Pronunciation ChallengeHow to Love Your Work

The most astonishing career achievements will never compensate anyone for the lack of love they have suffered: work cannot fix a deficit of love.

How to Love Your Work

“Once you decide on your occupation you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That's the secret of success.” - Jiro Ono

What’s up, everyone, it’s your favorite host Hubert with another new episode of the Pronunciation Challenge. (I am your favorite right?)
So for those of you who don’t know about my background, I’m also an actor from Canada. I’ve been on shows like Suits (season 6 episode 1 right before the song), Hell on Wheels (AMC Show), and some stuff in China as well. Lately, and especially during this pandemic, I have been transitioning from strictly being an actor to an actor with multiple streams of income. That’s how I ended up on the Pronunciation Challenge here on Voicetube! I was doing ok pre-pandemic but once the pandemic hit, I pretty much lost everything. I often questioned myself whether I should quit being an actor or not. The same question always popped up. Was I doing this to impress people or did I genuinely love acting? Oftentimes, we don’t realize we do things in order to impress people. Sometimes it’s for people we don’t even like. Why do we torture ourselves like this? In today’s video, we dive into possible reasons why. Let’s get to the featured sentence first and then come back to me for my thoughts on this topic afterwards.

Today’s featured sentence:
“The most astonishing career achievements will never compensate anyone for the lack of love they have suffered: work cannot fix a deficit of love.”

I’ll say that again.

“The most astonishing career achievements will never compensate anyone for the lack of love they have suffered: work cannot fix a deficit of love.”

Ok, now time for the Pronunciation Tips.


For the first word, we have
Astonishing
Four syllables.
“AS” actually has the short “U” sound. “STON” sounds like the word “ON” but with an “ST” to support it. The “I” here actually has a short “U” sound and “SHING” has your typical “I N G” ending sound with “S H” to support it.

Next up. Blended words!
Lack of
With this pairing, we simply fuse the “K” ending with the word “of” and give us “KOF”. “Lackof”

And our last one would be,
Deficit
Three syllables.
“DE” has the short “E” sound. “FI” has the short “U” sound and “CIT” sounds like what you would command a dog to do, “SIT”. Deficit.


Moving onto Vocabulary!

The first word is:
1. Astonishing
Definition
very surprising
Used in a sentence you could say,
“The total amount of trash a human being produces in a year is quite astonishing.”

Next word,
2. Compensate
Definition
to provide something good or useful in place of something or to make someone feel better about something that has failed or been lost or missed
Used in a sentence you could say,
“They’re just trying to make you feel bad to compensate for how they really feel inside.”

And lastly,
3. Deficit
Definition:
the total amount by which money spent is more than money received
Used in a sentence you can say:
“A lack or a deficit of calcium can lead to dental changes, cataracts, alterations in the brain, and osteoporosis, which causes the bones to become brittle.”

I think now will be a good time to give this Will Rogers quote. “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.” Growing up in the west, individualism was fostered at a young age in the school systems. However, when I got home, this ideology (a system of ideas and ideals) often clashed with my family. They grew up in a society that was more communal- based (communal meaning community) so how they appeared to others mattered a lot more. I never understood why they would always try and impress people they didn’t like but as I’ve gotten older and also spent some time in the east, I guess I can sort of understand it. I still don’t agree with it but I don’t fight with my parents about it as much anymore. I just know that at the end of the day, I have to deal with the choices I make so I should try and make the best decision for myself and the people I care deeply about. The rest don’t matter.
I’d really like to know how you listeners living in the east like in Taiwan and Japan feel about this? I’m really curious!

Ok, that’s it for today’s Pronunciation Challenge episode. If you haven’t done your recordings yet, get to it! If you want to follow my socials, you can simply reach me on Instagram at hughtran_. Don’t be shy and say hi. As always, thanks for listening, and see you again on the next episode! Later!

day6

The most astonishing career achievements will never compensate anyone for the lack of love they have suffered:work cannot fix a deficit of love.