Listen to a story about cleaning out all my stuff from my parents basement!
You’ll also learn how to link same consonant sounds in spoken English.
Welcome to the English Teacher Melanie Podcast, a podcast for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to improve their English listening and speaking skills!
Each episode includes a story and a pronunciation tip. In the story, I use core vocabulary, the most common words in English, to tell a real world story. The pronunciation tip will help you understand natural spoken English.
You’ll hear the story twice. The first time, the story is a little slower than normal. It sounds funny because I used editing software to change the speed of the story and make it slower. After the pronunciation tip, you’ll hear the story again, but at a regular speed.
THE STORY
My parents have lived in the same house for 30 years. For 30 years I’ve had a place to store my stuff. I’ve been very fortunate. All through university and coming & going from my travels overseas, my parents let me put boxes of my stuff in their basement. It’s stuff that I wanted to keep but didn’t need immediately. I had planned to sort through everything someday, but I never got around to it.
Now my parents have decided to sell their house, and I have to clean out 30 years of my stuff from the basement! This is such bad timing for me, because I don’t have time right now to go through every box and decide what to keep and what to toss! The boxes are full of things like books, old clothes, souvenirs, school memorabilia, photos, scrapbooks, and toys my mom kept from my childhood. I don’t even know why I’ve kept some of that stuff. So, I’ve rented a storage locker to store all my stuff for the time being.
A storage locker (or a storage unit, which is the same thing), is a temporary storage space. The space can be as small as a closet or as big as a garage. My locker is a 5×10-foot space inside a building. It has walls on three sides and a large metal roll-up door that is secured with a lock. I pay monthly to rent that space, and I’m the only person who can access that space because I have the key for the lock. The building is very secure, so I feel safe storing my stuff there.
I’ve removed about two-thirds of my stuff from the basement so far. I’m running out of space in my locker, but a bigger locker is too expensive. I’ll have to start going through the boxes that are still in the basement. Whatever doesn’t fit into the storage locker, I’ll either donate it to charity, or throw it out.
PRONUNCIATION TIP
HOW TO LINK SAME CONSONANT SOUNDS IN SPOKEN ENGLISH
This transcript uses IPA symbols to represent sounds and teach pronunciation. Learn more about the IPA here.
One of the main features of natural spoken English is linking.
In English, words flow together in a natural rhythm.
Part of that flow includes linking words together so that there is no pause between words.
Listen to part of a sentence from the story:
… coming and going from my travels overseas …
Listen carefully to the way I say FROM and MY:
… coming and going from my travels overseas …
The word FROM ends with an M sound, and the next word MY begins with an M sound. When one word ends with the same sound that the next word starts with, you only need to say that sound once.
With the words FROM and MY, you only need to say the M sound once, so that there is no stop or pause between the two words.
Listen carefully:
… from my … / frəmaɪ/
… coming and going from my travels overseas …
I connected the two words together by only saying the M sound once.
Linking is a very common feature of natural spoken English. Here are some easy phrases that you can practice to get used to linking same consonant sounds.
some money
a bad day
this Saturday
a fun night
QUESTIONS
- Do you have a lot of stuff?
- What do you do with stuff you don’t need right away but you want to keep? Do you store it anywhere?
Leave me a comment below!
Thank you
nice story for me I don’t like stuff always throw a way from me in garbage but when want to keep some in the garage .
Hi Melanie,the most of my such stuff has been get away during so much long time,becouse is imposible for me throw it in a once.Specially the photos I will keep them forever and this kind of stuff can’t throw it away.
hello thanks a lot that was very helpful
I love you so much.I’m from Barranquilla ,colombia ,southamerica.The most difficult thing is to understand the lyrics of the songs,specilly rap music.What can I do for solving that problem?I’m english teacher and sometimes I feel shame for thar,when my students ask me,what does that song say in spanish?
Hi, Oscar!
Don’t worry! Many times even native speakers can’t understand song lyrics! The grammar is not always correct, singers often use slang, and many times they don’t sing clearly. This is what the internet is for! You can google the song lyrics! You can google the name of the song + lyrics & you will find the words to the songs.
I agree with you about photos. I have a lot of photos and I will never throw them away, either!
Best regards,
Melanie
Thank my God Wonderful Teacher.
thanks Melanie i realy love & appreciate your work
Thank you so much! I am happy to hear that!
My house is a cellar since my wife is her hobby to store objects. It made me laugh a lot.
That’s funny, Eder! Your wife & I would get along well! :)
Thank you for hard work Teacher
I’m also a person who loves to keep own special stuff for memory but I keep them in different places saparetly then I need long time to find them out ????
Thank you! I’m glad that I’m not the only person keeps special stuff! I am happy that everything is in one place now in the storage locker – except that I can’t find anything in the storage locker because there is so much stuff!
You´re right Melany, It´s very difficutl to select what and what not to throw away in a just moment, so I particularly agree with your method.
Thanks for your suggestions
Thank you! I am happy to know someone thinks like me! :)
Hi Melanie,
First of all, I’m so happy you’re back!!
How are you?? Since last November , I haven’t
heard anything from you!!
I think I m not bad at old stuffs ….means I don’t have much a lot of stuff, my husband,he wants to keep almost everything!! Two third of our closet are his stuff and it makes me so mad…. So, recently a bunch of his stuffs I donated to charity!!!! ( he didn’t even know ) if I tell him he will say NO!!! ????????
Yes, linking consonants are very important. After I listened the podcast I realist more and more how important linking sentence are. Thank you for the tips!
I’m so sorry I was gone for so long! It was a very busy time in my life and I was also sick for a while.
I can’t believe your husband hasn’t noticed that you donated his stuff to charity! :) That’s funny. Obviously he doesn’t need it!
All the best,
Melanie
Hi Melanie, thank you for your lessons and tips. You are excelent teacher.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Fernando! :)
Melanie, you are a good teacher,your english is very simple and understable.My problem is on pronouncing words and when I suppose to respond in english
Hi, Leloow!
You are not alone! Many English learners feel the same way. Do you know what you sound like when you speak English? Record yourself! Use the camera on your phone or tablet and read something in English. For example, record yourself reading this story!
Next, compare how you sound to how I sound. What are the differences that you hear?
Next, copy the sounds that I make. Hear the words, don’t try to see the words.
If you do these things, your pronunciation & speaking skills will improve!
All the best,
Melanie
Hi Melanie, I like your podcast since it’s a good way to learn expressions used by native speakers.
I have been keeping a lot old clothing. I won’t wear them any more because some of them are smaller, or I don’t like the style any more. But I have never thought of throwing them out since all of them are still good. Regarding your story, I may think of donating them to the Value Village later on.
It is interesting Melanin. This is first time I know about your site but chance I was opening pages in Internet and some of them brought me to yours really it was interesting. I’ll keep practicing by your episodes because I need to improve my English I am from syria. Thak you
Welcome, Kamal! I am happy that you found my site & that you are here now! I hope you enjoy all the podcast episodes!
Hello Melanie, must have been hard for you to decide what Stuff to keep, what to toss. After all ,each box was full of memories of your younger days.Most of them brought back flashes, some happy, some sad, :”friends, fellow students that you don’t see in years. I can understand that unless you decide to part with so many stuff it would be needed a bigger locker . You are right, keep it small.
You are very wise, Julio! It is hard to part with a lot of the stuff because these are memories I don’t want to forget. I feel like if I throw something out, I will forget about it and forget all the memories.
Hi Melanie,
The first website Google showed up when I searched for ‘when not to use “the”” was your page. And was I delighted to see your examples!?!! I have always wanted to read one definitive source of English grammar that would help me avoid overuse of ‘the’ and, thanks to you (or should I say, thanks to Google :) ), I found it. I clicked around the page and learnt that you actually publish audio lessons/podcasts to help the general community. Melanie, that’s amazing work you do there!
I just tuned into lesson 23 (the latest one as of today) and heard your story about being nostalgic about your old stuff (which can be said about me too) and I really liked the way you spoke in a very natural way. I wish I could be as fluent and eloquent like you. But I am not. I slur and stammer sometimes. It’s embarrassing when I do that in a conference call with my U.S. co-workers over the phone. But it’s most excruciating when I am not able to quickly express my opinion or throw in a joke or a comment (for fear of being unclear or inaudible) when my colleagues are conversing casually over lunch. I am unable to participate in all such social interactions.
Could you please suggest some training that may help me alleviate this problem? Should I practice reading whole chapters from books aloud for hours?
By the way, your profile says that you are from a ‘small town’ just off Toronto. Is it Brampton? (I had been there once many years ago so I was a bit curious. It’s perfectly OK if you do not prefer to disclose it)
Rohit
(India)
Hi, Rohit!
It so nice to hear from you! Thank you for telling me how you found my website & how you found the podcast! I am always curious about this. And thank you for your kind words! :)
You have reached a very high level of English. Do any of your co-workers say anything about your English? Do any of them say that they can’t understand what you are saying? Or do you just feel that you slur or stammer or are unclear and inaudible? Do you feel that you speak with a strong accent?
Have you ever recorded yourself speaking English? Do you know what you actually sound like? Try recording yourself reading the story in this podcast episode.
If you want to sound more American, but you don’t know any American native speakers you can practice with, the best thing to do is listen to as much spoken American English as possible: movies, TV shows, podcasts, radio, etc. Imitate or copy the sounds that you hear. (Are there any languages or accents in India that you and your friends make fun of? Do you ever pretend to speak your language with another accent? Try to do that with English.)
It’s hard to give more specific advice without knowing what you sound like when you speak English! I wish you all the best with your English studies,
Melanie
Hi Melanie
this is payam an MA TEFL student from Iran
I just wanted to thank you for creating such an awesome website, I’m going to present your website at my University (Shiraz University, Iran) for my CALL class.
I have been dissecting and analyzing your website for about 12 hours now, and I felt a serge of positive vibes exuding from every word you took the time to type.
mademoiselle you have my deepest gratitude.
PS just joined your mailing list and if there is anything I can do to help please just ask
i’m new member, i just want to say Thank you for your great teaches. i’m sure i will better with your lessons.
THANK YOU, is the only thing that i can say.
THANK YOU again.
Having been working as a general since I had graduated from medical school of surgery- 50 years I had to buy some surgical instruments & books .
even though some of them are out of date I did not dare to throw them away and keep them as stuff in my home,because they are precious for me,and they are as valuable as the renovated new ones,because they show the history of improvement of surgical`Science in my country.
In my point of view sometimes in the future they will have been more valuable,therefore,never have I looked at them as stuff.