Pronunciation ChallengeHow to Deal with Losing Friends || Anna Akana

"Seasons change, people grow together and apart, life moves on. You will be okay, embrace it." - Alexandra Elle

What’s up, everyone, how are you doing? Hope everyone is hard at work practicing their pronunciation! My name is Hubert, and I’ll be your host for today’s Pronunciation Challenge! I’m sure a lot of you listeners can relate to today’s video topic. It’s about friends and how we sometimes grow apart from some, if not, most of them as we grow older. Like the quote at the beginning of this episode, I believe that people in your life come and go like the seasons. Perhaps they were only meant to be here for one season. They taught us a valuable lesson, be it positive or negative! Let’s get to the featured sentence before we talk more about this topic!

Today’s featured sentence:
Second, don't let this experience deter you from emotionally engaging from other people.

I’ll say that again.

Second, don't let this experience deter you from emotionally engaging from other people.

Ok, now time for the Pronunciation Tips.


For the first word, we have
Experience
Four syllables.
“EX” like the letter X. With “PER”, the second syllable, add an S sound in front so you can have something like “spee” with a long E sound. “RI” also has long E sound. Imagine the last syllable, “ENCE” spelt like “UNS”. Experience.

Next up, we have
Deter
Two syllables
I chose this word because I don’t want you listeners pronouncing this as “deeter” or “dehter”. Go with a short U sound for the first syllable “DE”. “TER” just has your typical ER ending sound.

Lastly, we have,
Engaging
Three syllables.
“EN” is simply pronounced like the letter N. “GA” has a long A sound. WithWIth the last syllable, imagine this being spelt like “JING”. Engaging.


Moving onto Vocabulary!

The first word is:
1. eExperience
Definition
(the process of getting) knowledge or skill from doing, seeing, or feeling things
Used in a sentence you could say,
“I gained valuable experience from my failures.”

Next word,
2. dDeter
Definition
to prevent someone from doing something or to make someone less enthusiastic about doing something by making it difficult for that person to do it or by threatening bad results if they do it
Used in a sentence, you could say:
“Dogs can deter an unwelcome visitor from your home.”

And lastly,
3. eEngage
Definition:
to interest someone in something and keep them thinking about it
Used in a sentence, you could say:
“I found it difficult engaging the students in class today.”

So what were your younger years like? For me, I wasn’t exactly a popular kid, but I also had friends here and there. What I mean, is that I would have different friends in different groups. I had my basketball friends. My video game friends. My “cool” friends. I would act differently with every group. I guess it was because I wanted to fit in everywhere. This meant that I made many friends but not many long- lasting ones and you know what? That’s totally fine. I find life way less dramatic when you keep your circle of friends smaller anyways. I’ve actually cut off many friends after this pandemic started. I feel that time is limited and I rather spend it with friends who I actually enjoy spending time with than pretending to be something I’m not just to fit in. It’s nothing personal (in case one of these friends I cut off is listening), it just means that that time has passed and I wish you well. Perhaps, we may meet again. Perhaps we may not. I’ll still cherish our memories together.

In case some of you are wondering, this isn’t about an ex-girlfriend or anything. There really have been some friends who I was really close with in the past. We just don’t talk anymore. We simply grew apart.
Ok, so that about does it for today’s episode. If you haven’t done so already, get those recordings in and give your boy a follow at hughtran_ on Instagram! Until the next episode, see ya!

Day 181