Interview with Aaron Titus

Talking about "SayMondo": English Presentation Tutor

It couldn't get more simple. So today, I'd like to introduce you to Aaron Titus -who is doing this interview from the comfort of a train heading to Washington DC!

Hi, I’m Aaron Titus. I live in New Jersey, and I’m an attorney specializing in Internet, Technology and Privacy law, and the Chief Privacy Officer for Identity Finder. I’m also a Privacy Fellow for the Washington DC policy institute Liberty Coalition.

Most importantly, I’m a husband and father of five adorable children, ages 5, 4, 3, 2, and 3 months old. I run Say Mondo in my spare time, because I know how hard it is to master pronunciation in a foreign language.

2) What is saymondo.com and how will it help people improve their English? Who is saymondo.com perfect for?

Saymondo.com is perfect for when you have a high-stakes English presentation. You go to saymondo.com, enter the text for your presentation, and a native English speaker will read it for you, and send you an MP3 file. You can download the MP3, listen to the pronunciation and ace your presentation.

This is perfect for a business presentation, or a situation where you must pronounce a difficult phrase. You can send it to saymondo.com and within as little as 24 hours, a native English speaker will read your custom text and send it to you.

3) How did you come up with the idea for your service and website? What inspired you to start this project?

I started this project because I speak Korean. And while I still read in Korean and try to speak occasionally, I do not have many Korean friends. I looked for Korean pronunciation websites, but the text-to-speech sites just don’t work well. After all, you say “I love you” differently to a girlfriend, your sister, your mom, a spouse, or your grandmother. Computers just can’t reproduce that.

I was surprised to find that there was no service like this in Korean. And I was even more surprised to find that there was no service like this for English, either.

4) Why do you think so many people struggle with their pronunciation? Do you have any advice for students regarding pronunciation?

Listening, speaking, grammar, and reading are all different skills. I have many friends who read English almost as well as I can, but can hardly pronounce a word. Learning grammar is easier because we can do it alone, at home with a book. And messing up grammar is rarely embarrassing. But messing up your pronunciation in public can be very embarrassing. So sometimes people don’t do it.

Aaron Titus:
My advice is, don’t be shy. To improve pronunciation, listen very closely, and mimic native speakers. Start by mimicking standard pronunciation before you try and mimic slang or regional pronunciation. Find every opportunity to open your mouth.

Once every six months, record yourself speaking English for 3-5 minutes. It doesn’t matter what you say. Then put the recording away. After a few months you will probably have a very discouraging day when you feel like you can’t speak a word of English. On that day, pull out the recording and listen to the recording of yourself, and you will realize that you are actually improving. Repeat this process every six months.

5) These days English learners can find almost anything online for free, so they might be wondering why they should pay for your service? What makes saymondo.com different from the rest of the ESL "noise" online?

The only close equivalent to saymondo.com is a computer text-to-speech. There are lots of websites that will give you the pronunciation for individual words like, “morning,” “south,” “girlfriend,” “name,” and “am.” But there isn’t any other service out there where a live person will tell you how to pronounce, “Good morning, my name is Teh Sik, and I am from Seoul, South Korea. Man, I wish I had a girlfriend!”

Saymondo.com is the only website where you can get a live, native English speaker to pronounce exactly what you need to hear.

6) In your opinion, is the future of learning English (or any language) online?

The future of learning English (or any language) will always be person-to-person. The great thing about the Internet is that now you are able to connect with people from across the world in seconds.

8) Do you know how to speak more than one language? If so, how did you learn it? Did you use a course, live aboard or use online resources? (How could your experience be used by others to help them learn English?)

I learned Korean while serving as a missionary for my Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I spent two years in Sydney, Australia, serving the more than 40,000 Koreans who lived there at the time. I spent a couple of months in a deep immersion course, studied for an hour every day, and practised every single day.

9) Is there anything else that you'd like to add?

For me, saymondo.com is a fun hobby. I would love to do it for free, but unfortunately I just don’t have the time to do that. However, I would be interested in feedback for improvements to the site.

Do you have any feedback or suggestions for Aaron on his site?

Aaron would love to know what you think about his website saymondo.com and if you have any comments (positive or negative) please share them below!

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