Welcome to the InFluency Podcast. I’m Hadar, and this is episode number 94. And today I’m going to teach you how to pronounce Gal Gadot with an Israeli accent.

Hey, hey everyone, welcome back. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the InFluency Podcast. And I’ve been away for a while. I just checked, and the last time we released an episode was on January 1st on how to pronounce ‘resolutions’. And then we took a week off, the team and I, because New Year and stuff.

But the thing is that not only that I’ve been away here, my Instagram account was disabled for almost a month. And I just got it back. And I feel like I’ve been abroad for like a month. And I’m now back, you know, with the pod and with this intro, and with Instagram. So, I’m very excited to be back, that’s it. I just wanted to say that.

And if you’re listening to my podcast for the first time, then I’m not crazy. And this episode is going to be about how to pronounce Gal Gadot. But every now and then I like to give you a little update on my life in the podcast intro. So this was it.

And the reason why I’m excited about today’s episode is because Wonder Woman 1984 is out. I haven’t seen it yet cause it’s not playing here in Israel, but I do want to join the party. And the way for me to do that, you know that, is through pronunciation. And since Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress, I figured it’s time for people to really know how to pronounce her name because, you know me, I’m all about pronunciation.

And it’s also going to be fun to kind of reverse-engineer everything that I’ve been doing since we’ve met, which is talking about how to speak with American pronunciation, or how to use the sounds of English. And now I’m telling you, no, scratch that, let’s do something differently.

But this episode is a little deeper because it’s also about the importance of the pronunciation of someone’s name. And, you know, I have a long story with that because first, when I was 21, I changed my name so it’s easier for people to pronounce, so it doesn’t sound so foreign. And if you’ve been here for a while, you know the story, and if you don’t then go back to episode number 2 and listen to my story.

But even when I introduce myself, I don’t say it the way I pronounce my name in Hebrew. Because in Hebrew, my name is pronounced ‘Hadar’, ‘Hadar’ – notice that ‘ʁ’ at the end. And I always introduce myself as Hadar. And I’ve gotten used to it because that’s truly now my name in English, but, you know, it’s exactly the opposite of what I’m talking about in this episode. And yes, it may seem a little inconsistent, but that’s life, life is sometimes inconsistent and I’m sharing that with you right now.

But to be honest, another reason why I wanted to talk about Gal [Israeli] or ‘Gal’ or ‘Gaal’ – how native English speakers call her – is not just because of the pronunciation of her name. That’s not really the reason why I wanted to create this episode. Because I actually really wanted to talk about what makes her so awesome when it comes to English. Because English is not her first language, as you know, she’s a Hebrew speaker. And she had to overcome some struggles and some barriers.

And I want you to recognize what has worked for her and allowed her to be where she’s at because I know that it wasn’t easy. And I wanted to take the time and to acknowledge that, and to show my respect and appreciation for her journey, and also to use that as a source of inspiration for all of us.

Okay. So, let’s go ahead and listen to today’s episode. Oh, and by the way, if you are not following me on Instagram – it’s activated and ready for you to chat. So, come on over to @hadar.accentsway and send me a DM so I know you’re coming from here, from the podcast. Okay, so let’s roll the episode.

Hey everyone, it’s Hadar. Thank you so much for joining me. Today I’m going to teach you how to pronounce the name Gal Gadot.

So Wonder Woman 1984 is out, and a lot of people are speaking about Gal Gadot. But this is not how you pronounce her name, this is how English speakers pronounce her name. So, this is what I’m here for. I’m going to use my Israeliness to tell you how you really pronounce her name. And then I’m going to talk about the things that make Gal so awesome and inspirational when it comes to English, fluency and pronunciation. So stay tuned.

Let’s begin with her first name – Gal. Now here’s the thing. When you say someone’s name, what you’re likely to do is transform the sounds that exist in their native language and in their name into sounds that you’re more comfortable, and that exist in your native language.

This is why a lot of English speakers say ‘Gal’ [with an American accent] instead of ‘Gal’ [with an israeli accent], or sometimes they might say ‘Gaal’. So the ‘g’ sound is the same. Great, check. And then we have the ‘uh’ sound in Hebrew. ‘uh’, very simple. Actually, it’s closer to the ‘uh’ as in ‘cup’ in American English, ‘uh’.

So, the beginning of the word ‘Gal’ actually sounds like ‘gut’ – “I have a gut feeling”, right? The spelling doesn’t help because a lot of people see the A in the name, and then they think, “Okay, it’s probably ‘a’ as in ‘cat’ – ‘Gal’, or ‘aa’ as in ‘father’ – ‘Gaal’. But no, it’s right there in the middle. So you want to keep your jaw more closed; the tongue is flat, the lips are relaxed – ‘guh’, ‘guh’, ‘guh’, very straightforward.

And then, the L. The L in American English is a dark L when it’s at the end of the word. That means that when you pronounce the L, you also raise the back of the tongue and you restrict something there in the back that creates this weird sound. We call it weird sound, native speakers just call it an L, at the end of the word. ‘Gaal’, ‘Gaal’, or ‘Gal’, ‘Gal’.

However, in Hebrew, we don’t have that. It’s a very simple, clear L where you bring the tip of the tongue up and that’s about it. ‘La’, ‘La’, ‘Gal’, ‘Gal’. So it sounds a little lighter and a little shorter: ‘Gal’ [American] – ‘Gal’, ‘Gal’ ‘Gal’ [Israeli].

Then the last name is Gadot. Gadot. The beginning is very much the same as in Gal – ‘Ga-‘, ‘Ga-‘. Gadot. Check. You already know how to pronounce that. The second syllable is ‘dot’, ‘dot’. While in American English, there is no pure O sound – there is either ‘ow’ as in ‘go’ or ‘aa’ as in ‘honest’ – ‘ow’ – ‘aa’. This is why most people pronounce it as ‘Gadowt’. But in Hebrew it’s a pure O, O. So it’s kind of like the beginning of ‘ow’, but then you stop right after the beginning. It’s also super short – ‘Gadot’.

And then the T in English, it’s a held T, which means there is no T there – it’s just an abrupt stop of air – ‘Gado’, right, you don’t hear anything there – ‘Gado’. That doesn’t happen in Hebrew: a T is a T as a T is a T – ‘Gadot’. It’s not overly pronounced – ‘GadoT’, no. But it’s not hidden or swallowed, like most people pronounce it – ‘Gado’.

In Hebrew there are only five vowels – a, e, i, o, u – in comparison to English that has between 16 to 18 vowels, depending on the dialect. So, this is why we want to reduce it. There’s a lot less jaw movement, everything is super chill and relaxed. Gal Gadot. Gal Gadot. It’s kind of like we don’t want you to read our lips when we speak. Gal Gadot.

Now, let me share with you why I absolutely love Gal Gadot. And it’s not just because she’s a rock star and she’s like one of the biggest movie stars ever, and she’s also Israeli, and she is very much herself, she’s so charming and her personality always shines through; but not because of that. I love her because of her English journey.

Because what is so unique to her is that she never tried to hide the fact that she’s a non-native speaker and she never used it to stop her from achieving her goals, and for showing up fully like herself – authentically and genuinely. And whenever she faced a struggle – and I’ve seen many interviews where she said something wrong, or people didn’t understand her – and instead of feeling self-conscious about it, she simply laughed it out. She said, “Oh no, it’s my English”, or “No, that’s not how I pronounce it” or something like that. And she stepped into her power and she said to herself, “This is not going to stop me.”

“You guys got to be really great friends on this, right?”

“Oh my God. We, we slept toge… We…

“Sorry, it’s my English. No, we had a slumber party.”

“It’s a fuwt.”

“Fuwt? Like foot or food? Foot? You said fuwt.

Is it a fuwt that you eat fuwt, or fuwt with toes?”

And even though I’m sure that inside herself she might have thought, “Oh, you know, I should know better by now, or this, or that, and what are people going to think?”, she never let it stop her, which I think is so incredibly important.

Because as speaker of a second language, there’s always going to be a struggle, and there’s always going to be something. The question is, are you letting it stop you on your way to your success? And I can tell you that she absolutely did not. And when she did face a struggle, she simply made it her own and she let it go easily or actually made fun of it, which is always, always, you know, it’s such a beautiful gift – to be able to laugh at yourself, and not to make a big deal, and not to take it personally.

“I don’t want to be Bob Sponge”.

“Bob Sponge?”

“SpongeBob”.

“Bob Sponge?”

“As a gig”.

“Geek?”

“As a geek out”.

“I didn’t get the joke? Shoot! ”

So that’s it. Practice the pronunciation of the name, or – you don’t have to – you can also work on your Israeli accent. DM me, if you want more information about how to speak with an Israeli accent. You can find me at @hadar.accentsway on Instagram. And in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed it. It was a little different than what I usually do, but I think it was fun, at least for me.

Thank you so much for watching. And I’ll see you next week in the next video. Bye.