If you can improve your placement, you will immediately sound more natural every time you speak English.

如果你能改善你的位置，你每次說英語的時候，你會立刻聽起來更自然。

I've been making videos on American English on YouTube for 11 years and this is probably

我在YouTube上做美式英語的視頻已經11年了，這大概是

the most excited I've ever been about a video.

最興奮的我一直對一個視頻。

There's one thing that affects the sound of the voice when a non-native speaker is speaking

在非母語人士說話時，有一個東西會影響聲音的大小

American English more than anything else. And it really affects whether or not someone sounds American.

美式英語比什麼都重要。而這真的會影響一個人是否聽起來像美國人。

It's placement. Maybe you've never even heard this word before.

這就是安置。也許你根本就沒聽過這個詞。

Not many teachers talk about it and I will say it's one of the hardest things to teach.

沒有多少老師談到這一點，我想說這是最難教的一件事。

But today, we're going to talk about it.

但今天，我們要談的是。

We're going to use a mixing engineer and a scientific paper to understand what is placement.

我們要用一個攪拌工程師和一篇科學論文來理解什麼是放置。

Here is a taste of what we'll explore.

下面是我們要探討的內容。

Hi! Hi!

嗨，嗨！

I had the mixing engineer change the placement. Thank you, Sendai Mike!

我讓混音師改變了位置。謝謝你，仙台麥克！

We're going to get to the details of all of this

我們將進入這一切的細節。

but I want you to know that almost all of my students need to work on their placement.

但我想告訴你，幾乎所有的學生都需要在實習上下功夫。

It doesn't matter what your native language is. By the end of this video, you're going to understand

你的母語是什麼並不重要。在這段視頻結束後，你將會了解到

what placement is and be able to change your placement

什麼是安置，並能改變你的安置。

to unlock a more natural American voice within yourself.

來釋放自己內心更自然的美國聲音。

And please remember, if you like this video or learned something,

請記住，如果你喜歡這個視頻或者學到了什麼。

be sure to like it and subscribe with notifications. Thank you guys!

一定要喜歡它並訂閱通知。謝謝大家

Several months ago, I asked you to send in videos of yourself saying a dialogue

幾個月前，我讓你把自己說的一段對話的視頻發過來。

so I could use your examples to teach here on YouTube. Thank you!

所以我可以用你的例子在YouTube上教書。謝謝您！

All of the examples in this video, including the one you already heard came from you guys.

這個視頻中所有的例子，包括你已經聽到的例子都來自於你們。

And by the way, if you didn't see last week's video, that is a great one where

順便說一下，如果你沒有看到上週的視頻，那是一個偉大的一個地方。

I used your videos to teach about American English pronunciation, be sure to check it out!

我用你的視頻來教美式英語發音，一定要去看看!

Placement affects the overall quality of the voice.

放置影響著聲音的整體品質。

Almost all of my student's placements are too high.

我的學生幾乎都有太高的位置。

It doesn't matter the native language: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese,

母語無所謂。中文、日文、韓文、越南文

Thai, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and so on.

泰語、阿拉伯語、印地語、西班牙語、葡萄牙語、法語等。

The natural production of these languages is different than English.

這些語言的自然生成與英語不同。

So I found a mixing engineer here on YouTube who could play with the formants of the voice.

所以我在YouTube上找到了一個調音師，他可以玩弄聲音的曼音。

In a minute, we're going to talk about what that means.

一會兒，我們要談談這意味著什麼。

But first, I just want you to hear the difference.

但首先，我只是想讓你聽聽區別。

So he took the person we listened to, whose native language is Chinese, and changed the formants.

於是，他把我們聽的人，他的母語是漢語，換了個聲調。

Hi, what do you want to do tonight?

嗨，你今晚想做什麼？

Hi, what do you want to do tonight?

嗨，你今晚想做什麼？

The first one is her voice as she recorded it.

第一張是她錄製時的聲音。

The second one has a different quality because Mike played with the formants of the sound.

第二張有不同的品質，因為Mike玩的是聲音的顫音。

What do you want to do tonight?

你今晚想做什麼？

What do you want to do tonight?

你今晚想做什麼？

Then he took my voice and he did the opposite.

然後，他把我的聲音，他做了相反的事情。

We'll call the student that we're working with here V.

我們就叫這個學生，我們在這裡工作的V。

He took V's voice and played with the formants for it to have a more American quality,

他把V的聲音和玩的manmants為它有一個更美國的品質。

then he took my voice and did the same thing in reverse

然後，他把我的聲音 並做同樣的事情，在反向

to try to make the quality of my voice reflect the quality of her voice.

儘量讓我的聲音品質反映她的聲音品質。

What do you want to do tonight?

你今晚想做什麼？

What do you want to do tonight?

你今晚想做什麼？

What do you want to do tonight?

你今晚想做什麼？

What do you want to do tonight?

你今晚想做什麼？

Changing the formants really changes the quality of the voice, doesn't it?

改變聲調真的會改變聲音的品質，不是嗎？

Listen to my whole mini conversation with that formant shift.

聽聽我與那個形體轉換的整個小對話。

Hey, what do you want to do tonight?

嘿，你今晚想做什麼？

I don't know. I feel like just watching TV.

我不知道，我感覺就像在看電視。我感覺就像在看電視。

Sure!

當然！

So what is a formant and how does it change your voice so much? It's not the pitch.

那麼什麼是形體，它怎麼會讓你的聲音發生這麼大的變化呢？不是音高的問題。

The pitch or the fundamental frequency is the same.

音高或基頻是一樣的。

The vocal cords vibrate at a pitch. Aaaahh. Uhhhh.

聲帶震動的音調。啊啊啊。啊啊啊。

Those are two different vowels on the same pitch.

那是兩個不同的元音，音調相同。

Why did they sound different? Because of the shape of my mouth,

為什麼他們的聲音不一樣？因為我的嘴型。

my tongue position was different, my lip position.

我的舌頭位置不同，我的嘴脣位置。

Aaaahh. Uhhhh.

Aaaahh。呃...

What the vocal cords were doing didn't change. The pitch was the same

聲帶在做什麼並沒有改變。音調是一樣的

but the quality of the sound was affected by the shape of the vocal tract,

但聲音的品質受到聲道形狀的影響。

which affected the sound, part of the sound called formants.

影響聲音的一部分，稱為聲素。

Formants are frequencies of sound above the fundamental frequency, that's the pitch.

形聲是指高於基頻的聲音頻率，也就是音高。

If this feels kind of technical, stick with me, the payoff in this video,

如果覺得這有點技術含量，請跟我一起堅持，這個視頻中的付出。

what you're going to learn to do with your voice, is going to be huge.

你要學會用你的聲音做什麼， 將是巨大的。

Okay, so the vocal cords make the fundamental pitch and the shape of the vocal tract makes the formants.

好的，所以聲帶決定了基本音高，而聲帶的形狀決定了音符。

The formants are what make different sounds like: ahh, uhhh, ohh, as my pitch stays the same.

聲調是使不同的聲音像：啊、嗯、哦，因為我的音調保持不變。

But they can also affect the quality of the vowel.

但它們也會影響元音的品質。

So you can either sound very natural speaking American English, or not very natural,

所以說美式英語，你可以聽起來很自然，也可以聽起來不是很自然。

depending on what's happening with your vocal tract.

取決於你的聲帶發生了什麼。

So you may know exactly the tongue, lip and jaw position for an American vowel,

所以，你可能會準確地知道美式元音的舌頭、嘴脣和下巴位置。

but if the rest of your vocal tract, your throat isn't shaped right,

但如果你的聲帶的其他部分，你的喉嚨形狀不對。

you'll never be able to get the American quality of that vowel.

你永遠不可能得到美國品質的元音。

So we can change the formants of a sound by changing the shape of the vocal tract.

所以我們可以通過改變聲道的形狀來改變聲音的聲調。

In a minute, we're going to tell you what you want to do to sound more American.

一會兒，我們要告訴你，你要怎麼做才能聽起來更像美國人。

But we can also change the formants by recording a voice and having a sound mixer play with it.

但我們也可以通過錄制一個聲音，讓混音器播放來改變聲調。

I'm going to let Sendai Mike explain this more. He's a recording and mixing engineer in Seattle.

我想讓仙台麥克再解釋一下。他是西雅圖的錄音和混音工程師。

Then we're going to get into a lot more real life student examples

然後我們再來了解很多真實的學生案例

so you can start to find the right shape of your own vocal tract.

這樣你就可以開始找到適合自己的聲道形狀。

Most you all are probably familiar with pitch shifting.

大多數人可能都對音調變換很熟悉。

Pitch shifting especially downwards has become really popular in hip hop and rap music.

在嘻哈和說唱音樂中，音調變化尤其是向下的音調變化已經變得非常流行。

So pitch shifting, uuhhh, is when you change the fundamental frequency of your voice.

所以，音調轉換，uuhhh，就是你改變了你聲音的基本頻率。

And we will talk about using that to sound more natural in this video,

而我們將在這段視頻中討論如何利用這一點讓聲音更自然。

but at the moment, let's hear about formant shifting.

但此刻，聽說形體轉移。

Now, format shifting is similar to pitch shifting, but the difference is when you format shift audio,

現在，格式轉換與音調轉換類似，但不同的是當你格式轉換音頻。

the note, and I mean the note like the note you would play on a keyboard,

音符，我的意思是音符 就像你在鍵盤上演奏的音符。

stays the same but the tone gets deeper or higher depending on which direction you're formant shifting.

保持不變，但音調會變得更深或更高，這取決於你的形體轉換方向。

So if you're formant shifting, you could sing a constant note

所以如果你是形體轉換，你可以唱一個恆定的音符。

and it would stay in key as you format shift up and down.

當你的格式轉換時，它將保持在關鍵。

Okay he did a lot of formant shifting and that's what he did earlier to V's voice and my voice,

好吧，他做了很多形體轉換，這就是他之前對V的聲音和我的聲音所做的。

so we could really see how it affected the sound,

所以我們可以真正看到它對聲音的影響。

and it either made the sound thinner or heavier.

而它要麼讓聲音變薄，要麼讓聲音變重。

And as we'll see in the students that we're going to study, most people have a sound that's too thin.

而在我們要研究的學生中，我們會看到，大多數人的聲音都太細了。

I've been in touch with a few students in my academy who've mentioned recently the idea that they had to

我在學院裡接觸過幾個學生，他們最近都提到了這樣的想法：他們要

use a different voice, which I would say is a different shape to their vocal tract,

使用不同的聲音，我想說的是他們的聲道形狀不同。

in order to speak American English.

為了說美式英語。

One student said:

一位學生說。

One of my American friends told me that my presence and my voice doesn't match for American people.

我的一個美國朋友告訴我，我的存在和我的聲音不符合美國人的要求。

My natural Japanese voice is pretty high.

我的日語自然嗓音很高。

So the pitch of American English is often a little bit lower than what my students want to do.

所以美式英語的音調往往比我的學生想的要低一些。

And the placement, the quality of the sound affected by the formants is also lower.

而擺放的位置，受聲源影響的音質也較低。

Another student said:

另一位學生說。

Your advice to keep low placement in mind has helped me a lot.

你提出的低位放置的建議對我幫助很大。

My native language is Russian, we came to the US seven years ago and unlike me,

我的母語是俄語，我們7年前來到美國，不像我。

my son picked up the American accent very quickly.

我兒子很快就學會了美國口音。

Every time he heard me speaking English, he asked me why I was changing my voice to the higher pitch?

每次聽到我說英語，他都會問我為什麼要把聲音改成高音？

And I didn't. I just used my Russian voice coming from the front part of my mouth, and it didn't sound very good.

而我沒有。我只是用我的俄羅斯聲音 從我嘴的前半部分， 它沒有聽起來很好。

So she was making all the sounds of American English, tongue position, lip position, jaw drop,

所以她發出的都是美式英語的聲音，舌位、脣位、下巴都有。

but the rest of her vocal tract was in the shape of what she would use for Russian.

但她聲帶的其他部分是她用來做俄語的形狀。

So that made her American English sound higher and thinner because in American English,

所以這讓她的美式英語聽起來更高更瘦，因為在美式英語中。

we have a lower placement.

我們有一個較低的位置。

So how can you get a lower placement?

那麼，如何才能獲得較低的位置呢？

Let's look at a scientific paper.

我們來看一篇科學論文。

I'm going to put the full name of the paper and the authors in the video description.

我打算在視頻描述中寫上論文的全名和作者。

To understand this paper, let's do a very quick anatomy lesson for the voice.

為了理解本文，我們來為嗓子做一個非常快速的解剖課。

This will help you picture what you need to change in your throat in order to sound more American.

這將幫助你想象你需要改變你的喉嚨，以便聽起來更美國。

The vocal cords are here, they're what vibrate and make the fundamental frequency or

聲帶在這裡，它們是振動和使基本頻率或。

the pitch when your air comes up from your trachea.

當你的空氣從氣管裡冒出來時的音調。

Aaahhh. Aahhh.

Aaahhh。Aahhh。

Your pitch changes as your larynx, which is this bigger thing,

你的音調會隨著你的喉部而改變，這是一個更大的東西。

moves in ways that make the vocal cords change in tension or thickness, this kind of thing.

動的方式，使聲帶的張力或厚度發生變化，這種。

Think of it as a guitar string, it makes a different sound depending on where you put your finger on it

把它想象成一根吉他弦，根據你把手指放在哪裡，它就會發出不同的聲音。

when you pluck it, as you affect the length of the string.

當你撥動它的時候，因為你影響了弦的長度。

So the air comes up from your lungs through your trachea, vibrates your vocal cords,

所以，空氣從你的肺部通過氣管上來，振動你的聲帶。

and creates your fundamental pitch.

並創建你的基本間距。

But the key to changing your sound is knowing that your larynx here, also called voice box, can be moved

但改變聲音的關鍵是要知道，你的喉頭這裡，也就是所謂的語音盒，是可以移動的

by the complex series of muscles in your neck that attach it to the bones.

由頸部一系列複雜的肌肉將其連接到骨骼上。

It can be moved up or back down, it can be moved forward,

可上可下，可前可後。

it can be moved backward,

它可以向後移動。

and all of these things affect not the pitch, because that's the vocal cords,

所有這些東西影響的不是音調，因為那是聲帶。

but they affect the formants, the other sounds above that frequency, and those

但它們會影響到該頻率以上的聲母和其他聲音，以及那些。

formants are what will give you an American voice or not.

formants是什麼會給你一個美國的聲音或不。

So in order to have the right shape of the vocal tract to sound more American,

所以為了擁有正確的聲道形狀，聽起來更像美國人。

you want a lower larynx or voice box.

你要的是下喉或音盒。

Your native language may have your voice box in a slightly different place in your throat.

你的母語可能會讓你的語音盒在喉嚨裡的位置略有不同。

That will change the way you sound.

這將改變你的聲音方式。

So if you think of a wide open neck,

所以，如果你覺得脖子寬了。

I think that helps my students release the muscles in their neck

我想這能幫助我的學生釋放頸部的肌肉。

which then helps the larynx or the voice box drop down.

然後幫助喉頭或語音盒下降。

And that gives your vocal tract the right shape for the American placement.

而這也讓你的聲道有了正確的形狀，適合美國人的安置。

Since we're here, let's just talk about a few other things that can affect your sound.

既然來了，我們就說說其他一些會影響你聲音的東西。

We have these open cavities in our mouth, and then our nasal cavity, and

我們有這些開放的腔體在我們的嘴裡， 然後我們的鼻腔，和。

an open cavity is where sound will vibrate and it will change the quality.

開放的腔體是聲音振動的地方，它將改變品質。

So in American English, none of our vowels are nasal vowels.

所以在美式英語中，我們的元音都不是鼻音。

That means here's our hard palate, our roof of our mouth, there's also a soft palate,

也就是說這裡是我們的硬顎，我們的嘴頂，還有一個軟顎。

and when that's raised, it prevents air from going up into the nasal cavity.

當它被抬起來的時候，就會阻止空氣進入鼻腔。

But when it's down, air can go up and it can change the sound. So aaaaa becomes aaaaaa.

但當它向下時，空氣可以向上，它可以改變聲音。所以aaaaaa變成了aaaaa。

So the soft palate being closed or lifted is also very important in where your voice vibrates,

所以軟顎閉合或抬起也是你聲音振動的地方非常重要。

where your placement is. We want to avoid nasal vowels in American English.

你的位置在哪裡。我們要避免美式英語中的鼻音元音。

But the main takeaway of the paper is your larynx should be in a lowered relaxed position

但本文的主要觀點是，你的喉部應該處於下沉放鬆的位置。

in order to give your throat the right shape for American English.

為了讓你的喉嚨有合適的美式英語的形狀。

You want to let go of the muscle tension in your neck to try to let your larynx lower and find that right placement.

你要放開頸部的肌肉緊張，試著讓你的喉頭降低，找到那個正確的位置。

With a raised larynx, a sound with the same fundamental frequency will sound thinner and less resonant,

喉頭凸起，相同基頻的聲音聽起來會更薄，共鳴也會更少。

and that's not what we want. To match the American quality, we want it warmer and more resonant.

而這不是我們想要的。為了符合美國人的品質，我們希望它更溫暖，更有共鳴。

The main reason for this perceptual effect is that larynx raising can cause a rise in the frequency of the formants,

造成這種感知效應的主要原因是喉頭抬高可以引起聲母頻率的上升。

which gives the sound a different quality.

這讓聲音有了不同的品質。

So in your own native language, you have the pitch, the fundamental frequency, that's natural for your language,

所以在你自己的母語中，你有音高，基本頻率，這是你語言的自然。

you have your articulators, tongue, teeth, lips that you use to shape and create the different sounds

你有你的發音器，舌頭，牙齒，嘴脣，你用它來塑造和創造不同的聲音。

of your native language. But then you also have the shape of your vocal tract that affects the formants

你的母語。但你也有你的聲道形狀，影響了你的聲調。

of the sound, and therefore the quality of the sound. And most people, when they're learning English,

的聲音，是以聲音的品質。而大多數人，在學習英語的時候。

learn about and think about just the articulators, tongue position, lip position, for a sound.

學習和思考只是銜接器，舌頭的位置，嘴脣的位置，為一個聲音。

But if you don't change the shape of your vocal tract, of your throat,

但如果你不改變你的聲道和喉嚨的形狀。

and you use the shape that's natural for your own native language, then you'll never have a truly American quality

而你使用的是你自己母語的自然形狀，那麼你永遠不會有真正的美國品質。

to your voice, and that's why we work on placement right away in Rachel's English Academy

你的聲音，這就是為什麼我們在瑞秋英語學院馬上進行實習的原因。

because why work on all the sounds if you haven't first worked on the overall quality of the voice?

因為為什麼工作在所有的聲音，如果你沒有首先工作在聲音的整體品質？

So that's what we're going to do here today. We're going to work on the overall quality of your voice.

所以，這就是我們今天要做的。我們將在你聲音的整體品質上下功夫。

It affects your sound every time you speak English.

每次說英語的時候都會影響你的聲音。

If you can improve your placement, you will immediately sound more natural every time you speak.

如果你能改善你的位置，你每次說話的時候就會立刻聽起來更自然。

When I work with a student on placement, what I do is this:

當我和學生一起實習的時候，我做的是這樣的。

I have them say something in English, anything, and then I try to imitate them.

我讓他們用英語說些什麼，什麼都可以，然後我試著模仿他們。

I imitate their placement, and I alternate between that and a more American placement,

我模仿他們的擺放方式，我交替使用這種擺放方式和更美國的擺放方式。

and I talk about what I'm changing.

和我說說我的改變。

What you need to do as a student is this: use your ears to notice the different qualities of the sounds,

作為學生，你需要做的是：用你的耳朵去注意聲音的不同品質。

and then play with your own voice, tense in places, relax in places, think of being wide and low,

然後發揮自己的聲音，有的地方要緊張，有的地方要放鬆，要想寬，要想低。

try to find as many different kinds of voices as you can.

儘量找到不同的聲音，你可以。

Okay, let's jump in with a student. We're going to go back to V.

好吧，讓我們跳進一個學生。我們要回到V。

We're actually going to come to the desk so that we can watch these students together.

其實我們要來到課桌前，這樣我們就可以一起看這些學生。