Pronunciation ChallengeBefore Alarm Clocks, There Were ‘Knocker-Uppers’

[Transcript]
Intro:
Hey guys, it’s Jenny here. This morning my alarm didn’t go off so when I eventually woke up I almost had an anxiety attack because my online meeting was starting in 5 minutes! I realized what had happened was that I set my phone alarm for 7:30PM instead of 7:30AM! Ugh...I hope I will never make that mistake again!
Maybe I should hire someone to wake me up every morning! In fact, this was someone’s actual job to do so back in the early days! You can watch the video later to learn more about the ‘knocker-uppers’.

[1'08'']
But now, let’s listen to the sentence of day:

See, in big industrial cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester, Knocker Uppers used poles to reach the windows.
你看，在大的工業都市像是倫敦、伯明翰 和 曼徹斯特，Knocker Uppers 用竿子敲打窗戶。

Sentence (slow speed)

[1'40'']
Pronunciation Tips:

Let’s go over the pronunciation of the city names in this sentence:
Most people should be familiar with London, L-O-N-D-O-N, London.
The next one is Birmingham – people in the US may pronounce this as Bir-ming-ham but in England, people usually say Bir-ming-um.
The third city name is Manchester – It’s broken down into three syllables, Man-cheh-stuh. Manchester. Maybe you have heard of the famous football club called Manchester United!

[2'29'']
Vocabulary Words:

1. Industrial [ɪnˋdʌstrɪəl] ɪnˋdʌstrɪəl
Adj. 工業的 in or related to the industry, or having a lot of industry and factories.

Example sentence:
Citizens go on a protest due to the air pollution that the industrial sites released.
市民們抗議工廠造成空氣汙染。

So industrial is the adjective of the word industry and the verb form would be

Industrialize
V. 工業化 to develop industry in a country or an area.

Example sentence:
I heard that the government is going to industrialize this town, it would create more than three hundred job opportunities.
我聽說政府要把這個小鎮工業化，工業化將提供超過三百個工作機會。

2. Knock [nɑk] nɒk
V. 敲、擊、打 to make a sound by striking something hard or by the fist, especially on a door, table or window.

Example sentence:
He knocks on the door to see if anyone could open the door for him because he forgot his keys.
他試著敲門看有沒有人可以幫他開門，因為他忘記帶鑰匙了。

同義詞synonym:
Strike
V. 敲、擊 to hit or attack someone or something hardly
Can’t believe he struck the scooter because of drunk driving.
不敢相信他是因為酒駕才撞到那台機車的。

3. Pole pol pəʊl
N. 竿 stick

The technician said it would take over 3 days to repair the electricity pole.
維修人員說那隻電線杆要超過三天才能修好 。

[4'44'']
Outro:
Back in the days, a knocker upper would use a stick to knock on your window to wake you up! If that job still exists today then they probably need a really long stick to knock on my bedroom window because I live on the 8th floor! Do you use a conventional alarm clock or use the alarm function on your mobile phone? Do you set more than three different alarm times like me just to make sure you don’t snooze back off again? I’m definitely not a morning person so I’d love to hear your tips on getting up in the morning! Please share your recordings and leave a comment! Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time! Bye for now.

My host comments that they used a stick to hit the window to wake you up and that job still exists today, so they probably need a very long stick to hit the window in her room because she lives on the eighth floor. I would like to recommend setting an alarm on your cell phone.

See, in big industrial cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester, Knocker Uppers used poles to reach the windows.

Roldán Torres Lizeth
Entiendo que habla sobre las grandes ciudades industriales como lo es Londres, Brimingham y Manchester.