00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast.
Hello.
Hey guys, how's it going?
So, I'm going to read a message from Futa-san.
Alright.
ケビンさん、ヤマちゃん、こんにちは。
こんにちは。
いつも子育てや家事の合間に楽しく聞かせていただいています。
Thank you.
私は最近オンライン英語を始めて、英語を話す機会が以前より多くなりました。
レッスンの内容を録音し、後で聞き返してみると、
自分の話す英語の抑揚があまりないことに気がつきました。
自分ではイントネーションに気をつけて話しているつもりですが、
いざ録音を聞いてみると、すごく平坦に聞こえます。
そこで強弱をつけることを目標に話してみると、
機能語、全知詞や漢詞などを弱く読むことは分かるのですが、
それ以外の内容語、名詞や動詞などについては、
どこを強く読み、どこを弱く読むのかがさっぱり分かりません。
大事な情報は強く読むと一般的によく言われていると思うのですが、
私からするとすべてが大事な語句に感じてしまい、
機能語以外をすべて強調して読んでしまうので、
話していると自分でもこれはおかしいなと笑ってしまいます。
大事な情報ってそもそも何なんでしょうか?
英語を話す時にうまく抑揚をつけるコツなどありますか?
山ちゃんは英語を話す時、
この語句は大事だから強く読もうなど、
一々考えて話をされていますか?
もし何かアドバイスなどあれば教えていただけると嬉しいです。
これからもますます暑さが厳しくなってくると思いますが、
体調に気をつけてお過ごしください。
機能語や内容語に気を使っていると。
内容語が大事で機能語は大事じゃない。
Like two, four, four...
例えば like...
I ate a bunch of pizza yesterday.
like I ate a bunch of pizza yesterday.
03:00
So I ate a... is 機能語.
bunch of pizza is...
So, I is 内容語。
ate 内容語。
I think a bunch of... is 機能語。
And pizza is 内容語。
Oh, I see.
Yeah. So, so he or she says, there are so manynaiyogo. So if she puts like emphasis on every
naiyogo, that's, that sounds very unnatural. Isee. So, and I, so to me, I've never thought
this way, like naiyogo and kinobo, but the thingis, um, I think it's very similar when we speak
Japanese, but it's like that. When you want to saythat, it's like, it's, it's the sushi that
you want to say, right? So it's, it's like that.So you put emphasis on the sushi? Yeah, I atesushi.
Yeah, I ate sushi yesterday. Not like, but if youwant to emphasize yesterday,
that was yesterday. I ate sushi yesterday. So, soit's, it's not like kinobo or naiyogo,
but it's just, uh, the, what do you want to likeemphasize? I mean, it's, it's very, um, yeah.
Yeah. I saw a very similar content, um, aboutlike, there's a sentence,
uh, I never said she wanted to go home. Okay. Soif you put the emphasis on, I never said she
wanted to go home, I never said she wanted to gohome. I never said she wanted to go home. I never
said she wanted to go home. Oh, nice. Nice. Yeah.Those are all emphasis on different places. They
all mean the different, all mean a different, um,mean. So right where you put an emphasis
makes up what you're trying to say. Yeah. Nice.Yeah. So I think that's the, the only,
like a timing that you put weight on. And otherthan that, what you don't, you don't have to put
any, like, you just say, you just say, I just say,I just say sushi yesterday. Okay. You don't have
to like, I ate. It's just nothing but sushi. Okay.I half understand what this asker is saying.
I did a little bit of a little bit of my life as ateacher. Oh yes. And then the students,
sometimes they were, they didn't have any. Solike, let's say you give me an English teacher
for me. Just ask me like a simple Englishquestion. Like, what did you do yesterday?
Give me like a random question. Okay. What did youdo yesterday? I went to cafe, uh,
to study. Ah, I see. Okay. I can understand thatbeing like no Yoyoku.
06:07
And like, how, where do I start with the Yokuyo? Isee. True. But the thing is that you want to say
that you went to cafe cafe, right? Yeah. So Ithink that's the point where you should put
the weight on. Yeah. That's true. If you're notspeaking in, in like certain speed,
that's difficult. If you, if you thinking and,and, and saying words by word, it's difficult
to make flows. I agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah. To,to, in order for the emphasis to work out,
it needs a certain speed and flow and I get aseamlessness. Yeah. Yeah. Right. You,
you need to know the phrase before you startsaying that phrase. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Yeah.
I agree. Yeah. Right. Versus like, but you canstill think at the same time and still have an
essence. For example, it's like, so ask me again,what did you do this week? Yeah. What did you do
yesterday? I went to a cafe yesterday to study.Yeah. Like that had, I think that had emphasis,
but still I was thinking throughout the wholesentence. So it didn't have that much of a,
like a seamlessness. Right. Yeah. How does thatwork out? Like, how did I do that? Like,
so by hearing what you said, what you did forboth, both cases, I felt the second one,
I still feel the connections between words. Okay.Like the, I would say like rhythm in, in,
in a phrase. Ah, okay. Okay. You're saying there'srhythm within a phrase? Within a phrase. Okay.
Like I, so the first one was like, I finished,went to finished at cafe. But the other one,
the second one was like, I went to finish. That'strue. That's true. So that makes it more
like it sounds natural. Maybe it's still seamless.It was still seamless compared to the first one.
Yeah. Yeah. It's you didn't like, like fullystopped. Yeah. The engine was still on. Yeah.
The phrase was like alive. That's that makessense. Yeah. Yeah.
Is it difficult for you to understand if I speakwithout any of those?
09:00
Well, I guess that'll be a little bit difficult.Okay. I can understand it. Yeah. But it's better.
It's much more easier to understand if there'syokuyo. If I speak like this, there's no yokuyo
that's more difficult to understand. Yeah. I gotit. Like I have to concentrate a little bit more
because with the yokuyo, like I can tell whereit's important. So it's like, I know where tofocus.
So, right. That's, that's, as I speak like this,you have to concentrate and like,
see what, where is the important thing. And yeah,I have to look at everything like evenly.
That's difficult for me too, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah.Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I see. So that's
the thing, like important words should beweighted. Yeah. I guess so. But I guess right.
To people, I guess that advice isn't that helpful.
But like, you know, so for example, I'm going tosay, I'm going to tell a story about my niece.
Right. So yesterday, my niece came and she gave methe asagao that she's planting for her school.
There was a lot of places that was yokuyo. Soyesterday my niece came to my house and she
gave me asagao that she wanted the school. Right.That was a lot of important, maybe unimportant
ones too. Like, so yeah, it's really difficult.Like yesterday, yes, it is important, but like,
how many important ones can you choose? Like ifyou, right. Like I chose four, there was four,
but like, how do you know that? That there's,there should be four. Why not five or six?
That's true. It's kind of difficult. That's adifficult question. But I think
conjunctions, it feels like a conjunction is oneof the key. Oh, you mean,
it should be weighted or. So like, let's say asimple sentence, I ate pizza. Right. And if I
were to add a conjunction, for example, I ate apizza that I bought yesterday. That I bought
yesterday is like the conjunctional phrase. Yeah.And that's a block. That's one block. So it's
like, I don't think that's going to interfere withanything else. So like a block has its own rhythm.
It's going to add on to the original one. And if Iwere to add another conjunctional phrase
that has that sort of like repeats the blockrhythm, the second with a slow second block.
And it's like, I feel, it feels like I'morganizing it like that.
12:03
So you're saying there's one important, there'salways one important word in a phrase,
you know, in a conjunctional. More like there's,you can, you can sort of
categorize a sentence into blocks. And then withthe blocks, you'll know that, I don't know what
it is, but like, you can sort of like, there's apattern that you can follow after you block,
after you categorize all these blocks. I see.Yeah. I guess that's one hint. Yeah. True. So if
it looks like a very long sentence, actually youcan cut into several groups. Yeah. Then you can
make it. And yeah. And from that, there's maybe arule that you can follow. Yeah. Yeah. That makes
sense. Yeah. I see. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But goodquestion though. Yeah. Good question. Yes.
Hmm. Have you ever struggled with those things?Like the same question in Japanese when you speak
Japanese? I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't thinkso. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever met somebody
who is learning Japanese and kind of being likethis? Yeah. To me it's like, I know some
foreign people learning Japanese and speaking withtheir own language and rhythm and, and, and,
and everything. Yeah. So let's say like Americanslearning Japanese and speaking Japanese, like,
like American English, just like konnichiwa. Ohyeah. So that's, I think the opposite problem,
I guess. Okay. Yeah. True. So, so that alwayshappens then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Yeah. I think Japanese doesn't have that much ofups and downs, I guess.
To speak like this is very Japanese, Japanese likeEnglish. And, uh, I think it's very
natural for Japanese people to speak like this.Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. You got that
Japanese yokio, right? That's true. SpeakingEnglish like Japanese, like Japanese language
as Japanese. This is how I do this. So, yeah.Okay. Right. Right. Right. You still understand
it. I still understand. It's okay. That's true.That's true. Plus I guess listening to it a lot,
you know, inputting a lot of patterns, I guessthat's important too. There's always going to be
like a set phrase that you can use. Right. Andthat's, that has a fixed yokio. So you couldalways
use that. Yeah. Just a teeny bit of advice, butyeah. All right. So thanks for sending guys.
