As you know, I live in France. We went into confinement on March 17. We got out* yesterday, May 11. Woohoo! I was sooooooo happy to see my coworkers again (from a distance of 6 feet, of course!)

But during my confinement, something amazing happened, thanks to you guys, the Speak English with Christina community.

That was EnglishFest: 110 live events, workouts* in English, journaling workshops, DIY videos, and even Zoom karaoke in English!

We came together, shared fun times, made new friends (despite social distancing*), we even sang and danced in English.

Together, we lived each day–a little–in English.

None of it was planned in advance, but we knew that we had to do something to lift your spirits, bring you together, and hopefully, find some joy in these crazy times.

Like I said, this situation has forced us all to think a bit differently…

So I want to ask you:

What would you like to see in the future, at Speak English with Christina?

If you imagine the PERFECT program for improving your English, what does it include?

Share your ideas with me in the comments below! I can’t wait to read them!!

Take care of yourself,
Christina

In English, the vowels “ea” together can have a lot of different pronunciations.
For example, it might sound like:

A bear
A beard
A seat
A break…

So here’s a first game for you.

How do you pronounce the word at the end of these sentences?

Watch the video lesson to listen to the correct answer.

Notice how ea in a tear (in your eyes when you cry) sounds the same as in a seat.

While the verb to tear (= to damage) rhymes with a bear.

You can’t trust the way words are written! You also need to train your hear to understand the sounds, even for everyday words.

That’s why you’ll also get pronunciation exercises in my Understand Real American English program.

Comprehension and pronunciation are two sides of the same coin!

— The extra mile —

To tear also rhymes with the verb to wear.

You can wear clothes, of course. But wear (the noun) also means “damage.”
Both the noun “wear” and the verb “to wear” rhyme with the verb “to tear.”

For example:

My car is in good condition, there’s only a little wear and tear. = some light damages that come from everyday use.

For our second game, let’s go all in!

Below (and in the video lesson), you’ll find a list of common words. You’re sure to hear and use them in real conversations. And you’ll definitely hear them in the lessons of Understand Real American English.

Remember, improving your pronunciation will also improve your listening comprehension: you’ll have a better ear for everything!

So here are the words. Can you pronounce them?

Say them out loud, before listening to their correct pronunciation in the video lesson!

1.Enough

2.Though

3.How

4.Low

5.Science

6.Stranger

7.Conscience

8.Anger

9.Tough

10.Through

11.A pipe

12.A recipe

13.A cough

Congratulations! You did it!

As you can see, there are a lot of different pronunciations for the group of letters “ough.” You can find more about that in my special lesson: Pronunciations of -ough in English.

How many words did you pronounce correctly?

If it’s more than 10, give yourself a gold star, yay!

Otherwise… Try it again! No shame in that! We learn by repeating and by doing!

When I arrived in France, I thought I knew a lot about the language…

But real life isn’t so easy! Usually, I would start having a conversation in French, with the words I knew well. But after a few minutes, the other person would always speak too fast for me!

The biggest problem was pronunciation. Either because I couldn’t understand… or because they couldn’t understand me.

It’s the same in American English. Understanding clean “movie-English” isn’t enough. Taking only written lessons isn’t enough. That’s why I created Understand Real American English: so that you can listen to real authentic conversations. And train your ear with my practical explanations and activities to test your listening skills. And then improve your own pronunciation too, with practical exercises based on authentic American pronunciation.

You can also start improving your pronunciation right now with my other lessons on the topic.

For example:

Thanks so much for improving your English with me, and I’ll see you in the next video!

Click the image to learn more