I think of her wherever I go.

Welcome to London!

So I started my walk along the river Thame. I started at Westminster bridge and I'm just

walking eastwards along the river. And it is such a beautiful sunny day. Now I promise

London doesn't always shine like this, sometimes we do have rain but today we are very very

lucky. It's the perfect day to walk along the river. So let's explore, see what we can

find.

I love walking along the river Thames because I feel connected with the city and whenever

I have been away for a long time and I come back to London this is the first thing that

I'll do. I'll walk along the river Thames starting west, walking eastwards usually along

the South Bank because there's so much to see and do. And we're going to have a look

at some of those things now.

One of the

most popular places to come on the South Bank is this skate park and it draws a huge audience

as you can see right there. Now the skaters come down here, they are so brave. They are

doing incredible tricks and they've become like little celebrities. There are people

coming up to them right now 'Can I take your photo with you' all that kind of stuff, so

it's a pretty cool place to hang out. And this skate park has become a bit of an institution.

Now a couple of years ago i think they were trying to redevelop this area but it was saved

by the local community because it's so popular and I'm glad to say it's still here and more

popular than ever.

Things you don't expect to see in London, people building sandcastles next to the river.

Cool, why not? This guy is building a huge Homer Simpson in the sand. Why not? It's Saturday,

what am I going to do? I'm going to build a Homer Simpson in the sand.

This is how we party in London!

This is easily the best thing I've seen all day. These people, they are on fire!

This walk has inspired me to look at some pronunciation that I think is pretty interesting.

Now the word I want to look at is this one. How would you say that? Ok, now I say it in

two different ways. That's right, I know it sounds crazy but I say it in two different

ways. Sometimes I'll pronounce the /t/ so I'll say 'Water' and sometimes I won't pronounce

the /t/ I'll say 'water'. Why? I can hear you asking me that. Ok, now before we get

into why I do that let's look at what's happening here. So the second time I said 'water' but

I said it without the /t/ so 'water'. Now there that's an example of glottalization.

Woah! It's a big word. You don't need to worry about that word particularly. Just understand

that, it's an example, an example of it is when we don't pronounce the consonant sound

in this example it's /t/. And this is the one we are going to look at, ok? Is the /t/

sound. So who does this? Well, it depends on the accent that you have. Lots of British

English accents use glottalization of the /t/. So there are lots of them that don't

say /t/. Particularly in London and other parts of the country. Now why do I do it?

I don't really know. I think maybe when I want to sound more formal, if I'm talking

with my grandmother I'll probably say 'water' or maybe with my boss or whatever. But if

I'm with friends or I'm speaking very casually I'll just say 'water' and I don't really know

why I do that but I do. It's a pattern that I've noticed in my English. Alright let's

look at some other examples. So, the first time I say a word I'll use the /t/ and then

the second time I'll use the glottalization so without the /t/. So let's go with the first

one. 'Bottle' the first one again 'bottle'. Ok, can you hear the difference there? Alright,

let's go with another one. 'right'. 'A lot'. So why is this useful for you? Well, in terms

of production so you trying to say the words with the glottalization so not saying /t/

it's up to you. It's your choice, whether you want to have that kind of an accent is

completely up to you. However, more importantly for you guys is the receptive skills so the

listening skills. Because people use glottalization all the time, certainly native speakers in

Britain, America and Australia as well will use it. So, it's important for you to understand

when they say 'Can you pass me the bottle?' You don't know 'what's a bottle?' You have

to kind of know, that ah ok they use the glottalization of the /t/ so they mean 'bottle'. Ok, I know

what to do. So, I think in terms of listening it's really a important thing to know.

That's it for another English Hipster video. I hope you have enjoyed this trip down the

river Thames. I'm going to do another one, because the river Thames is so long, I'm going

to do another second video real soon so look out for that. Thank you so much for hanging

out with me today. Remember if you want to check out more of my videos go to Eat Sleep

Dream English dot com. And if you have enjoyed this video or you've found it useful please

click with a thumbs up and subscribe to my page. Alright guys, thank you so much this

is Tom, the English Hipster, saying goodbye.