Pronunciation ChallengeHow to Smuggle Million Dollar Goods | The Business of Crime

Contemporary smugglers across the world might traffic anything from tobacco to art, food, exotic animals, narcotics, guns, and even people.

“The fight against drug trafficking is a wildfire that threatens to consume those fundamental rights of the individual deliberately enshrined in our Constitution.” - Juan Guerrero Burciaga

Hi everyone, it’s Hubert again with a new episode of the Pronunciation Challenge! Have any of you listeners watched the Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs before? Let me try and say it in Chinese, 無間道. How was my pronunciation?! Today, I am presenting a video that is something like Infernal Affairs. We’ll be watching a video about drug smuggling and the video starts off talking about the drug smuggling trade in Hong Kong! The video eventually goes on to talk about the global drug trade which is big business but also very scary and not to mention illegal! It’s a crazy world that hopefully, all you listeners will never understand. After watching the video, you’ll realize how dark this industry can really get. Let’s get to the featured sentence before moving on, shall we?

Today’s featured sentence:
Contemporary smugglers across the world might traffic anything from tobacco to art, food, exotic animals, narcotics, guns, and even people.

I’ll say that again.

Contemporary smugglers across the world might traffic anything from tobacco to art, food, exotic animals, narcotics, guns, and even people.

Ok, now time for the Pronunciation Tips.


For the first word, we have
Contemporary
Five syllables.
“CON” has a short “U” sound. “TEM” has a short “E” sound. “POR” has your typical “E R” sound. For the last two syllables, try to combine them to form the word “airy”, like the word “air” as in we need air to breathe. Contemporary.

Next up, we have
Tobacco
Three syllables
The first syllable, “TO” has a short “U” sound. “BAC” has a short “A” sound and “CO” has a short “O” sound. Tobacco.

Lastly, we have,
Exotic
Three syllables.
The first syllable, “E” has the short “E” sound. “XO” sounds like the letters “Z” and “O” blended together. “TIC” has a short “i” sound. Exotic.


Moving onto Vocabulary!

The first word is:
1. Contemporary
Definition
existing or happening now
Used in a sentence you could say,
“Do you like contemporary art?”

Next word,
2. Smuggler
Definition
someone who smuggles
Used in a sentence, you could say:
“He played a drug smuggler on that TV show.”

And lastly,
3. Narcotic
Definition:
an illegal drug such as heroin or cocaine）
Used in a sentence, you could say:
“This police officer worked in the narcotics division.”

Now, wasn’t that a scary look into the drug and smuggling business? Smuggling isn’t only referring to drugs but to many other things as well. The video mentioned the priceless Picasso painting and even human trafficking which is essentially smuggling people. I bring up human trafficking because I recently heard of the story of Carlos Ghosn (ex-chairman of Nissan) escaping Japan in a box meant for sound equipment used for big concerts. You guys should look into this story, it’s quite interesting.

Ok guys, get your recordings in, and if you want to practice some more, check out my other colleagues’ episodes on the Pronunciation Challenge! We all work very hard and appreciate you listeners for tuning in. If you haven’t already, be sure to give me a follow on Instagram @hughtran_ to see what I’m up to! Alright, until the next episode, see ya!