天天美语6-20-16

Good morning. I hope you are expecting to have a happy and productive day today. I know I am. And, there’s no better way to start it than learning something more about English. 
Yesterday, one of our newest members told me about something that it is very important. His English name is Andy Lee. He met me a few years ago at the English Corner that I attend on Sundays and is now a part of our group. 
Andy said that his English started getting much better when he started learning connected sounds. I know that a famous English teacher in China, Li Yang, also talked a lot about this and taught his students how to make connected sounds in order to make them more fluent in speaking English. 
One of the most common connected sounds that you’ll face in spoken English is when a word is connected to the word ‘you.’ 
For example, 
“What are you going to do?” 
When you hear a native English speaker from America say it, they will often sound like, “What cha gonna do?” In fact, it is a lazy way of expressing yourself. (Li Yang’s program is called ‘Crazy English’. I call this ‘lazy English’.) So, I don’t teach this to my students, however, there are certain standard words that go together that I will teach you and have you to practice. 
Here’s an example: 
‘What are you going to do?” 
The ‘are you’ sounds exactly like you were saying the letters ‘R’ and ‘U’. 
Practice 
What are you going to do? 
What are you doing? 
Where are you going? 
Are you going to study tonight? 
Are you going to work now? 
Are you going to work late tonight? 
How are you doing? 
How are you going to go to school? (by bus? by car? by bicycle? by foot?-walk) 
When are you going to finish your work? 
When are you going to finish studying? 
When are you going to graduate? 
_______________________ 
If you want to leave your practice pronunciation in the group here, I’ll be happy to listen to it and comment on it for you. If you do it wrong, I’ll tell you. If you do it good, I’ll tell you. 
Remember, you can learn English faster, easier and happier when you know how. I’ll teach you how. 
Have a wonderful day!! 
Michael