someone: "Everyone was looking at them dance cheek to cheek."
put on your dancing shoes = get ready for dancing: "Come on Sarah! Put on your dancing shoes – we're going clubbing tonight!"

strut your stuff = enjoy dancing: "Look at him strut his stuff.

The Secret Tool for Memorizing New Vocabulary

Do you ever learn a new word in English and then a few minutes later you find that you’ve already forgotten it? Don’t let it get you down (disappoint you); everyone experiences this when learning a new language.

The Secret Vocabulary Memorizing Tool is a way for studying that makes remembering things easier. It is more efficient than other ways of studying, so you can decrease the amount of time you spend studying and increase the amount that you learn. It makes learning vocabulary easier, more fun, and more intuitive. –
This is an awesome language-learning tool. It is quick, easy, and effective. You are forced to memorize new vocabulary every day and you have to review about twice a week. You are guaranteed to learn and memorize vocabulary easier by using this method.

You only have to commit a few minutes a day. You can study on the bus, in line at the bank, or while on your coffee break at work—any free moment is a chance to better your English.
Now you have no excuse not to build your vocabulary. Make English part of your daily life now!

Contact us at 0903313452 for more information.

Listening - it's one of the biggest problems for English learners.

Many students say to me, "I can read... I can write... I know grammar... but when I listen to native speakers, I can't understand them!"

It's possible for you to:
• read well
• have good grammar & vocabulary skills
• be able to speak and write
..but when you listen to spoken English, you don't understand everything.

So why is listening so difficult?
There are three main reasons:

#1 - The written form of English words is very different from their pronunciation.
There are many silent letters, like in the words comb, sign, knock, half, muscle, guard, and wrist.

And many letter combinations can have completely different pronunciations. Here are FIVE different ways to pronounce "ough":
• Like the O in NO: although
• Like the AW in SAW: bought
• Like the UFF in STUFF: enough
• Like the word OFF: cough
• Like the OO in TOO: through
This means that if you normally study English with your EYES (reading), you often won't recognize words when you hear them with your EARS (listening).

#2 - Native speakers talk fast and "connect" words together
In some audio samples for English listening practice, they pronounce each word slowly and carefully - but in real life, native speakers don't do this.

Instead, we "connect" words so that two or more words sound like one! "I'm going to have to call you back later."
sounds like this: I'm gonna-af tacallya back later.
"Could you let me know if you're coming to the party?"
sounds like this: Couldja lemmenoif yercomin atheparty?
This means that listening to "slow English" audio is helpful... but it is NOT enough. To be fluent in English, you MUST get used to hearing fast spoken English.

#3 - Lack of opportunity to practice listening
If you live in an English-speaking country, you can hear English all day, every day - but if you don't, then it's hard to practice your listening in a way that helps you improve.

Some people say you should simply "listen more" - and some English teachers even claim that you can learn English completely naturally just by listening. So get your native English speaker to speak more English.

Contact us at 0903313452 for more information on how we can help you improve your listening skill

Secrets to pronouncing like a native english speaker

Secret #1: LEARN ABOUT WORD STRESS

Word Stress is golden key number one for speaking and
understanding English. Word Stress is *very important*.
You can try to learn about Word Stress. This is one of
the *best* ways for you to understand spoken English -
especially English spoken fast.

What is Word Stress?

Take these 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic,
for example. Do they sound the same when spoken? No!
They sound different, because *one* syllable in each
word is "stressed" (stronger than the others).

PHOtograph

phoTOgrapher

photoGRAPHic

This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables:
TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting,
imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera

The syllables that are not stressed are 'weak' or
'small' or 'quiet'. Native speakers of English listen
for the stressed syllables, not the weak syllables. If
you use Word Stress in your speech, you will instantly
and automatically improve your pronunciation and
your comprehension.

If you have an English teacher, ask her to help you
understand Word Stress. Try to hear the stress in words
each time you listen to English - on the radio, or in
films for example. Your first step is to *hear* and
recognise it. After that, you can *use* it!

Tips to Improve Your Spoken English
Spoken English Tip #1:
Learn phrases/idioms, not just individual words
Learn phrases to help you speak naturally.
If you focus on learning phrases instead, then you will have ready answers and responses for any situation – no need to over-think. Focusing on phrases and idioms will help you speak English in complete sentences more naturally.

Spoken English Tip #2: Listen to more English
Listening to more English will improve your speaking
Most English learners read too much and listen too little.
But when babies and children learn English, they listen first – then speak – and later learn to read and write. Listening more will also help you naturally improve your pronunciation and reduce your accent.

Spoken English Tip #3: Remember that communication is more important than grammar
Don’t worry too much about grammar when speaking
Do you get nervous when speaking because you’re afraid of making a mistake?
Remember that the #1 goal of speaking English is to communicate. Although grammar is important, it is less important than communication when speaking English.
Here’s a simple example – if you say:
“Yesterday I go to party on beach.”
The sentence isn’t grammatically correct, but it DOES successfully communicate your message, and an English speaker will understand you. It’s better to say something “wrong” and still communicate successfully than to say nothing!
Also, the grammar of spoken English is more flexible than the grammar of written English – so don’t worry too much about grammar when speaking.

Spoken English Tip #4:
Relax & have a positive, confident attitude
If you make a mistake or forget a word when you are speaking English – it’s OK! Don’t be nervous or afraid.
The person who you’re talking to will understand and be patient with you. If you are insecure when speaking English, it will be even more difficult to speak.
Relax & think positive!
So DON’T say “My English is terrible” or “Sorry for my bad English.” These are negative comments and they’re not helpful.
Instead, think “I can speak English!” before every conversation in order to give yourself more confidence and help you speak better!

Contact us @0903313452 for more information

Have fun and good luck.

Today's pronounciation tip is pay attention to the "music" of English.

What's the "music" of English?

It is the rhythm of stress ("strong" syllables) in words and sentences.

You probably already know that individual English words have a strong syllable:
• ENGlish - stress on the first syllable
• imPROVE - stress on the second syllable
• pronunciAtion - stress on the fourth syllable
If you get the word stress wrong, the word can sound completely different and the other person might not understand you! This is why it's very important to use correct stress.

Also, for some English words, their meaning changes when the stress is different:
• OBject (noun) = a thing, an item
• obJECT (verb) = to disagree, to speak up against an idea
Now... did you know that complete sentences ALSO have stress?

We don’t say each word in the sentence equally, like a robot!

Consider this sentence:
• “Last SATURDAY, I WENT to a PARTY on the BEACH with my FRIENDS.“
When spoken naturally, the stress is on the words Saturday, went, party, beach, & friends.

At the American English pronounciation’s course, we teach you how to identify the strong syllables and words - with lots and lots of practice exercises.