China232.com Blog

I’m always thinking of the best and most interesting stuff to teach you guys. I want to start teaching 2 awesome terms on each blog post (If I can think of good ones) so that you will learn at least 1 (maybe 2) useful things every time you visit this blog.

The first term I want to teach is “Toot your own horn“. I was just listening to another podcast about technology; the guy making the podcast said, “I don’t want to toot my own horn but…” If you “toot your own horn” it means you are bragging or showing off. You are talking about how good or awesome you are. People want to seem modest, so if they want to say something good about themselves, it’s better to start by saying, “I really don’t mean to toot my own horn but…” That means, “I realize this will sound like I’m bragging a little, but I just want to say…”

For example I could say, “I don’t want to toot my own horn, but the VIP room is going really well and people are loving it and writing great emails to Add and I every day”. (It’s true, and it’s also true I don’t want to toot my own horn about it.)

Ok… Maybe you knew that first term. I will be very surprised, and impressed, if you know this second term. It is, “Sadie Hawkins dance“. This is a very interesting cultural thing that happens in the West (Sometimes). Traditionally, if there is a school dance, it is common for a guy to ask (invite) a girl to the dance. This is just how a regular dance works. In every culture I can think of, it’s the guys asking the girls on a date, not the other way around.

A “Sadie Hawkins dance” is a dance where the girls are the ones who invite the guys. I remember we had Sadie Hawkins dances once a year when I went to high school. I totally forgot about this term until last night when I was watching a movie. I stopped the movie and immediately wrote it down because I was excited to teach it to you guys. If I don’t write stuff down, I forget about it. Anyway, I’m glad I wrote it down and I hope this is a new term for you. Love to hear your comments as always guys!

*** BTW, Are you in the mood to take your English to an unbelievable level SUPER FAST? I hope you strongly think about joining the VIP Program NOW. Procrastination never helps anything. I don’t want to “toot my own horn”, but Add and I have been making some unbelievable lessons lately and we know you’ll love them. So… it’s really a perfect time to JOIN THE VIP ROOM! You won’t regret it! That’s a personal guarantee:)

As I’ve mentioned before, Add and I are working our asses off (Working super hard) on making a sick (awesome) course for

learning American pronunciation.

Add recently improved the design of that site and we’re doing our best to make the world’s best accent training course.  2013 is no joke here at the 232!  We’re also getting into videos for our upcoming learning English site.  Subscribe to our English learning Youtube channel to make sure you don’t miss any new videos when they come out.  There will be some awesome ones soon!

Since we’re going to be making tons of different kinds of videos, I’ve been playing around a lot on Youtube.  I do this partly because it’s fun and I like to waste time, partly to see the kind of competition we’re going to face, and partly to get some cool different video ideas.

In this sense, “playing around” can be used for “surfing” the internet.  I’ve noticed a lot of non native speakers ALWAYS say they are surfing the internet.  If you want to be more native, mix it up.  Sometimes say “surfing”, sometimes say “playing around”, and sometimes say “goofing around”.  They all mean the same thing in this context.  Here are 3 examples.  Use them all from time to time.

1.  I spent all afternoon surfing the internet.

2.  I spent all afternoon playing around on the internet.

3.  I spent all afternoon goofing around on the internet.

…..Anyway, I came across one absolutely hilarious English learning video.  It was made in Japan.  Now PLEASE understand that I honestly love going to Japan and I don’t want to make fun of them or any culture at all.  I just think this video is hilarious.  I’d love for some of our Japanese fans to explain what this might be.  Is it for fun?  Is it serious?  I really don’t get it, but it’s definitely fun to watch.  One thing I do appreciate is that it seems that the Japanese can have fun.  For some reason, westerners would never make this because they are too self conscious and worried about what other people think.  I respect that Japan seems to have this ability to be playful and have fun as adults.  All cultures have their unique parts.

(***Please also understand, that I totally realize I have no idea if this is normal or common in Japan or not.  That’s why I’d really like to hear some opinions from real Japanese people AND people from other cultures too on the video below)

This type of video certainly makes us feel more confident that our Accent training course will be a great bonus for everyone.  The Japanese accent is super cute, don’t get me wrong, it’s just always interesting when you hear non native speakers teaching any language.  It would be like if I tried to teach Westerners how to speak perfect Chinese.  I can speak it, but it’s better to let a Chinese person teach you.  A LOT better!

Don’t forget, our Accent Course will be FREE for any VIP members.  It’s going to be $47 USD for all other people.

If you are interested in the course we are making, getting the VIP membership now (On the Apple or Android App is ok too) would be a great idea since you will get everything for a year PLUS the free accent course!  (Please don’t write about this all over the internet because we’re going to sell the accent course for $47 USD to people who have never heard of this website.  Again, here is the Accent course ONLY you guys will get for free with a VIP membership.

Please watch the video below and comment on it.  I’d love to hear what you guys think.  Say anything at all.  Keep the comments coming and I’ll keep blogging!

Get the VIP Membership now so you can be sure to get the FREE accent course!  You won’t regret it!

We’re making an accent training course to teach you guys how to speak English with the most standard American Accent.  We truly believe this is possible to achieve with the proper method.

Add and I made our first short video with some tips about how to say certain words.  We’d love for you to watch the video below and make comments on it.  We’re going to be making many videos and lessons to teach American standard pronunciation.  It would be great to get as many honest comments as possible from you guys.

I hope you like this one.

American Accent Training Series

Please comment below and subscribe to the Youtube Channel for all future videos on this topic.

We can’t wait to read your comments.

Add and I are working on a new program.  We’re making a video series and e-book complete course about teaching non native speakers how to speak English with an American accent.

We believe that learning to pronounce words with a standard American accent, you know, the kind you hear on popular TV shows and in movies, is not only cool to be able to speak, but it’s also very advantageous to learn for business and social reasons.

In my personal opinion, I don’t mind if someone speaks English with a thick accent.  If I can understand them, it’s fine.  But from their perspective, I can totally understand why they would want to learn to speak like a native speaker.  Our training course is going to make people come very close to achieving this goal in a short time.

It takes a lot of work and we’ve been working hard on it.  When we have some lessons ready, we’ll show you guys the videos and let you learn from them and tell us what you think.  We’re probably going to make the program free for VIP members and we’re thinking of $47 for “other people”.  We’re going to put the course on a different site, so it will be a special bonus secret for our 232 fans.

I just researched some accent training courses and found some pretty terrible ones for $157 USD.  That’s pretty expensive in my mind.  We want to make something better and cheaper.  As I said, it will likely be free for the VIP members and we’ll give some free lessons to absolutely everyone.  This is where we are going to host our Online American Accent Training Course

The site looks like a joke now, but we just bought it today and are making lessons “behind the scenes”

I’d love to know what you think about the advantages of learning an American accent.

Do you think it would be cool?

Do you think it would help you in your career?

Do you think people would respect you more if you sounded like a native speaker?

Do you think it’s possible for adults to learn an American accent?

What other benefits do you think you’ll have if you are able to speak like an American when you are speaking English?

Are there any specific pronunciation questions you have that you’d like me to include in our lesson series?

Any advice would be great.  We’ll be sure to provide at least some free stuff for you guys and we won’t make the VIP people pay for the course.  It will be our little 232 secret.

Thanks guys!  Looking forward to hearing your answers and opinions.