Transcript of BEP S2/E6 Pt. 1 Transcript

Charlie:
Hello, how are you? I hope you're doing well. My name's Charlie and this is the British English podcast, the show that focuses on British culture and British English to help you acclimatise to the wonderfully weird British people and the language that they speak. Now, I'm allowed to say weird because I'm British, too. Currently, I live in Australia, but I have been living in a variety of different places in the last 10 or so years but the whole of my childhood and my young adulthood. I was brought up in the UK and both of my parents identify predominantly as British, although my dad is half Australian. It depends on the situation and the day whether he feels he is British or he is Australian. I think he would argue that he's Australian, but everyone else would think that he's British because he sounds very British. But yeah, I'm British and that's why I feel like I can say that we're a bit weird because to other cultures we're a bit different. Now, there's not just one culture in the UK, there's many and it's my job or I feel like it's my job. I've given myself the job title, let's say, of exampling different cultures around the UK for you to better understand all of them. And this episode is going to be focussing exactly on that. So for this episode, I have Emma from Pronunciation with Emma on the show, and instead of focussing on a formal structure of 10 ways to pronounce this or five things you need to do to be a better English speaker, we take you on a journey, a journey through an authentic conversation, getting to know the real Emma.

Charlie:
And I don't think this class is as a spoiler, but she really is a wonderful teacher who makes excellent pronunciation content online, especially on YouTube, and Twitch. Emma is British, but not from where I'm from. So we have different accents, which is incredibly important for you. As the English you'll hear if you come to the UK is insanely varied. And so I feel like it's my job to prepare you for that. Yes, you might want and might need an accent that you can easily understand early on in your language learning journey. But as you progress, I highly recommend that you keep exposing yourself to more accents and dialects, which you as a non-native might not be exposed to as much. So I highly recommend that you keep exposing yourself to more accents and dialects, which you could view as exhausting. But I like to think of it as exciting. You know, you're learning a language that has so many rabbit holes that you can take a deep dive into and learn a ton more about. So when you feel like you might have learn all there is to learn about English, you've got so much more awaiting you that will excite you, that will make you fascinated by this language and the cultures that surround it. So let's get into the conversation with Emma and we'll start by explaining where she's from and go on to learn more about that part of the UK. So sit back, relax and unwind with pronunciation with Emma.

Charlie:
This episode comes with a free worksheet over on the website, the British English podcast, dot com. So grab that and you can listen along whilst using it.

Charlie:
So, Emma, thank you very much for being on the show. How are you?

Emma:
Thank you for inviting me. I'm very well, thank you. How are you?

Charlie:
I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, it's it's become quite a consistent kind of thing where I'm doing it in my evening and the people I'm speaking to in Europe are just waking up. So I imagine it's fairly early doors for your concentration levels. Do you feel like you've you've woken up properly enough yet?

Emma:
Oh, yeah. I had a big cup of coffee. And actually, you know, this is something that always gets my students attention are my mugs. And this one, I don't know if you can see it's actually a Yorkshire themed mug.

Charlie:
Oh wow

Emma:
It says, can you read it? I don't know if you can.

Charlie:
Yeah, it says God's own county.

Emma:
God's own county, yep.

Charlie:
Oh, that was lovely pronunciation. Yeah, can you say it one more time,

Emma:
God's own country.

Charlie:
Sorry is it county?

Emma:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's County County. Yeah. God's own County.

Charlie:
Ok. Yeah. So that's I mean that introduces a part of the reason why I wanted to bring you on. So you are from Yorkshire would you say.

Emma:
I am. Yes, I'm from York originally. And then when I was about eight years old we moved to East Yorkshire. So for people who don't know the geography of Yorkshire, don't worry. But York is in North Yorkshire. And I moved to a small town. Yeah, when I was about eight years old, very small, kind of like closed off. Very, very different to York. Very, very different. I won't say the name of the town because quite honestly, I'm embarrassed by it,

Charlie:
wow

Emma:
and it's very small. Yeah. I really, I really, really didn't like the town. You know, I can remember like the first day I moved there, like I was bullied, like on my first day of school, like I was literally bullied every single day.

Charlie:
Oh god.

Emma:
So yeah. Yeah. Let's just start this off as like a therapy session shall we Charlie.

Charlie:
Yeah

Emma:
So when I was eight. I'm joking. But yeah I, I'm really not a fan, but it's in East Yorkshire. That's all people have to know.

Charlie:
Yeah. OK, so was it kind of bullying because you were not from where they were from, like because of a different accent.

Emma:
Slightly, yeah. This is interesting because when I moved there, I mean right now my, my accent isn't like a strong Yorkshire accent, but when I moved there, I can still remember being called posh. And I always found that a little bit weird because it's like, well, I'm from York. Like I'm only like I'm only twenty minutes. I'm only from twenty minutes down the road. Like it's really not that much of a difference. But apparently I used to say no in a very posh way because in this specific town they would say no, no. So because I didn't say no, they instantly labelled me as, oh, you're the the posh girl. Yeah. So yeah, from day one it was, you know, difficult. I had to actually change my accent to try and fit in. So you could say that from a young age, I've always been interested in accents, whether I liked it or not, I had to kind of accommodate and fit in. And of course, as a kid, you don't want to stick out like you want to fit in. So, yeah, I remember trying to change my accent and yeah, my mum kind of being like, what are you doing? I was like well people say I'm posh. She's like, what, you're from Yorkshire. What are you talking about? You can't be posh, you know, it was it was quite funny actually. But yeah, I always tell people it's a bit of an oxymoron, like telling someone you're like a posh Yorkshire person. But umm yeah

Charlie:
I suppose it's all relative, isn't it.

Emma:
Yeah, exactly.

Charlie:
Now, as I've been letting this is part of the academy and the academy is where I give you part two and part three of this episode with transcripts as well, I also give you exclusive videos breaking down the language used and giving you real life examples of how to use it. I give you pronunciation practice audios, questions to help you retain the information you are learning within these episodes and many more things. As one Academy student said, it's like I've created a whole world of online learning in the academy. So if you feel like you want to get more from these episodes, then head over to the website and check out the sample stuff available for the Academy for free to get a taste of what it's all about. I personally think it will blow your socks off, meaning it will really surprise you and hopefully in a good way. Although I do want to say, if all your wanting out of this is the extended podcast episodes with transcripts, then I have created the premium podcast as that is. Well, it's cheap as chips, really, but you get the full length of the show and the oh so useful transcripts. So we've got the free podcast, the premium podcast and the academy. There we go.

Emma:
I think that's probably how I got into pronunciation and, you know, from from that very first thing, you know, that first moment of being bullied has led up to this moment.

Charlie:
Well, I will have mentioned in the introduction, but yes. So Emma does a YouTube channel called Pronunciation with Emma. And it is exactly that, isn't it? It's focussing on the the small and the grand parts of the speech, particularly the pronunciation. So it's very, very good resource. And I've used it many times. So thank you. Thank you for that. Um, so yeah.

Charlie:
Can we just rewind a second. So for somebody who hasn't necessarily visited the UK, whereabouts on the map is is Yorkshire in comparison to perhaps like London?

Emma:
Well, you know, it's really funny, when I was in Spain, I'm going to lead I do this a lot. I'm really sorry, but I always kind of lead things with a story when when I was when I was teaching in Spain, I was a language assistant and I can still remember I was teaching these I think they were like 13, 14 year olds. Some people would say it's a difficult age, but actually I love teaching teenagers. I think there are a lot of fun. And I can still remember this one kid. He asked me, Emma where are you from? Are you from London? You know, because to a lot of these kids, like London was England, you know, and England was London.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Emma:
And I said, no, no, I'm from York and they say, oh, where is that? I said oh, it's in the north of England. Oh, Scotland? I said, no, no, no. There is land in between, there is land in between London and Scotland and I'm in between there. So that's how I explained it to them. And actually I did get a map out. Yeah. To show that. Because when I say north people, a lot of people do think Scotland for some reason. But yeah, it's not quite Scotland. It's a little bit further down. If you look at the map of the UK, there's a little bit if you look at the right hand side, there's a little bit that kind of like goes in. Right. You probably don't know what I mean right now, but if you look at the map, you'll see what I mean. It goes in a little bit and right in there and that bit where it goes right. It is where I'm from.

Charlie:
There you go

Emma:
That little bit there. Yes. So that's another way to to describe where I'm from.

Charlie:
Yeah. OK, so you're from there, but you you were you born and raised around there and you stayed there for a long time.

Emma:
So when I was born, I was born in York hospital, and I, you know, my parents are from Yorkshire, my grandparents are from Yorkshire, like, it's strange because when I tried to, like, track my ancestry, you know, when you ask your grandparents, like, where was great, great, great grandma from or whatever, everyone's from Yorkshire, it's really weird. So I was born in York. I grew up in York until I was about eight. And then we moved to the small town and I was there until I was about 19? 18, 19. And then I thought, I need to get out of here, like I'm going to uni. I'm leaving this this town, because there wasn't much there in terms of opportunities and things like that. So I went back to York, actually, and I did my degree in York, York, St. John, which was amazing. And now I'm in Bristol. So I've lived in Spain as well. I've lived near Brighton. But yeah, in terms of like my childhood and growing up York and then a little bit of this small town.

Charlie:
Yeah. Yes. OK, yeah. Nice. So you went from York and you're now in Bristol. So when did the when did the YouTube channel start.

Emma:
Well, this is an interesting question, because I was I was doing my master's degree, so my master's in my master's is in English language teaching. So basically TESOL education. And once I finished that, I remember thinking, what now? What should I do now? And I just remember kind of like, you know, as you do scrolling on Instagram, YouTube and stuff like that, like you see all these teachers and you like, I could never do that. I could never do it. But the thing that really kind of got me into doing it was when I was teaching in Bristol, a lot of my students had problems understanding accents from specifically England. And when I was teaching them, I would say things like, I don't know, did you come by car, you know, and this word car would always throw them off? You know, they would kind of say, like, oh, car, what's car? So I would have to write it down and then they're like ah yea car or they would say it with like an American accent, like, oh, car. It's like, no, I said car. So I was quite frustrated actually that I had to switch to this almost American sounding accent with some students. And of course, it's not their fault, like they just didn't expose themselves to much, if that makes sense to the different accents. They just weren't used to it yet.

Emma:
So I kept telling them, you need to go on YouTube and try and find some teachers who teach pronunciation and who teach more about like British accents or accents in general. But there were only like American channels. And my students kept coming back saying, no, I'm I can't find anything. I can just find the American pronunciation channels. I thought now that they're clearly not searching hard enough, like there's got to be something out there. So I remember, like searching could only find maybe one or two channels. And I thought, this is crazy. Like, out of all the English teachers in the world, you know, there are only like one or two people focussing on pronunciation and accents from the UK. So I thought, you know what, this needs to change. But I was too scared. I was really scared to put my face on YouTube because as everyone knows who does YouTube and stuff, it's quite like it puts you in quite a vulnerable position, almost. You put yourself out there and it's not just your voice, but it's your face and things like that. Your face goes on the Internet and it's quite a scary experience. I remember like publishing my first YouTube video, which actually I had to look back at the other day and so cringe, like I'm so tempted to like unlist it, you know put it as like unlisted.

Charlie:
Don't do it. It's so good for the for viewers who like a channel it's so nice to see the growth.

Emma:
Exactly. That's it. And I do actually have some comments because I check my comments when I can. And I do have some comments on like older videos saying things like, wow, it's so interesting to see your old videos and how how your voice has changed and things like that, because, of course, you get more confident on camera and things like that. Yeah, but also I can remember my first camera didn't have autofocus. So in my first videos I was very still like this because I was too scared to move to lose the autofocus. So if you watch back to my old videos, I'm very, very, very still because literally, like, I would move forward like an inch and the whole video would be unusable because I'd be out of focus. Like, I can't believe that I endured that for like a year and a half, I think it was. And then my camera died unexpectedly. So I had to get a new camera. And I thought, you know what I need? I need autofocus on a camera. So I made sure to get one. But yeah, I ended up starting on Instagram firstly because I, I was too scared to go into the world of YouTube. So I started on Instagram and I actually started just by posting in my Instagram stories because again I was too scared to even make like a posts with a video. So I would do these posts with like a word. And then I would tell people I go to the stories to hear the pronunciation of this word. And then I got talking to another teacher. And they said, Emma, look, your pronunciation page, you need to just, like, bite the bullet and post videos of your face and I thought, I can't do it like this is way too scary.

Emma:
I thought, you know what? Like, what's the worst that can happen? That, you know, someone calls me fat, that someone comments that I'm wearing not out of makeup or too much makeup or whatever. You know, they make a comment on my appearance is what I'm getting at. Like what's the worst that can happen? Nothing bad's gunna happen. So I started posting the videos and everything was fine and it was all right. Nothing bad happened. There weren't many, many I won't say any but there weren't many trolls, so I was fine with that. And then after a few months, I thought, you know what, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do I'm going to post a video on YouTube and it's still there for the world to see. It was about the words bear, beer, bird and beard. And I thought it was the best video I'd ever edited as as we all think when we put a video out there and then we go back a few months later and realise it was just all pure cringe.

Charlie:
Very true

Emma:
So it's still there if people want to go and see it. But that's how I got started, was because my students in Bristol, where I am, were struggling to understand people from the UK, specifically England, you know, accents like the R.P Accent, for example, I would play recordings and they would be studying for IELTS and stuff and they would hear an RP accent or modern RP and they would struggle because it's non-rhotic, like they don't pronounce the R's. And that really threw a lot of them off and they got quite confused by it. So that's why I started, because there was this little niche sitting there,

Charlie:
You found it, definitely. Very good. So, could we example some differences between the Yorkshire accent and the R.P Accent?

Emma:
Hmm, yeah, there are quite a few it depends where you're from in Yorkshire. I'm going to refer to Yorkshire as just like in general. OK, OK, so some of the key differences are definitely in the vowels. A lot of the vowels, people would say are flatter. So instead of saying so like I just did. People would say so. Day becomes day day, way, no, go, low the UH sound as well is one that I had to learn. So instead of saying like pub, shut, luck, they would be like, luck, pub, shut. Like Oh look the pub's shut. You know, that's a sound I actually had to learn a funny story when I was studying in Spain and I was doing this because I did a year abroad in Spain as part of my degree where I also did some language assistant modules and stuff like that. So I wasn't working as a language assistant. It was kind of like for credits. It's how I got into teaching, actually. Out of my own laziness. It's a story for another podcast. It's weird because I'm so hard working usually but yeah I got into teaching out of pure laziness and I can still remember, you know, I was teaching these secondary school students and there's this one girl who said to me, should people from Yorkshire be teaching. And to this day,

Charlie:
She just left it there?

Emma:
Yeah. Well, should people from Yorkshire be teaching English. You know is kind of what she was getting at, not like teaching in general, like we're just all bad teachers. But, yeah, should people from Yorkshire be teaching English?

Emma:
So it's quite funny that now some of my most popular videos actually are ones where I talk about Yorkshire dialect, Yorkshire slang, the Yorkshire accent. They are some of my like most popular videos. So it's kind of like a big [rude hand gesture made] to her.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Emma:
That those have done really well when she said, you know, should you be teaching?

Charlie:
Was this a student that wasn't quite aware of what they were meaning by that, or were they in your profession?

Emma:
No, this was someone from England.

Charlie:
In England.

Emma:
So. Yeah, yeah.

Charlie:
Oh OK that's.

Emma:
Yeah, someone from England who I'm no longer in touch with, for reasons you can probably see why.

Charlie:
Yeah, I think can piece it together there. Wow. That's astonishing. I never, I never knew people were can I say that narrow minded still. I thought, you know.

Emma:
Oh yeah, when I was working in a summer school as well down in Brighton, there was a guy that I can't remember where he was from exactly in Yorkshire. But he had a very, very, very strong accent. I mean, like mine has kind of changed over the years because my boyfriend's Spanish, so I'm used to kind of like articulating to make sure he understands me, especially in arguments and stuff. Although the Yorkshire accent does come back in arguments. You know, he knows when I'm angry, when the accent comes back. But he had a very, very strong Northern accent. And I can still remember other teachers commenting like in the staff room saying things like, you know, how do your students understand him? Like, surely he should change and know. I feel sorry for his students. They're not learning proper English. I used to think, what, like he's the best person? Because if someone can understand his accent and the way that he speaks, because he he kind of mumbled a little bit, I think he was just quite shy. If anyone can understand him, you know, that's like a massive achievement. That's actually like a great opportunity. You know, to listen to this different accent and get exposed to this different accent, because usually students are so used to hearing like very standardised accents. You know, I'm talking about like General American English, R.P and things like that. And I thought I was such a great opportunity. And when I teach in my videos as well, I do highlight certain accents as well, ones that I'm comfortable with doing, you know, because I don't want to put on like this fake American accent. And then all the Americans in the comments are like, oh, that's not how we speak and things like that. So I always try.

Charlie:
Which accents are you comfortable with?

Emma:
Well, of course, Yorkshire ones, mostly Yorkshire. Different. Yeah, different types of Yorkshire ones, mostly R.P, Modern R.P I talk about. And then in other videos that I've done, I've maybe make comparisons like I talked a little bit about, like the South African accent in one video, Australian. I mean, I don't talk about them so much because I would like my content to be quite narrowed down to the UK instead of going all over the world. But yeah, I do draw on different accents, you know, so if I talk about a certain sound, I'll say, OK, so in R.P it's like this, but actually in the north it's like this. Like one example is the difference between like ah and a, you know, I would say path but you would say path, right. Yeah. So I draw on things like that and it helps people to become more exposed to these different ways of speaking instead of just this one kind of like textbook way of speaking. So that's another aim of my channel. Yeah.

Charlie:
Good, nice. I like it. I'm a hundred percent behind that. OK, so let's talk a little bit about the culture of Yorkshire as well.

Emma:
OK,

Charlie:
Um, now the reason I bring this up is partly because if somebody is listening and then they meet a Yorkshire person, somebody from Yorkshire, which would be a.

Emma:
Oh, a Yorkshiremen or a... a Yorkshiremen. I don't know what what would a woman say a Yorkshire woman, a Yorkshire lass maybe.

Charlie:
Well, there's a word that you need to explain.

Emma:
Lass. Mhm. Yeah. Lass is basically a young woman or a girl. Lad is the term that we sometimes use for boys or young men so. Lass and Lad.

Charlie:
Yeah. And Lad is commonly used in the South as well. Lass I don't feel like I'm that comfortable, I don't feel like I'm allowed to say it that much.

Emma:
I give you permission. Yeah. My Yorkshire blessing. You can use it now

Charlie:
Ok, so if somebody wasn't from the UK and they came and they met somebody from Yorkshire, what would be a nice way to sort of, you know, understand that they know a little bit about your culture? Would you say?

Emma:
Oh, oh, that's a good question. I'm not sure. I don't think in terms of culture like we're any different from the South, but I do I have really, really noticed a big difference in personalities, that's for sure. Like when I was even in Bristol, actually, and living near Brighton. I realise that people are a little a little more reluctant to speak to strangers.

Charlie:
In...?

Emma:
In the south, I mean, in the south, in Yorkshire, we talk to everyone and any anyone,

Charlie:
Anything!

Emma:
Anyone, everything! You know, you'll see people talking to lampposts in Yorkshire, you know, after a few pints. But people will literally talk to anyone. And this is why I always say to students like, if you want to come to the UK to study, to learn English and stuff like that, go to Yorkshire. Because Yorkshire people don't shut up like you probably realised, as I've been speaking a lot now, like we don't shut up as well. We are I don't like using the term, like, cold, but we are. Let me put it like this, a student of mine told me that people in Yorkshire are a little bit more open and warmer. So if you start talking to them, they will talk to you like they've known you for years when I was living near Brighton. I found that, you know, waiting at the bus stop, people didn't want to talk to me, and I found that really weird because I'd literally just moved down from from Yorkshire.

Charlie:
So hang on. So when you're at the bus stop in Yorkshire, you would start talking to people at the bus stop?

Emma:
Of course. Yeah.

See, that seems really strange to me.

Emma:
You see what I mean! It's so weird. Like when I when I moved down near Brighton, it was in Worthing, actually. I don't say Worthing because many people don't know it, but when I lived in Worthing for a bit. I would stand at the bus stop or I would start making conversation with someone in a shop. Do you know what I mean? And they would just look at me like I had two heads, like, you know, why? Why are you talking to me? Or I just found that, like, so weird. Like, why don't people want to talk to me? Is it because of my accent? Is it because I'm not from this town? Like what? What what is it? And then I found that the same even happened in Brighton. You know, I would start talking to people in shops and stuff and they would just look at me like I'm not being paid to talk to you, you know, that kind of thing.

Charlie:
What kind of what kind of conversations that you want to have with these shopkeepers.

Emma:
Just general general conversation like about the weather,

Charlie:
Where are you going tonight? Let's go out. Come on what's your phone number? Where d'you live?

Charlie:
And we're going to leave the conversation there, but as this is a season based episode, we've got three parts of the conversation for you to enjoy and a whole academy lesson for you to dive deep into the language and the pronunciation of the native expressions that we used in this episode. So if you want to get involved in Part two and learn how a conversation in a bus stop in Yorkshire might turn out or how people from outside of Yorkshire react when they meet a Yorkshire lad or lass and even how to deeply offend someone from Yorkshire. Yeah, we touch on that. And then in part three, we also go on to talk about Emma's opinion of Brighton. A lot of non natives go to Brighton, so you might be interested in this. And then we have a story in which Emma is faced with adversity. But we don't just leave it there because Emma goes on to tell us about Bristol as she moved over there in the last five or six years. And she gives her thoughts on the city and whether she thinks that people should move there. So if you want to listen to how Brighton might be or Bristol and learn more about Yorkshire people and Emma's life, then check out part two and three. And to do that, you want to go over to the British English podcast Dotcom and look into the premium podcast or the academy. The premium podcast has all parts of every episode available for you to listen to, along with the interactive transcripts and PDFs for you to download the extended glossaries explaining all of the native expressions in a way that non-natives really can easily understand and flashcards for you to revise on-the-go.

Charlie:
Now the Academy has all of that, plus a mini course using videos, audios, pronunciation drills, interactive quizzes, writing assignments and the weekly speaking classes where you can get into a group and practise using the language that I'm teaching you in these episodes. If that sounds interesting, then check out the Academy in the British English podcast by heading over to the website, the British English podcast dot com. But there we go. If you're not interested in joining us in part two and three, then thank you very much for listening. Remember to check out Emma's content. I will leave all the links in the show notes below. She has a wonderful YouTube channel called Pronunciation with Emma and then a Twitch account for gaming. So if you like to learn English and you like to play video games, then this might be a perfect recipe for you to find her twitch. Search Procrastination with Emma very clever name. Well done, Emma. And I believe Emma has just started her own podcast. I will I will leave the links in the show notes below. Now, somebody messaged me the other day and said, Charlie, you keep mentioning all these links, but I don't know where to find them. You know, you say in the show notes or in the description box, where is that? And then I asked my girlfriend, Stacey, if you were to look for the show notes of a podcast, would you know where that is? And she didn't have the foggiest idea.

Charlie:
She didn't have a clue. Foggiest idea. She didn't. She didn't understand. She didn't know. She didn't know. So it made me think. Right. I need to be a bit clearer with this. Now, most people are listening on Spotify, so I'll example with that. But if you're not just simply go to the British English podcast dot com and you will find everything you need. But if you want to go through the podcast apps, I will explain how to on Spotify. Okay. So I'm imagining you're on Spotify. You're looking at the British English podcast with all of the episodes available for you to scroll through. Now, if you click on one episode, it will take you to the episode page in Spotify still, and then you should be able to see a link and then some more text and then a see more. So click see more. And there you will have all of the links and information that I have been talking about in that section. And that is where you will find your free worksheet that will give you some of the best language from today, explaining it in a way that a non-native will easily understand. So hopefully we're all on the same page now. Thank you again for listening to the British English podcast. My name is Charlie and I will see you next week for another episode. Until then, have a wonderful week and bye for now.