I believe a language is like music, and even if you know all the words, it doesn’t mean that you can sing the song, right? When you sing you sing with rhythm, when you speak, you should also speak with rhythm. In this lesson, I’m going to share a children’s rhyme or as we say a nursery rhyme. Through the rhyme, I hope that you get a stronger feel for the rhythm in English language.
Now this is the rhyme that most of Americans know,
it’s called “Hey, Diddle Diddle!” To
help you understand, I’m going to show a family quilt. It’s been in my family for 50 years. So, you look at the pictures, I will say the
rhyme:
Hey, diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
OK, so now time for you to join in. I’m going to say the rhyme again, and I’m
going to pause after each rhyme. I want
you to repeat after me. If you need more
time to say each line, hit the pause button on your screen. Ok? I have to words to help you out, so
look at the words again. Repeat after
me. [See
screen]
OK, last time, let’s say together.
Great, now, hoply you do have better sense of
the rhythm and I know this just a rhythm, but that rhythmic pattern actually is
present in regular conversation and regular speech. We’re gonna have more practice in a little bit;
right now we’re gonna pause and I’ll see you in a follow up lesson.