You CAN'T Sound American Until You Change THESE Settings

[@noor1111111]

You are a genius and extraordinary in teaching the English language. You deserve to have a statue made of you like the geniuses and scholars of the ancient Greeks. I am grateful for all this knowledge and experience

[@soupysoup931]

I trust the map and the process. You've provided all settings required to produce a perfect American accent center of gravity and how to hold it so you develop the skill and muscle memory to hold it naturally and effortlessly. Would love to see you sound Mexican in Spanish because you deserve it. Patiently waiting for the time you'll put out a Japanese accent mouth map because it'd be fun to know and you're the best accent expert in the world :) Really glad to see this first part and very excited for the 2nd part as well. This video covers everything you need to know to achieve a perfect American accent base. This is a matter of patience, rewatching the video as many times as needed to keep all details fresh in memory and practicing a lot every day and trying to play with different things and paying attention. Certainly a matter of "you practice when you practice" and when you're "out in about", you notice it sneak in on you slowly and don't even have to think about it, while also noticing the fruit of your labor. I'm thankful to have you make this and pass the torch to us so the dream comes true(if anybody else wished to sound American but couldn't find the secret sauce). I appreciate you spending months on end, figuring this out so you could put up an instruction video that encompasses everything in one place and gives you everything you need.

[@beavillanueva5690]

This Is What I've Been Waiting For, The Mouth Posture! 😭🤧 Thank You So Much Prof Josh 🤗💗 - Love from Philippines 🇵🇭💖

[@iiAbdullah635]

Most of what you said, i somewhat noticed by myself. Hinge is very close to what I called raising tension and lowering tention. Its kinda the opposite though. The more rasing tention the less hinge you have the more lowering tension you have the more hinge you have. It's kinda reversed. The core of tension is the middle of the tongue. Anyway, great video!

[@bayanmallasi9167]

You’re such a brilliant mind🤯!!Thank you so much for sharing this science with us. You do it in the simplest way possible and your lessons are so much fun to watch. I’m so glad I found this channel:) keep going😊

[@SeriousSam-wd4wj]

Thanks bud, you probably changed my life by this video

[@miguelsuarezlume.5806]

Thank you so much. I really appreciate this.

[@tinhlinh1]

Thank you so much for your valuable lesson.

[@fernandobotello1190]

Great as allways ǃ Thanks

[@deliohector]

Thank you so much for this video. Not to toot my own horn, but this vid sure confirms all my suspicions: The tongue retraction (which is a concept I got from the IDEA website when they were describing a California accent) and the hinge and anchor, which I've been experimenting with for some months now after noticing them in action in a MRI scan video. Your video provides confirmation and, more importantly, further details about these features of the mouth posture for a neutral American accent. What's more, if/when I sound 100% native, it'll def be thanks to you. You rock!🙏

[@johnconor5485]

Can you share the link to the website plz?

[@laura3619]

Thanks so much for this amazing lesson!👍👍

[@leilahenniche1580]

Hi Josh! I'm a native french speaker and find your content super helpful! However, I'm still confused about the concept of "Hinge", is it the gravity point where we're supposed to push down to create that little hammock?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

kzbin.infoXsvluTyyy3w?feature=share UH is the center of gravity.

[@mry9311]

Thank you so much for this incredible lesson! I've noticed that many learners tend to apply American English rules of tongue position and place of articulation etc... While their pronunciation may be accurate, there's still something about their voice and its resonance that gives them off . American English speakers seem to have a distinct and unique voice that resonates in a deep and wide manner, and it's quite challenging for non-native speakers to achieve that same effect. Could you please share some tips on that matter in the upcoming videos? 😅😁

[@deliohector]

THESE are the tips you're looking for (in this video and the ones to come). With a wide throat and a lot of space toward the back of the mouth you will get that resonance you're looking for. Trouble is, ppl tend to tense up their throat and the back of their tongue, which closes off the space in their oral and throat cavities, leading to a muffled/ pinched voice. Want the resonance of a neutral American accent? Open up your oral and throat cavities in the way Josh describes in the video.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

What Delio said 🙂 There are a couple of nuances past that, but if you get the posture right, everything else will almost guaranteed be taken of. Posture is the glue under the sounds, and to a large extent the voice and resonance, although these can be further tweaked independently, just as I can intentionally speak with a higher or lower voice but my posture doesn't break.

[@أحمدالدسوقي-ت9س]

Hi :) I hope you're fine. I pronounce the "st" cluster in the word "gist", which has the transcription /dʒɪst/, by keeping the tongue behind the bottom front teeth. Specifically, I transition from the /dʒ/ sound to the /ɪ/ sound by moving the tongue from the roof of the mouth to the back of the bottom teeth, then I generate the /st/ cluster without moving the tongue tip to the roof of the mouth, which means that I use the middle of the mouth to produce both of the /s/ and /t/ sounds. I do it that way because I feel it is more efficient and requires less tongue movement. In my case, the tongue will have two positions for the entire word: 1. the first position is for the /dʒ/ sound 2. the second position is for the /st/ cluster. I repeat the same tongue posture for the /st/ cluster regardless of its position in the word. what is your take on that?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Your tongue is too far forward and it's likely causing a lot of inefficiency. If your goal is to have a perfect or near perfect accent (which is possible but not required), then you have to change your posture, as well as places of articulation for certain sounds (posture in part dictates place of articulation, especially for sounds that are shared between languages). Our S is under the bump of the alveolar ridge and rhe T is on the bump. For J, it's around the same place (D is on the bump like T and ZH is slightly farther back like SH). So we have very little movement in the entire word, with the largest movement being going from J to IH and then back to roughly the same place we started. In fact, for almost all sounds, the tip of the tongue is roughly lined up with that bump. When we do a TH (among a couple other possible sounds), we stretch the front of the tongue (and only the front) forward.

[@ndddz23]

I am having trouble finding the right spot for the center of gravity, if you could count the tooth number it is at which tooth would it be around?

[@PeggyTharpe3]

Well said! Really great demo, clear and easy to follow. I love the center of gravity metaphor!

[@17JD]

Have a amazing new year Josh, Thank you too much for your effort in teaching ❤❤❤ You're the Best teacher 😊

[@johnconor5485]

I have just re-watched it and I have to say I am even more impressed by your work after rewatching it. Please do not stop making videos like this. People will eventually know how brilliantly your work is. I have a question. Are the fifth molars located fairly close to the middle front part of the tongue? For some people, can the hinge be set at the sixth or seventh molars, or does it have to be the fifth regardless? Or is it acceptable as long as the hinge is set against any molars from the fifth molars onward?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Just as it shows on the map, it's approximately the line between front and middle. The front of the middle should also be fine, but be careful that you're not pushing the whole tongue forward Going farther back for the hinge would completely break everything. You should be able to feel the 4th tooth when you close into T

[@johnconor5485]

@@NativeEnglishHacks I would love to get your thoughts on this concept kzbin.info/www/bejne/oF6VaJiMocppa6M Do you think we can incorporate this into what you teach in your vidoes?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Not sure if there's anything special here. I didn't watch more than a minute or two, but I talk about stuff like this in the main pronunciation and ear training course. Is there something specific that you're referring to?

[@johnconor5485]

@@NativeEnglishHacks so basically he is saying it is your middle.part of the tongue that moves forward backward etc to make vowel sounds. And I find it a little different from your teaching saying the middle part of the tongue doesn't really move. So I was wondering if I could have your thoughts on this.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Well, without watching the whole video, that sounds more or less like how the center of gravity works when making other sounds. It's a piece of the big picture. Contrary to what it seems many teachers say, American English is spoken from the middle of the mouth, not the back, though we could say the back half of the mouth overall. Regardless, it's rooted in (the back part of) the middle. It's like the foundation that you stand on and then you reach out from that point to create other sounds without ever fully leaving that foundation. If that's what this teacher is saying, he's 100% on the right track and this concept is already incorporated into the concept of mouth posture. I just haven't made any content about other sounds (which is the lesson I'm currently working on), so you haven't heard me talk about it yet. However, I think it's misleading and inaccurate to say that all the sounds are made using the middle of the tongue (which is what I understand he might be saying based on your description). He might be describing the same thing in a different way, in which case it's a matter of how it's being explained. I also assume he's a native unaware of mouth posture but has become aware of the underlying center of gravity and it probably feels to him like everything is happening from the middle, but I think it's much more accurate to describe it as everything moves around the middle and is bent toward it a bit (as do some researchers in the literature - and we came to this conclusion/description independently). If this teacher were aware of more subtleties of the center of gravity (for example, Russian also uses the middle, but it's more toward the front of the middle and just switching that in my mouth throws off my accent a bit), he'd probably chose a different way to describe it.

[@MarvinAnthony95]

Unbelievable channel! How do you hold your soft palate higher ? Do you have any trick ? I do not know how to take control of it.

[@Tob_JJJJ]

Ive rewatched this many time and im glad to say i understand everything except for one thing that i would appreciate getting clarification on: The sides of the middle of the tongue, do they have to slightly raised at all times or only when its touching the hinge?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

I go more into that in the phase 2A lesson, but it's at all times. It's a setting

[@allanmiranda1050]

Hi Josh. Sometimes beard sometimes no beard. Always good teacher🙌

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Lol. Thanks

[@johnconor5485]

How firmly and strongly or lightly do I need to touch the fifth molars with the sides of my tongue? Because when speaking, it sometimes requires extra effort to keep the hinges in place for certain words.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

It's unfortunately something that you have to discover for yourself. It's impossible to describe, though I gave it my best shot in the video (firm but light, not pushing into the teeth or holding extra tension). If you're having trouble on certain words, it's either the particular sound you're doing, the particular transition you're doing, or your brain is trying to shift back to your native placement because it's so used to doing things a certain way. All of those are common problems

[@IgorOlikh]

I'm trying to place the sides of my tongue on the fourth teeth, but if I do that, is there any space left in my mouth to move the tip of my tongue? It feels like there's very little space.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Remember that the middle sides are higher. You have to let the body (between the sides) relax and sink down. There's also the bit of downward tension in the back of the middle body to articulate the UH/center of gravity sound. Also remember that the front of the tongue sits low if it's not being used (like in UH) and should be below the line of the top of the bottom front teeth. Compared to the middle body, the front of the tongue (sides and body) are about even, but compared to the height of the middle sides, the front of the tongue just kinda hangs there. Note that the front sides do NOT lift. You can see this a bit better in the phase 2A main lesson maps. If you hold extra tension in the tongue, this will often naturally raise the tongue a bit higher and make it more likely that the middle body (and entire tongue) evens out with the height of the middle sides, which we don't want. It seems several languages use the /e/ sound (the start of the English EI diphthong) as the center of gravity, and this often seems to flatten the tongue, raise it to a higher setting, and/or add extra tension to it (in addition to a higher top of throat setting). But it all depends on your native language/dialect. Although less important, your jaw might also be a bit too closed. I feel TONS of space between where the tip/front of my tongue rests and the top of my mouth and the front is constantly moving through that space (in all directions) in speech (because most sounds use the front of the tongue)

[@IgorOlikh]

​@@NativeEnglishHacks thank you, Josh! I think that the tongue's tension is the cause of this 'no space' feeling in the front part of my mouth.

[@m.m4631]

How can i support you?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

At the moment, there's not much. I used to have a Patreon and KZbin memberships, but I had to step away from the channel for quite a while and removed them. I'm currently not as active as I was before, so I still don't have those options because it's not fair for people to support me monthly if I'm not making content on a regular basis. I definitely appreciate that you want to support me, though 🙂 Watching videos helps due to the ad revenue (which isn't much, but it's something). I also have books available on Amazon, though none of them are for pronunciation. At some point (though I have no idea when), I do plan to return to making content more often and will likely turn KZbin memberships back on. I have a lot going on right now, both personally and related to English in the background.

[@olga.a.k]

@@NativeEnglishHacks Ehm, actually, people may want to support you for the content you made BEFORE that those people are NOW consuming :)

[@eyefat89]

7:38 my tongue feels too pulled forward when i touch the 5th tooth for some reason. Is it ok to touch the 6th tooth?

[@eyefat89]

@@hardworkingperson873 thank you so much for the comment!

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

99% of what he said is correct. My guess is you're either holding your center of gravity too far forward and/or you're still pushing from the back or holding the middle too far forward. Remember phase 0 and how you can move different parts forward or backward without moving the whole tongue. I think that's likely the source of your problem, but the advice in the other comment is really great, too. 6th tooth is definitely too far back for the hinge

[@fayewu7505]

Great

[@AUSWQPCV]

I applied the tip in the hinge part, my tongue is bracing the 5th and 6th tooth, but is it normal for me to feel pressure/tension on the sides of my tongue the first time i do this? Also another question, the bump behind the bottom teeth, does my tongue rest on the bump or behind the bump and slightly above the floor of my mouth?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Remember, the hinge is mainly on the 4th tooth. I said "maybe 5th tooth" because sometimes I can feel is centered there a bit more, but the 6th tooth is way too far for the hinge. As for the pressure/tension in the sides, most likely, yes, but it's important to not overdo it. Let the sound quality guide you. If you listen to me doing UH and yours sounds like it has extra tension in it, your putting too much tension there OR somewhere else (the hard part is diagnosing the exact problem(s)). Regardless of what you feel, as long as you SOUND good (as verified by feedback), that's what really matters

[@johnconor5485]

Do the top sides of the tongue slightly touch the inside of the molars? Also some people say you can use the middle front part of the tongue intead of the blade for sounds like T,D and etc your thoughts please?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Excellent questions! For both points, yes, that's possible and are within the range of variation among natives. However, I recommend against both points. At the end of the day, sound is king, and if you sound right doing something different than what I describe, that's all that matters. I don't recommend trying to touch the inside of the molars because this might cause you to go too high overall and lose space do to the influence of your native posture. I don't recommend using the the middle of the front for T/D because 1) it makes it easier to flatten it too much and end up with what sounds like a dental T/D (replacement for the TH's in English) and 2) because it makes it more likely you won't fully get into the posture for the middle and back (which need to be maintained during the creation of these sounds).

[@johnconor5485]

@@NativeEnglishHacks Thank you so much

[@lalaland51]

This is 🎉so mind-blowing. But what’s hard to wrap my head around is that, you’re supposed to keep your tongue low and away from the teeth, but make sure that the sides of the tongue are high enough to touch the inside of your 4th tooth. 😂how can you do that ? And can I keep the sides of my tongue line up with all the inside teeth from the 4th tooth. 🦷 by that, I mean from the 4th tooth, you start have two teeth per each tooth. ? Thank you so much

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

That last part was a bit confusing, but you can touch all the teeth behind the 4th. As long as you touch the 4th with the right part of the tongue, it doesn't matter. The way you keep the tongue low is by only keeping the sides a bit higher, not the tongue body. And it's not the inside of the 4th tooth. It's the inside corner. The contact can be and often is very light. Hope that helps clarify things.

[@lalaland51]

@@NativeEnglishHacksthanks so much for ❤your effort to clarify my questions. So the whole tongue is low and backing, sinking to the jaw, but the sides of the tongue make contact with the 4th tooth, And the tip of tongue 👅 will touch the bump behind the teeth, by that do you mind the bump behind the front teeth or the bump of the bottom teeth. 😅

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

@lalabinh4446 top bump

[@classified99]

Hi Josh - I have a general question about the width of the tongue. As you explained, the tongue is down and relaxed. Would you say the body of the tongue feels "wide" in the mouth in American English (including the tip and blade), in contrast maybe to other variations where the shape of the tongue a little more narrow and pointier?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

I don't have a lot of comparative data on this, but I would say neither. If I had to choose one, I'd lean toward wider

[@classified99]

Thanks!

[@iiAbdullah635]

Can you move the soft palate without moving tongue?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

I lean toward yes, but I don't think there's much use for that. I do notice that the back of the tongue wants to tense slightly, though I can keep it in place, and the top of the throat might also want to tense up slightly. I actually realized while working on the next lesson that you can make an EE into a Y sound by simply adding tension to the soft palate and not changing anything else, though other things can and often do change, like the exact place of articulation being slightly farther back for Y. Note that I said, "adding tension," not "moving." Any small changes to the soft palate from default settings are always the result of certain sounds, which include a tongue movement or the tongue already being moved.

[@iiAbdullah635]

Soft palate, not pinching the sides in the throat, the back of the tongue. They are all feel connected to one another to me.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

As is natural. When I do an ER and it mostly takes over the center of gravity, the whole back area seems to shift slightly as more or less one unit to accommodate it. It may not be so important to try to fully separate them unless you're not getting the right result in your pronunciation. Breaking the pieces down are ultimately just a tool to help us get the desired outcome. If you're not getting that outcome and everything else is correct, then that should be where the problem is and you have to figure out how to better manipulate either the pieces or the whole unit

[@allo1579]

it is all good except I don't see any comments saying that it has helped anyone haha. Plus, kids somehow are able to learn how to speak like natives without ANY of these details

[@robertocardenas5006]

That beard looks good on you

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Thanks lol. I might have to get rid of it for the next video, though 😞

[@theingabo212]

0:44

[@Ter-jq3rr]

What the researchers are you referring to?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

I seem to have lost track of some of the papers, but here's a couple of the references: borissoff.wordpress.com/articulation-basis/ www.researchgate.net/publication/346789795_Teaching_Students_to_Pronounce_English_A_Motor_Skill_Approach_in_the_Classroom There's also this TedTalk, though the audio is really bad: kzbin.info/www/bejne/inXbd6WtoM57f9k

[@Ter-jq3rr]

​@@NativeEnglishHacks Lol, I was thinking of Borissoff's papers on this topic. It seems Bryan Gick is doing a lot of contemporary research on this.

[@Av-gw9bg]

Actually, I'm still struggling with making the corners of my lips relaxed. It makes my speech sounds like the color light blue if that makes sense. Some may describe it as sounding "muslim" weirdly.

[@iiAbdullah635]

I have a thought and i want you guys to tell me what you think about it. Actually, "dont pinch the sides" is incorrect or half correct. Amercans will pinch the sides the less breath they have. That can result into more tenesed sound. And yes that might explain "palate" sounding bit more flat or tenesed in that video.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Testing this myself, I can notice a very, very slight increase in tension in that area, but nowhere near what is needed for other languages (based on my current experience of languages that use it). When I try to match what Spanish does, it's a much bigger difference. I think what you're describing is merely a side-effect of less breath on the throat rather than any actual modification to the vocal tract settings. Remember, "setting" is the key word. There's always some degree of wiggle room, but the settings determine the range past which things start to break. Saying Americans pinch the side the less breath they have seems to me a very big overstatement that's not accurate. Also, no matter how much I play with it, I only see this having the tiniest effect of the word "palate" itself. The only thing I notice (which is minor and has nothing to do with the word itself) is that the word is less clear because it's not being pushed out on the breath as much (note this is after really trying to intentionally tone down the breath). That being said, I doubt the way I said it would stand out or be questioned by any native speakers (unless maybe it was pointed out the them specifically, but even then I doubt it), meaning that how I said it is 100% within range of normal speech and no settings are being broken. Even the amount of breath I used is within range, but (if anything) perhaps on the lower end. This discussion does make a good case for why these details are important, but I think it's more a case of either 1) interference of some kind based on your native language or 2) you having really good ears, perhaps in combination with your particular native language, that's allowing you to notice something that is actually there, but it's not significant or out of range

[@iiAbdullah635]

@NativeEnglishHacks umm, don't think so. This is the best explanation to such tenesed ah sound. You might've gotten used to it to the point that you don't hear it. But it's there not only you but almost every speaker of North American accent. Your last words will be tenesed because you're out of breath. If you record a long sentence that starts with a word and ends with the same word. Then you compare them. You should easily hear it. This is my hypothesis. Edit: it's actually the less breath you have, the less pinch you have.

[@iiAbdullah635]

Umm, a randomly remembered this comment. I think this can be related the idea of "having multiple mouth postures"

[@iiAbdullah635]

I'm trying to get my tongue to do the same shape as your tongue in the picture it feels impossible. I just realized that my tongue can't get lower and as flat as your tongue especially the front part of the tongue. It feels almost physically impossible.

[@iiAbdullah635]

Did mention that the back of my tongue kinda hurts when I try. My body just tells cut it off.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

I think the necessity of the image might be causing a little confusion. Keep in mind that the line you see is the body of tongue while the sides are lifted to the hinge (line not drawn). I'm not sure what you mean by "flat", but I assume it's this misunderstanding

[@iiAbdullah635]

When get to hinge point my tongue is upper than the front which matches how many people describe the schwa.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

The throat needs to lower and relax to make room for the back of the tongue

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

"Upper than front teeth"? And which part of the tongue?

[@أحمدالدسوقي-ت9س]

Hi Josh. In the word the word ''synthetic", is it correct to produce the /N/ sound by pressing the tongue against the top front teeth and then producing the /TH/ sound? I do it that way because it is easier.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

If fully enunciating, N is normal and slides into normal TH. Much more commonly, you can use a Dental N and then release it with a dental T. Though unlikely, because the Dental N doesn’t really sound any different to us than a normal N, you can do dental N to normal TH and it will sound perfectly fine

[@أحمدالدسوقي-ت9س]

I love you man and you are really the most organized, rigorous and comprehensive channel on KZbin. Thanks to you, I now integrated the dental N, T and D into my speech which made my speech more smooth. Also, I now know about the strong and weak versions of the consonant sounds which made me put less energy into pronunciation and hence it became more fun. I can keep writing about how much I got advanced thanks to you but words aren't enough. Thank you man and I wish you all happiness and peace. @@NativeEnglishHacks

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

@user-td3fb4rm5d Aw, thanks 😊 So glad to hear my content has helped you that much. That's my goal 😀