Pronunciation ChallengeHow did Hitler rise to power? - Alex Gendler and Anthony Hazard

In addition to losing over a tenth of its territory and dismantling its army, Germany had to accept full responsibility for the war and pay reparations, debilitating its already weakened economy.

Any advises is always good. Thank you and good night.

Day 14 - Today's challenge is quite hard, but fun for sure! ^^

“Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power.” - William Gaddis

Hey everyone, Hubert back with Pronunciation Challenge and today we’re talking about Hitler. It’s a heavy topic and the genocide (the deliberate killing of a large group of people) is something I won’t be diving into today. Instead, today’s video talks about how Hitler came to power. His rise to power shows us how fragile democracy really is in any society. It can easily collapse if we’re not careful. People often say that freedom is the ability to set your own schedule, to decide on what work you do, and being able to make your own decisions. It’s being accountable for your own actions. That’s some food for thought which is an idiom that means something that should be thought about or considered carefully. Alright, watch the video and come back for the featured sentence. Make sure you stay tuned so I could talk about a Hitler conspiracy theory!

Today’s featured sentence:
“In addition to losing over a tenth of its territory and dismantling its army, Germany had to accept full responsibility for the war and pay reparations, debilitating its already weakened economy.”

I’ll say that again.

“In addition to losing over a tenth of its territory and dismantling its army, Germany had to accept full responsibility for the war and pay reparations, debilitating its already weakened economy.”

Ok, now time for the Pronunciation Tips.


For the first word, we have
Reparations
Four syllables.
“Reh” has a short E sound. “Per” is your typical “ER” sound with a P in front. “AY” like you’re saying “hey” but without the “H” and “shuns”. It’s your typical “TION” sound that sounds like it’s spelt “SHUN”. Reparations.

Next word.
Debilitating
Five syllables.
“DUH” has a short “U” sound. “BI” has a short “I” sound. “LUH” has a short “U” sound. “TAY” sounds like “HEY” again but with a “T” instead of the “H” and “TING”. Typical “ING” ending sound. Debilitating.

And our last one would be a word I struggled with as a kid.
Economy uh · kaa · nuh · mee
Four syllables.
I used to say “Econ-nomy” as a kid all the time. I’m hoping you guys don’t have the same habit. I certainly hope I didn’t plant the seed for a new bad habit as well! Alright, so this “Economy” starts with “Uh” like when you don’t know what to say, “Uhhh”. “CON” like a scam, “CON”. “NUH” has a short “U” sound and “MEE”. Economy.

Moving onto Vocabulary!

The first word is:
1. Dismantle
Definition
to take a machine apart or to come apart into separate pieces
Used in a sentence you could say,
“I had to dismantle the entire Lego structure because I was missing a piece.”

Next word,
2. Reparation
Definition
payment for harm or damage
Used in a sentence you could say,
“This article talks about what slavery reparations could look like for the US government going forward.”


And lastly,
3. Debilitate
Definition:
to make someone or something physically weak
Used in a sentence you can say:
“This virus can completely debilitate your immune system.”

Outro
Interesting how a stable nation can easily collapse right? That’s the beauty of freedom in my opinion. We always have a choice. If things aren’t looking so great right now, we must also take accountability for that. Perhaps it was a series of choices you made in the past that lead you up to this point. Even if this is not true, there is a power in that type of mindset. It’s a sense of taking back control of your life instead of feeling like everything is against you. The world can be a scary place, especially for students who are used to being told what to do or how to think.
Anyways, as promised, the Hitler conspiracy theory! The theory is that Hitler didn’t actually die in the war and escaped to Berlin or at least somewhere remote in Europe. Also, back in 2009 a bone-specializing archeologist performed a DNA test on one of the bone fragments from Hitler’s skull and found out the sample was from a female under the age of 40! The same researchers did another DNA test from a piece of cloth soaked with Hitler’s blood and found out that it belonged to a male. Hitler’s skull is the property of the Russian state now and they said that nobody ever claimed the skull belonged to Hitler. Interesting stuff. We may never know.
Alright everyone, let’s get to your recordings and be sure to check out my next episode which talks about the signs of a real friend! Do you have any real friends? Guess we’ll find out soon! See you next time! Bye!