Pronunciation ChallengeThe history of swimming - 6 Minute English

Intro:
Hi, VoiceTubers! This is Jeff Chiao. Last week we covered a fancier watersport, which is competitive diving. Today we are going to dive into, no pun intended, the more basic form of watersports—swimming. I have to admit that I am not really a proficient swimmer, and it has been quite a long time since the last time I submerged myself underwater. That… is a weird way to say that, but anyway, the point is, I am not good at swimming.

My excuse for this would be that, in modern society, there is really no practical reason for someone living in the city to go swimming out of necessity. Most people who go swimming simply because they like it and see it as a way to do some exercise. But how did such activity grow its popularity throughout history? You will find an explicit explanation by watching today’s video. But before doing so, let’s head to our featured sentence first.

Featured Sentence:
“Swimming has many health benefits and since ancient times has been used to promote strength and well-being.”

Okay, let's repeat it one more time, just a little bit slower.

“Swimming has many health benefits and since ancient times has been used to promote strength and well-being.”

With that out of the way, let’s head to the pronunciation tips.

Pronunciation tips:

First tip of today would be the connection between successive words. Sometimes it’s easier and faster to connect the ending sound of a word to the beginning of another word. In the sentence today, we have “since ancient times”. Instead of reading out every word articulately, we could just pronounce them as “sins-ancient-imes”. Since ancient times.

Our second tip would be the word “benefit”. It is worth noting that although there are two “e”s in the word, they should be pronounced differently. The first “e” sounds like /e/, while the second sounds like /ɪ/. This word has three syllables, and the stress should be put on the first /be/ sound. Benefit. Benefit.

Now comes our final tip, the word “promote”. Like benefit, promote also has two identical yet differently pronounced vowels. The first "o" sounds like a shorter /ə/ sound, and the second sounds like a long /oʊ/ sound. Promote has two syllables, and the stress should be put on the second /moʊ/ sound. Promote. Promote.

All right, now with the tips sorted, let’s get to the vocabulary.

Vocabulary:

benefit (n.) KK[ˋbɛnəfɪt] IPA[/ˈben.ɪ.fɪt/]
a helpful or good effect, or something intended to help

While bringing economic benefits to local communities, it is also concerning that the factory may damage the delicate ecosystem around.

promote (v.) KK[prəˋmot] IPA[/prəˈməʊt/]
to encourage people to like, buy, use, do, or support something

As an effort to promote electric vehicles, the government provides multiple incentives for new buyers.

well-being (n.) KK[ˋwɛlˋbiɪŋ] IPA[/ˌwelˈbiː.ɪŋ/]
the state of feeling healthy and happy

As the suicide rate of teenagers has been climbing continuously in the past two decades, it becomes obvious that the well-being of our younger generation is at stake.

Outro:

And that wraps up for today’s pronunciation tips!

Considering that I’ve been living on a tropical island which is surrounded by natural salty swimming pools for the most of my life, it is actually pretty lame that I can only swim with crawl stroke and backstroke. As the featured sentence mentioned, swimming is a decent way for building up strength and shaking off weight. As Christmas dinner is right around the corner, planning for some preemptive fit-keeping-efforts could actually be a good idea. Maybe I should really start practicing my underwater skills more often.

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

Swimming has many health benefits and since ancient times has been used to promote strength and well-being.

Swimming has many health benefits and since ancient times has been used to promote strength and well-being.

Swimming has many health benefits and since ancient times has been used to promote strength and well-being.

Swimming has many health benefits and since ancient times has been used to promote strength and well-being.