Pronunciation ChallengeConcussion in sport - 6 Minute English

At the centre of debabe are worries about possible brain damage and dementia caused by concussion - that's a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump or blow to the head, and the topic of this programme.

Intro:
Hi, VoiceTubers! This is Jeff Chiao. Among all kinds of sports, what is your favorite? If it is one of the more popular major sports, it is almost unavoidable for people on the field, whether they are professional players or amateur enjoyers, to bear the risk of injuring themselves or others. While watching these games as bystanders, we couldn’t really tell how painful or serious a player who is injured on the field is, especially for those who suffer from internal damage. A broken bone or a bleeding wound is very obvious and could be tackled relatively soon, yet internal injury, such as brain concussion which our video discussed today, could be tricky to deal with and may leave an invisible yet horrible impact on an athlete’s life.

To learn more about the risk of getting a concussion as an athlete and how that would affect one’s life, check out today’s video to find out for yourself. But before doing so, let’s first take a look at today’s featured sentence.


Featured Sentence:
“At the center of the debate are worries about possible brain damage and dementia caused by concussion - that's a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump or blow to the head, and the topic of this program.”

Let me repeat it one more time, just a little bit slower.

“At the center of the debate are worries about possible brain damage and dementia caused by concussion - that's a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump or blow to the head, and the topic of this program.”

Pronunciation tips:

Our first tip today focuses on how to make our speech sound more fluent and native. Sometimes we connect the ending sound of a word to the beginning of another word. For example, in “At the center of the debate are worries about”, we connect the “s” sound in the rear of “worries”, to the start of “about”, and pronounce them as “worriez-about”. Notice that the “s” sound in the “worries” now sounds more like a “z” sound. “Worriez-about”.

Other examples would be “type of” and “topic of” in the second half of the sentence: “that's a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump or blow to the head, and the topic of this program.” Weconnect the “p” sound of type and “k” sound of topic to the start of of, and make them sound like “taip-of” and “topik-of”. As a whole clause, it then would sound like: “that's a taip-of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump or blow to the head, and the topik-of this program.”

The second tip today is how to pronounce the word “dementia.” Notice that the two “e”s in this word should be pronounced differently, with the first “e” pronounced as "/ɪ/", and the second pronounced as “e”. Also, the stress is on the second syllable. Dementia. Dementia.


Last but not least, our third tip today is the word “traumatic”. Traumatic is the adjective form of the noun “trauma”, however, their stress patterns are quite different. In trauma, the stress is on the first syllable “trau”, yet in traumatic, the stress should be put on the second syllable “ma.” So it should be “trau’ma’tic”, instead of “'trau’matic”. Traumatic. Traumatic.

Now with the tips sorted, let’s get to the vocabulary.

Vocabulary:

dementia (n.) KK[dɪˋmɛnʃɪə] IPA[/dɪˈmen.ʃə/]
a medical condition that affects especially old people, causing the memory and other mental abilities to gradually become worse, and leading to confused behavior

The family has no choice but to send their dementia-ill grandpa to the nursing home.


concussion (n.) KK[kənˋkʌʃən] IPA[/kənˈkʌʃ.ən/]
temporary damage to the brain caused by a fall or hit on the head or by violent shaking

He was diagnosed with a minor concussion after the car crash, which was considered extremely lucky in terms of the severity of the accident.



traumatic (adj.) KK[trɔˋmætɪk] IPA[/trɔːˈmæt.ɪk/]
If an experience is traumatic, it causes you severe emotional shock and upset.

People who had traumatic experiences with romantic relationships may grow fear of sharing their feelings with others.


Outro:

So that wraps up for today’s episode!

No matter how careful you are while playing any kind of sports, unfortunate accidents would always happen on the field. I remember when I was in high school, my mom had to patch my trousers over and over again because we played basketball quite frequently, and since I always ”gave it all” on the basketball court, some holes on trousers and bruises on knees would be totally worth it for some amazing plays. During the three year in high school, I had broken more than three pairs of glasses and their frames, just from being reckless around the playing field. Fortunately, I didn’t suffer serious or permanent injuries from those incidents, thanks to my younger age then, I guess.

With that being said, there were definitely some close calls—not for me though. A friend of mine once tried to do the slam dunk as the professionals do in the NBA, but he chose to jump out from a trampoline as he didn’t have height nor technique. The result? The ball bounced out, and his head bumped straight into the pole, leaving a spectacular wound on his forehead. He was then rushed to the hospital, and had the wound patched with 6 stitches. He then left the hospital in one piece after a couple of weeks with a scar on the forehead and the nickname “Fallen Harry Potter” with him. Luckily for my friend, he seems to be all right after all these years. Or is he? Maybe he had learned some magic tricks after the incident and chose not to tell us muggles. Wingardium Leviosa! And now he can do the slam dunk while floating in the air.

Jokes aside, it is always a better idea to prevent it from happening from the start, and go to see a doctor whenever symptoms related to brain damage show. Sometimes while the external injuries seemed minor at first sight, the impact might take much longer to take effect. Specifically for any brain related damage, as the symptoms may not show immediately, the damage would not be treated right away as well, leaving the vulnerability hidden inside. Thus, it is crucial to protect yourself and others with right sports habits and equipment, and don’t do stupid tricks just for fun as my friend did.

This is Jeff Chiao from VoiceTube. Hope y’all have a good one! Until next time, goodbye.

At the centre of the debate are worries about possible brain damage and dementia caused by concussion — that's a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump or blow to the head, and the topic of this programme.

At the centre of the debate are worries about possible brain damage and dementia caused by concussion — that's a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump or blow to the head, and the topic of this programme.