1.2 MEMORY LANE - The Time Machine... in my Living Room

Making this pronunciation practice made me feel a little bit stressed, I mean, it's good to practice the fluency, here we had to make a whole speech about this. Until that moment I still felt that my pronunciation was very good, and I was wrong. I committed a lot of mistakes when speaking because I confused some words with their homophones, I hesitated and did constant lexical chunks. But I had the opportunity to make its transcription on my notebook, even I was able to see my results. I crossed out and colored my mistakes on the transcription for better self-understanding.

THE TIME MACHINE... in my living room (transcription)

Do you ever binge-watch TV shows and feel like you've taken a time machine to a different place and time? I just watched Stranger Things, which takes place in the 1980s. It was like going back in time to my childhood.

Remember those bikes with banana-shaped seats? One of the boys in the series rides one, just like the one I used to ride to school every day. I wouldn't even lock it - I'd just leave it outside all day. In many ways, life was simple then. But some things were frustrating...

When you're on the phone, do you move around (like) a lot, like me? Well, in the 1980s, we could only walk as far as the cord reached. And with only one phone in the house, we didn't use to have any privacy. I'd drive my brother crazy because I talked to my friends for hours. Making calls away from home was tricky, too. Have you ever used a pay phone? I never used to have enough coins with me -it was infuriating! And how about sharing music? You probably use a music app. right? My older sister used to make me mixtapes with different songs she liked. I realize now how complex and time-consuming it was. Even watching TV was more difficult then. It got on my nerves to (take) have to get up and change the channel all the time because there was no such thing as a remote control. Now I just push (off) the "off" button from the couch to travel back to the present and take a break from binge-watching!

Glossary:

adj. frustrating /ˈfrʌstreɪtɪŋ/ making you feel annoyed, upset, or impatient because you cannot do what you want to do.

ph. v. drive (someone) crazy /draɪv ˈkreɪzi/ to make someone or something get into a bad or extreme state, usually an emotional one.

adj. tricky /ˈtrɪki/ 1. something that is tricky is difficult to deal with or do because it is complicated and full of problems. 2. a tricky person is clever and likely to deceive you.

adj. infurating /ɪnˈfjʊ(r)ərieɪtɪŋ/ very annoying.

adj. complex /ˌkɑːmˈpleks/ 1. consisting of many different parts and often difficult to understand. 2. technical a complex word or sentence contains a main part and one or more other parts.

adj. time-consuming /ˈtaɪm kənˈs(j)uːmɪŋ/ taking a long time to do.

idm. got on my nerves /ɡɒt ɒn maɪ nɜː(r)vs/ to irritate or annoy someone persistently.

v. n. binge-watch /ˈbɪndʒ wɒtʃ/ to watch multiple episodes of a TV series or a long stretch of content in one sitting.

21 - Mispronunciations

3   - Insertions

0   - Self-corrections

2   - Omissions

0   - Repetitions

145   - Correct words per minute

91% - Accuracy rate

As it is displayed, these are my results, we had to read about 130 words per minute and reach at least 95% of accuracy... I'm still concerned by the fact that it took me no more than 35 attempts to reach to... this... anyways, I was aware of some mispronunciations, but not that much. I liked it, for real. I got really mad with myself because I was trying and trying so hard to be so fluent. I have to practice this kind of exercises...