English Study Plan — Pronunciation & Speaking

Sat Aug 8 — The "th" sounds (voiced /ð/ and unvoiced /θ/)

• Watch: Rachel's English — TH sound
• Practice 20× each: "think, three, through" (unvoiced) and "the, this, that" (voiced)
• Check tongue placement: tip of tongue between teeth, not behind teeth

Sun Aug 9 — REST

Mon Aug 11 — Minimal pairs: th vs s/t

• thin/sin, think/sink, thank/tank, three/tree, through/true — say each pair 3×, record yourself
• Use YouGlish.com: type "think", listen to 5 examples

Tue Aug 12 — Listening: th in real speech

• Watch without subtitles first, then with. Focus on catching th sounds.
• Video: English with Lucy — pronunciation tips
• Write down 5 words with "th" that you hear

Wed Aug 13 — Shadowing practice

• Pick 30 seconds from Tuesday's video. Play, pause, repeat — 10×
• Focus on matching the speaker's rhythm, not just the words
• Record your last 3 attempts

Thu Aug 14 — Short vs long vowels

• Watch: ship vs sheep, sit vs seat
• Pairs: ship/sheep, sit/seat, hit/heat, bit/beat, fill/feel
• Second session — ending consonants: video
• Practice: "want" (not "wan"), "asked" (not "ast"), "months" (not "mons")

Fri Aug 15 — Conversation: introduce yourself

• Record a 1-minute self-introduction: your name, where you live, what you do
• One thing you like about English, one thing you find difficult
• Don't script it — speak naturally, mistakes are fine. Then report to Hermes.

• Sat: More vowel pairs — pull/pool, not/note, hat/hut. Check with Forvo.com
• Sun: REST
• Mon: TED talk listening — 3 min, no subs first
• Tue: Shadow 1 minute of the TED talk, 10 reps
• Wed: The /l/ and /r/ sounds — video — pairs: light/right, long/wrong
• Thu: Ending consonants review + /ʒ/ /dʒ/ /tʃ/ sounds
• Fri: Conversation — describe your day yesterday (past tense, 2 min). Report.

• Sat: Word stress — video — PHOtograph / phoTOgrapher / photoGRAPHic
• Sun: REST
• Mon: BBC News clip — BBC News — 2 min, no subs first
• Tue: Shadow 30 sec of BBC clip, 10 reps
• Wed: Sentence stress — video — "I WANT to GO to the STORE"
• Thu: Connected speech — gonna/wanna/don'cha — video
• Fri: Conversation — opinions (favorite food, dream place, skill you want). 2 min. Report.

• Sat: Phrasal verbs — video
• Sun: REST
• Mon: BBC 6 Minute English — pick any episode, no subs first
• Tue: Shadow full episode, 10 reps
• Wed: /ŋ/ sound (sing/thing) + review ALL sounds from weeks 1–3
• Thu: Record yourself reading a paragraph from any English article aloud
• Fri: Conversation — free topic, 3 minutes. Report.

Same weekly rhythm. Each week pick ONE focus area:

• Week 5: Speed — speak faster while keeping clarity
• Week 6: Vocabulary — learn 10 new phrasal verbs, use them in conversation
• Week 7: Storytelling — practice telling a story with a beginning/middle/end
• Week 8: Questions — practice asking follow-up questions naturally

Resources: BBC 6 Minute English playlist, youglish.com, Forvo.com, any TED talk under 10 min.

• Mon: Watch 15 min video — movie clip, TED talk, debate. No subs → English subs. Write 1 paragraph summary.
• Tue: Read article aloud (HN, BBC, any). Record. Check new words on Forvo.
• Wed: Full podcast episode, 20–30 min. BBC Global News or "The Daily"
• Thu: Shadow + re-record Monday's summary. Compare to Monday.
• Fri: 5-min conversation on a prompt. Report.

Conversation prompts (pick one per Friday):

• "Tell me about a time you solved a difficult problem at work"
• "Explain why you chose your career and what excites you about it"
• "Describe a place you've visited and what made it memorable"
• "What technology trend do you find most interesting?"
• "If you could change one thing about how people work, what would it be?"

• Record 5-minute self-introduction + answer 3 random prompts from above
• Re-record your Week 1 Friday introduction — compare side by side
• Note which sounds still feel hard, which feel natural