Rock Your English! - een introductie (1)

Buffi Duberman (@rockyourenglish, ook op Facebook) mag het in het Engels zeggen, want dat wordt de voertaal in deze serie: 'I started Creative Communication Consultants over 15 years ago and specialize in co-writing, lyrics screening, pre-studio coaching, in–studio pronunciation monitoring, media and interview training, and the editing/translating/writing of bios, press releases and websites. My clients are the best of the best in the Dutch music scene: Caro Emerald, Within Temptation, Racoon, Wouter Hamel, a balladeer, Charlie Dée and many others. My book Rock Your English! is the fun(ky) way to improve your English grammar by focusing on song lyrics, songwriting and pop quizzes instead of the usual boring exercises.' En dat is precies wat Buffi in deze serie gaat doen: tips & trucs delen hoe je je Engelse uitspraak en songteksten kunt verbeteren. Nuttig, lijkt me.



Ik vroeg Buffi om haar Top 10 meestgemaakte fouten door Nederlandse muzikanten. Ze antwoordde:

1. De uitspraak van 'Th': 'Did you know that we actually have 2 different th-sounds in English? One is ‘blown’ and the other one is ‘buzzed’.'
2. Het verschil tussen de ‘f’ en de ‘v’: 'The ‘v’ is much harder in English than in Dutch. I should hear a difference between ‘fairy’ and ‘very’ and I usually don’t.'
3. Woorden die eindigen op ‘d’ en ‘t’: 'Most people overpronounce this – and if you do, it’s like listening to a high hat after every word. The poor producer, who probably isn’t really concentrating on the pronunciation, has to cut it off every time. Spare him/her and do it yourself.'
4. 'People also love to overpronounce the ‘o’ sound in ‘to’. You need to make it sound more like a ‘te’-sound to make it flow better.'
5. 'And speaking of flow: if you are too concentrated on your pronunciation while recording, then you will sound like a computer. The vibe/emotion will be gone. So work on your pronunciation before you step one foot into that studio. It makes a huge difference.'
6. Net zoals je band uitgebreid soundcheckt om top te klinken, zou je dat ook moeten doen als je in het Engels gaat zingen. Buffi: 'I can hear in a second if someone was speaking Dutch just before they started singing. Read your lyrics out loud several times, read articles, etc.'
7. Ze vervolgt: 'Today on Twitter an artist asked ‘Does anyone know a native speaker who can screen a lyric – soon’, because they were about to record it. This is something you should think about WAY before you go into that studio! It happens all the time – people are in the middle of doing vocals and they decide ‘maybe a little check by a native wouldn’t hurt’ but then that ‘a little check’ reveals a few things that have to be changed, and this starts a domino-day type of effect which may end up affecting the music. And then you’re basically kind of screwed...'
8. Buffi's doel met mediatraining: 'How to swing your standard answers a million different ways so that you never get bored, even after 9 interviews a day.' Daar heeft Caro vast lol van gehad...
9. En over het verschil tussen Engels Engels en Amerikaans Engels: 'Everything has to match: spelling, grammar and pronunciation. Otherwise you will not come across as consistent or credible.'
10. En tot slot: Engelse grammatica in het algemeen. 'Rock your English!' dus.

Buffi zal haar hele Top 10 doornemen op EHPO, te beginnen komende woensdag. Morgen om 11u Perfect Bankhangen, een persoonlijke selectie van DJ-held Nuno dos Santos.

Tweet