Pronunciation ChallengeThe Power Of Following Your Fear

Now, in terms of dance I went on to create and choreograph, like, 4 fitness videos and I choreographed for MTV and I traveled around the world as a Nike elite dance athlete.

“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold." - Helen Keller

What’s up my lovely Pronunciation Challenge listeners! Hope everyone is having a good start to the new year so far. Last episode I talked about staying motivated. This episode, I’ll be presenting a video about following your fear! What fears do you guys have? For myself, it may sound silly to some of you listeners but it’s actually Chinese that frightens me the most! To be specific, it’s performing in Chinese but here’s the thing; once I started working on it (my Chinese that is) I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment and happiness. I started to look into this and found out that voluntarily facing your fears bit by bit actually helps you feel less anxious about whatever it is you’re fearful of. If you only face your fears when you’re obligated to, then you’ll never overcome it. Interesting stuff! Ok, let’s get to the featured sentence and I’ll tell you guys a story about how I overcame my fear of Chinese!

Today’s featured sentence:
Now, in terms of dance I went on to create and choreograph, like, 4 fitness videos and I choreographed for MTV and I traveled around the world as a Nike elite dance athlete.

I’ll say that again.

Now, in terms of dance I went on to create and choreograph, like, 4 fitness videos and I choreographed for MTV and I traveled around the world as a Nike elite dance athlete.

Ok, now time for the Pronunciation Tips.


For the first word, we have
Choreograph
Four syllables.
“CHO” sounds like “CALL” like you’re calling someone. “RE” has the long E sound. “O” actually has the short U sound and “GRAPH” sounds exactly like what I just said, “GRAPH” like the diagram you look at that shows you a relationship between two or more things. Graph. Choreograph.

Next up, we have
Elite
Two syllables
I think I chose this word before but I want to highlight it again because of it’s spelling. It’s “E” with a short U sound and “LITE” is not “LIGHT” but “LEET” with a long E sound instead. Elite.

For the last one we have,
Athlete
Two syllables.
“A” has a short A sound. “THLETE” is a combination of sounds. First we have the “TH” sound which blends into a long E sound. “THLETE”. Athlete.


Moving onto Vocabulary!

The first word is:
1. Choreograph
Definition
(of an event or course of action) planned very carefully
“Donnie Yen likes to choreograph his fight scenes.”

Next word,
2. In terms of…
Definition
used to describe which particular area of a subject you are discussing
Used in a sentence, you could say:
“In terms of saving money, Hubert is the worst person to go to for advice.”

And lastly,
3. Athlete
Definition
a person who is very good at sports or physical exercise, especially one who competes in organized events
Used in a sentence, you could say:
“Lebron James is an amazing athlete.”

Ok, I lied. I didn’t overcome my fear of Chinese but I did lessen the anxiety I feel for it whenever I receive a Chinese audition or job. A sense of dread (which means a feeling of not wanting to do something out of fear) always overcomes me but I choose to carry on. I was the lead of a Chinese film before and in almost every scene delivering big speeches entirely in Mandarin. I barely understood what I was saying (I mean I got the general idea of it) but there were times that I didn’t understand what was going on. To this day, I think that was some of the strongest acting I’ve ever done. Why? I would have to guess that I prepared for this role more than I prepared for any other role in my acting career. I had to because there was no other way around it. I needed to know my lines because people’s jobs depended on me. I didn’t want to let them down. What did I learn from all of this? Well, I learned that with a combination of pressure, hard work, and determination that something you were fearful of, could ultimately be your strength. Just like Naruto’s shadow-ninjutsu technique. Shoutout to any Naruto fans out there.

That about does it for today’s episode. What are some of your fears? Do you think you can overcome them? I definitely think you can. Just gotta grit your teeth and face your fears! Let’s go! For any listeners who are interested, my Instagram is @hughtran_ if you want to see what I’m up to. You’ll either find me there or on the Pronunciation Challenge every Wednesday and Saturday! See everyone again in the next episode! Bye!