Pronunciation ChallengeThe Scientific Power of Naps

“No day is so bad that it can not be fixed by a good nap” - Carrie Snow

Boy, am I tired. Did you just yawn too? Apparently, yawns are contagious. Did you ever notice that other people yawn after you yawn? It’s actually kind of cool that this happens. Why am I talking about yawning? Well, first off, let me introduce myself. Hi everyone, my name is Hubert and I’ll be your host for today’s Pronunciation Challenge. Today, I’ll be presenting a video about the scientific power of naps! What is a nap exactly? What makes it different, scientifically, from sleep? Obviously, it’s the duration (duration meaning the length of time something goes on for) but what is the cut off between a nap and full-on sleep? Let’s get to the featured sentence before we find out.

Today’s featured sentence:
Waking out of these stages has shown benefits, including increased productivity, increased cognitive function, enhanced memory, boosted creativity, and most importantly, feeling less tired.

I’ll say that again.

Waking out of these stages has shown benefits, including increased productivity, increased cognitive function, enhanced memory, boosted creativity, and most importantly, feeling less tired.

Ok, now time for the Pronunciation Tips.

For the first word, we have
productivity
Five syllables.
The first syllable, “PRO” has a short A sound. For the next syllable, simply say “duck”. The third syllable, “TIV”, try saying “live” but with a T instead of the L. “VI” has a short U sound and “TY” sounds the same as the letter T. Productivity.

Next up, we have
cognitive
Three syllables
The first syllable, “COG”, try saying it with a short A sound, “CAAG”. For “NI”, try saying it with a short U sound instead. Lastly, the third syllable is just like the last word with “TIVE”. Say “live” but with a T instead of the L. Cognitive.

Lastly, we have,
Importantly
Four syllables.
“IM” has a short i sound. “POR” has a short O sound. The third syllable, “TANT” actually has a very soft T sound, I might even say it’s close to a silent T here. Replace the T sound here with a short U sound, giving you something like a “U N T” spelling. Last syllable, “LY”, sounds like Lee from Bruce Lee. Importantly.

Moving on to Vocabulary!

The first word is:
1. Productivity
Definition
the rate at which a company or country makes goods, usually judged in connection with the number of people and the amount of materials necessary to produce the goods
Used in a sentence you could say,
“Improved productivity at work meant better reviews, which also meant better pay raises.”
Next word,
2. Cognitive
Definition
connected with thinking or conscious mental processes
Used in a sentence, you could say:
“After the accident, some of his cognitive functions were not functioning the same as before.”

And lastly,
3. Enhance
Definition:
to improve the quality, amount, or strength of something
Used in a sentence, you could say:
“We need to find a way to enhance your reading capabilities.”

30 minutes is the cutoff between a nap and deep sleep. Anything more than that and you enter deep rest and waking up from that may seem even harder! You could even mess up your night’s sleep as well! I recently watched another video talking about coffee naps! It’s when you drink coffee and immediately take a nap because the caffeine doesn’t hit you right away. It’s supposed to make you feel even more awake after you wake up. As mentioned in the video, Japan offers nap salons which I think is genius. Perhaps, you need a lunchtime recharge? Maybe you have flexible working hours and you’re not at home. Drop by the nap salon in the middle of the city! Hong Kong actually has nap salons too and I’ve visited them before! They’re actually really comfortable and just looking around made me sleepy! The last time I checked, Taipei didn’t have this service. Business idea?

Alright, listeners, make sure you get in your recordings if you haven’t done so already. Give me a follow if you want to see what I’m up to outside of the Pronunciation Challenge at hughtran_ on Instagram. See you in the next episode, bye!

Day 188