17- Ana and Steve - Fourth Part

Ana : Yesterday I watched, yeah I watched the last few videos, the last few Peppy videos, I remember... I think it was 25?... Where you accidentally barged into, like, a photo shoot with a nude model, that was really funny. I was like, what's going on? Is this a nude model? Wait, is this Steve's video?


You know, I got distracted for a moment, and when my eyes went back to the video... OK, what's going on here? That was really funny.


Steve  : Great, I'm glad you liked it.


Ana :  So Steve, here's another question that I got from Twitter. Aline is asking 'Why aren't phonetics and syllable division taught in English courses?'


Steve :  OK. In some English courses they are. For example, the student I was referring to (in part 3), who is now living in Toronto, he's from Brazil... We were talking about this the other day, that in fact he did learn the phonetics and he also learned some strategies for learning how to pronounce closed and open vowel sounds in English.


Why is it not taught in all courses? I have a few ideas, and, you know, after teaching English for seventeen years I think it's because the language, the phonetic symbols... is almost like a completely different language.


So, we're teaching English and then, that's already a challenge to teach to the students and when you have to use the phonetic alphabet... which, by the way, in different dictionaries, the phonetic alphabet can have variations... So it's not necessarily a universal phonetic alphabet. So that has created some difficulty for teaching it.


And I think that students perhaps are already trying to learn English so when they have to learn the phonetic alphabet, it's too much. Yeah, I tried... I think that another problem is that there are so many exceptions with regard to phonetics and spelling rules in English that... teachers just don't bother to do it, it's too complicated.


It's a wonderful idea and I think it would be nice if they put accents above the word stress, just like they do in Portuguese. I think that would help students a lot. And, who knows? You wait, maybe in a future Peppy video I will start to do that.


Ana :  That would be fun to watch... You guys being funny with phonetics?


Steve : Yeah, you throw me anything and I'll try to make it funny.


Ana :  And, how about syllable division? Any comments?


Steve :  Syllable division? Clap your hands. I think that's the best way to do it. As you are saying the word, clap your hands. If you're saying 'important', just clap your hands: important, and you can clap the number of times... And that can help you, especially when using comparative adjectives, yeah.


Ana :  OK, very practical. Thank you. OK, I think one last question I always ask the person I am interviewing is... Any final tips to Brazilian students, to Brazilian people who are learning English? If you had to, if you could give them just one takeaway, what would it be?


Steve :  That it is very important to have fun learning English. My wife is reminding me of one thing, that actually the part about clapping your hands and the syllables and all of that... is actually going to be in Peppy 28.


Ana :  OK.


Steve : So, sorry, your question was about...


Ana : Any final tips that... if you had to give only one tip, one final tip to Brazilian learners, particularly... having known Brazil...


Steve : . OK. Yes, Brazilians, listen up! Brazilians, you can do it. You can learn English. And my two pieces of advice for you are, first, try to learn English and love it. Try to associate English with things that you like. If it's watching television programs and movies, fantastic. Listening to music, and trying to understand the lyrics, or the words of the song, great. You can do that too.


It is important to have a little bit of discipline. I know a lot of people hate grammar. I know many students don't even like Portuguese grammar in terms of studying it. But it is important to have some grammar to give you some structure and some self-confidence when you're speaking. I think it's important to have a balance of discipline and love, yes.


Ana :  Thank you Steve, that was great advice.


Steve :  Yeah, I mean that from the bottom of my heart, you know. I think that... And Brazilians have so much potential, they're such risk-takers, they know how to take risks and when learning a language, I mean, that's fundamental you know? Like you're willing to make mistakes.


Ana :  Thank you. Well everybody, that's all for today. This was Ana, from inglesonline.com.br talking to Steve Ford. Again, his page on YouTube is youtube.com/privateenglishportal. And you also have your own website, right Steve?


Steve  : That's right.


Ana :  Do you wanna say the URL?


Steve : Sure, yes. You can actually go to either privateenglishportal.com or, if you don't want to type that much you can go to mypeppy.com so, yeah...


Ana : That's easy. OK, that's m-y-p-e-p-p-y dot com.


Steve :  That's right, that's right. M, y, p as in Peter, e, p as in Peter, p as in Peter, y dot com.


Ana :  Excellent. Thank you once again Steve, and...


Steve : You're welcome, it was my pleasure.


Ana : Hope to keep watching your funny videos.. and say hello to Leda.