Tuesday, April 19, 2016

How to Tune your English Speaking

Haven't you ever noticed that your voice or the way you speak always sounds different when you listened to a recording of it? Whenever we speak, our focus is more on thinking about what to say and not really on other things. When you record your English speaking practice, it gives you the opportunity to only focus on listening to what you say and how you say it. You may even notice some mistakes that you never even realized you were making. You can also determine if the way you speak is clear or not. Once you have listened to your recorded speaking, go back and try again and try to make some improvements and repeat this process as often as needed until you sound how you want to sound. 

Take this a step further by watching a movie with a conversation in English in it. Listen to how the actors say things and pay attention to their facial expressions and intonation. After that, take your camera and record a video of yourself copying the actors and see if you can bring it all together. This may be really fun to do with your friends as well.

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By watching movies or TV series in English, you get to see English in action which is much better than just thinking of random phrases or vocabulary to practice. If you want to really see this, try to find a place known for having foreign customers like cafes. If you are in the Bandung area, Bamboo Shack located on Dago street is the perfect place. There you can really see and hear English in action. Don't just be a spectator though, try to engage them in conversation and see how well you do.

#nativespeaker #englishpractice #speakenglish #funlearning #ciacivipenglish

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Speak More and Believe More!

Ryan Abraham - Owner of CIACI VIP ENGLISH

I know, I know that improved English fluency seems to be a nearly impossible task, but please do hang in there and it will all be worth it for sure. Keep in mind that this is a game of endurance and only the strongest survive, so make yourself even stronger. In order to build your English speaking muscles, you certainly need to exercise them. Slow but steady is the key when going from passive English skills to better speaking skills. The more time you spend exercising and practicing, the more muscle memory you are going to have. Your mouth will start to feel more and more comfortable pronouncing English words and your facial expressions and body language will start to be more on cue whenever expressing yourself due to less brain time being used to figure things out. So, let's get those muscles working. 




Warning, it's going to get hot in here. 
Remember to do all the exercises out loud so that you get practice actually saying the words and sentences in a normal voice with normal expression!

Set 1 
Look at your body, what you are wearing, and anything around you and challenge yourself to describe everything you see in complete sentences. For example, " I have two very strong arms" or " I see a rather large clock hanging on the living room wall". Try to make your sentences as descriptive and complex as you can just so you can get out of your comfort zone. In this case, feeling uncomfortable is good because it means you trying something new and challenging.

Set 2
Jump into that time machine you have laying around and practice going back in time. Think about every single activity you did yesterday, person you met, things you saw, feelings you had, and etc. As you recall it, recite it! Practice talking about the past and again try to make your sentences as complex as possible. Now, let's mix things up. Practice going from positive structure to negative structure and then question structure. For example, "I met a very tall and beautiful woman at the big grocery store around the corner yesterday" . "I didn't meet a very tall and beautiful woman at the big grocery store around the corner yesterday". "Did I meet a very tall and beautiful woman at the big grocery store yesterday"? 

Set 3
Think of something that you absolutely know how to do well. Now, picture yourself training someone else on how to do it. Practice using words such as first, second, next, after that, and so on. Talking about things we know how to do and love to do is pretty important especially as we meet new and interesting people. Practicing giving instructions is very useful which goes without saying when giving directions on how to get somewhere. Again be as descriptive as possible when doing this.

Take a 20 minute break

Set 4
Plan your next day out loud including activities, goals, and times. For example, "Tomorrow, I will go to school at six o'clock in the morning". "I will have lunch around noon". "After having lunch, I will have English class with that really super exciting and interesting English teacher, Mr. Ryan at one in the afternoon". :) Try to come up with at least 20 future plans for tomorrow.

Set 5
Take a look outside or simply turn on the television and say whatever it is that you see people doing. For example, "There is a man walking down the street". There is a woman walking up the street". "There is a weird looking guy standing on the corner next to some trash". Now focus on things and not people. For example, "There is a dirty cat eating rotten fish across the street".

Set 6
Pretend you are somewhere else like an airport or on a bus, and have a conversation with another person. Try to make the conversation as natural as possible and really put yourself in character here. Ask the person questions and ask follow up questions too. Remember that this is not an interrogation but in fact a conversation. Make it light and interesting. Throw in some small talk to start it up. 

If you want to practice some new expressions or questions, please download  Speak Like Me list 1

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