| Hey everyone, welcome to The Monthly Review, the monthly show on language learning, where you discover new learning strategies, motivational tips, study tools, and resources. |
| By the way, all the lessons and bonuses you're about to see can be downloaded for free on our website. |
| So click the link in the description right now to sign up for your free lifetime account. |
| Okay, today's topic is... |
| Your pronunciation is terrible. |
| Is pronunciation important or not? |
| And this is a controversial topic for some. |
| If you're wondering if you should aim for perfect pronunciation or not, be sure to watch this first. |
| You'll discover how to approach pronunciation as a beginner, how to perfect your pronunciation with our program, and much more. |
| But first, if you're looking for new, free language resources and downloads, here are this month's new lessons and resources. |
| Be sure to download these now before we take them down in a few days. |
| First, the Talking About Age PDF Conversation Cheat Sheet. |
| This cheat sheet will teach you how to say how old you are, ask others for their age, and learn a whole bunch of age-related words and phrases. |
| Second, master 1,500 words with our printable visual flashcards. |
| Just download, print them out, and review as much as you want. |
| These PDF flashcards are yours to keep for life. |
| To get your free resources, click the link in the description below right now. |
| They're yours to keep forever. |
| And here are this month's updates for our language learning system. |
| If you want to boost your vocabulary and speak more of the language, stay tuned. |
| We're launching the second season of our core word series, which will teach you the 2,000 most common words and phrases. |
| And it includes a new review section at the end that'll test you on the words you learned in the lesson. |
| Your pronunciation is terrible. |
| Is pronunciation important or not? |
| Part 1. |
| How to Approach Pronunciation as a Beginner So, is perfect pronunciation important? |
| This can be a controversial topic, and the answer may depend on personal preference. |
| Some learners prefer to get everything just right. |
| Some learners go for good enough and may revisit pronunciation later. |
| And some, whether they realize it or not, move on with so-so pronunciation and never look back. |
| Where do you fit in? |
| Leave us a comment and let us know. |
| But is there a right answer to this question? |
| For the most part, we all want to say, yes, it is important, and it's hard to argue otherwise. |
| Perfect pronunciation is ideal in an ideal world, but it gets a little complicated in the real world. |
| First, language learning takes time. |
| Second, it's not always easy to develop a perfect accent when you're an adult. |
| So if you're a busy adult, time is something you may not have a lot of. |
| If you want to have perfect pronunciation, or something close to it, you'll need to invest a lot more time. |
| And even if you're not a busy adult, you still have to delay progress in speaking while you perfect your pronunciation. |
| This may not be so fun for impatient learners who don't want to sit and drill one thing all day. |
| So it ultimately also becomes a question of, do you want to focus on pronunciation and not really speak much of the language? |
| Or do you want to speak a whole lot of the language with so-so pronunciation? |
| Let us know in the comments. |
| Which do you prefer? |
| Now, if you have all the time in the world to practice, go for perfect pronunciation. |
| If not, then it's up to you how you want to spend your time. |
| But if you're a beginner and you're worried about getting everything right, it's okay to get a basic understanding of the pronunciation and move to other areas of the language. |
| You don't have to get it all right on the first try. |
| Remember, language is a tool we use for communication. |
| If the tool is good enough, and if you can get your point across, that's good enough for now. |
| You can always come back to perfect things later on. |
| But this approach does require some confidence, because there will be times when native speakers won't immediately understand you, and you have to deal with that. |
| Now, what if you do want to improve your pronunciation? |
| Part two. |
| How you can perfect your pronunciation with our program. |
| First, if you haven't done so already, learn the alphabet. |
| This tip is only for brand new beginners. |
| Learning the alphabet sets the foundation of your pronunciation, and for this, you can download our free printable alphabet PDF worksheet to master it. |
| Second, check out our pronunciation course in the lesson library. |
| This course should get you good enough at the pronunciation. |
| You'll understand how the language sounds, what the important rules are, and what the most common mistakes are, so you can avoid them. |
| If you're an absolute beginner or a beginner, we recommend you take these lessons. |
| Third, increase your exposure to the target language. |
| This tip is for learners of all levels, whether you're beginner or intermediate. |
| The more you're exposed to native speech, the more you'll get used to the pronunciation. |
| As you know, native speakers don't exactly sound like the slow, clean textbook examples you'd learn in most apps. |
| You can do it with our lessons inside the recommended learning pathway or by listening to music, podcasts, and even watching TV shows in your target language. |
| This is something you should be doing on a consistent basis. |
| Fourth, use our pronunciation practice tool. |
| You'll find it in the dialogue section of every audio lesson. |
| With this tool, you can listen to the native speaker say a line and record yourself saying the same line, and play the two recordings side by side to see how close you get. |
| The more you do it, the better your pronunciation will get. |
| Fifth, work with a native teacher, because the best judge of your pronunciation will always be a native speaker. |
| With our Premium Plus plan, you can send voice recordings to your Premium Plus teacher and get feedback and corrections. |
| Your native teacher will instantly know where you need adjustment and help you improve. |
| But again, don't worry if you don't get it right away. |
| Good pronunciation comes with practice. |
| And even if you have a not-so-perfect accent, natives will still be able to understand you. |
| And that is good enough. |
| So thank you for watching this episode of Monthly Review. |
| Next time, we'll talk about how to master 500 words with spaced repetition. |
| If you enjoyed these tips, hit the like button, share the video with anyone who's trying to learn a language, and subscribe to our channel. |
| We release new videos every week. |
| And if you're ready to finally learn language the fast, fun, and easy way and start speaking from your very first lesson, get our complete learning program. |
| Sign up for your free lifetime account right now. |
| Click the link in the description. |
| See you next time. |
| Bye! |
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