English Pronunciation - Darko Rajaković
As the 2023/2024 NBA season begins, I’m watching the Toronto Raptors basketball team as the season begins with hopeful optimism. New coaching staff. A couple new players. A new playing system with different priorities and perspectives on the game.
Naturally, with the addition of a new head coach, an entirely new system that the players have to adjust to, and the underwhelming season that the raptors had last year, there was a lot more head coach investigation, particularly since Darko Rajaković is a new head coach. This led to more interviews with Darko and subsequently, more English pronunciation audio for me.
Primed to start picking up cues and listening to Darko’s accent during interactions, I’ve decided to share what I pick up.
So let’s talk about it.
We’re going to take a closer look at the English pronunciation and communication style of Darko Rajaković, the new head coach for the Toronto Raptors. It's essential to understand that English may not be his first language. His English communication is great! He’s clear, he’s effective, he’s expressive, and he’s both charismatic and personable.
He’s a players’ coach, seems to demonstrate strong EQ, and communicates well as a leader.
We’ll talk about his pronunciation and articulation, his communicative body language, some variation between native speakers and non-native speakers. Finally, I’ll list out a few things that will elevate Rajaković’s English communication.
Pronunciation and Articulation
So, based on the Serbo-Croatian phonology per Wikipedia here, this is the breakdown of available sounds for consonants and vowels.
Compared with English, the Serbo-Croatian sound repertoire does not include certain consonants and vowels. For the consonants, that includes:
the voiced or voiceless TH sounds (in ‘Thank you’ and “There’)
the ZH sound (in ‘Measure’)
the NG sound (in ‘Ring’),
or the J-sound (in ‘Jordan’)
A non-trilled R-sound (in ‘Raptors’)
There are some closely similar sounds but the positioning is slightly different including the retroflexed positioning. This is why some of those words may still be close enough to be understood but slightly off in that you can hear a foreign English accent.
For the vowel sounds, Serbo-Croatian is missing:
the IH sound (in ‘bit’
the UH-sound (in ‘Look’)
the AH-sound (in ‘Bat’)
Specific to Darko, there are a few key words that I notice that he pronounces differently. This includes:
‘Pick and roll’ sound more like ‘Peek and roll’.
Darko also trills his R-sound so his R-sound is rolled in words like ‘ More’ here.
Darko’s H-sound is the Serbian voiceless velar fricative, not the English H-sound. What this means is his H-sound is a little more turbulent and noisy sounding like here.
‘Look’ sounds more like ‘Luke” because of the limited vowel options in Croatian compared with English. You can hear the slight difference here
But again, this is nit-picking at the details and variance. For the most part, Darko’s pronunciation is fairly clear and aside from the pronunciation differences, he communicates with good habits to make up for these slight variations.
Beyond The Pronunciation - Darko’s Communicative Body Language, Expressiveness and Voice
Darko is a very expressive person. Look at his eyebrow raises, his body language, and his smiling. He communicates with his voice, modulating his pitch and volume as well.
This can make it easier to communicate emotion, the strength of a feeling, passion, and can help people read the room or read the situation better than simply relying on spoken words. For example, when people say, “I’m fine”, there’s a wide range of actual communicated ideas based on HOW you say “I’m fine”.
By being expressive in your body language, your loudness, your facial features, your emotions, and your eye contact, you communicate much more than the actual words.
Darko is a very expressive person and he over-communicates with his players. He keeps them in the loop. He talks to them about important decisions that they may not understand or appreciate. For example, not playing Chris Boucher one night.
At least from the outside, Darko’s communication style is to over-communicate with his players and the way that he carries himself in his interactions and the way that he communicates when he communicates seems to compliment this approach as well.
Variation Between Native & Non-Native English Speakers
Now what are some other things that Darko does that vary from native English speakers.
Depending on the person and the professional level of the person, intonation patterns vary. Younger generations tend to do more up-talking and when you aren’t as confident in your speech, you also uptalk. I find that non-native English speakers uptalk at times in part due to a lack of awareness of the concept.
Darko sometimes does this uptalk. It doesn’t take away from the pronunciation, but I think it can lead to possible miscommunications at times about the level of seriousness or confidence. For example, here Darko says that the Raptors are not trying underperform but he says underperform with a rising intonation. This leads it to sound like a question rather than a statement or matter of fact.
In this context, it’s fine. It’s not particularly harmful. But there are times when we need to clearly communicate facts and feelings without the uncertainty.
We are going to win.
We need to do better.
Ref, that was a blatant foul.
If you communicate those things with a rising pitch, it can start to sound uncertain, unconfident, and even if you don’t mean it, distract from the message. It’ll starr sounding like a question.
We are going to win?
We need to do better?
Ref, that was a blatant foul?
Some other differences with native English speakers are stylistic. There are certain patterns and habits that native English speakers do even though the alternative isn’t necessarily wrong. Here Darko says, “Game on October 25”, rather than “October 25th”. It isn’t wrong. It simply isn’t the typical way native English speakers reference dates.
Similarly, Darko tends to use the strong form of grammar words like ‘To’. Whereas a native English speaker will typically lazily shorten ‘To’ to ‘Tuh’, Darko is deliberate in pronouncing the word as ‘To’ (like he learned it). Native English speakers are lazy and shorten words where they can. Non-native English speakers don’t always learn those options so their English pronunciation is sometimes more careful and proper. You can hear it in his interview here.
Another point to mention is the use of articles. Darko sometimes drops these articles which easily highlight his non-native English speaker status. Here, Darko says, “He had good mentality” rather than “a good mentality”. Although a trivial point not really impacting the meaning of the phrase, it’s a dead giveaway because native English speakers do not make this type of error.
Variation Between Articulate Speakers - What Separates People?
At a certain level, very articulate speakers are distinguishable in how they answer. They are much more precise with their words, smart with their pauses, and don’t say sounds unnecessarily.
This can especially be hard for non-native speakers because there’s a bit of real-time translation in their heads from their native languages to English, there’s a need to say something and a discomfort with silence.
This is something even separates strong native English communicators.
With Darko, he speaks confidently but there are two related points to identify.
His pacing can be improved. Darko often speaks with an intense focus that it ultimately results in him not prioritizing his breath. What I mean is that he often talks and talks until he has answered the question or he needs to breathe. Then you hear a loud audible breath in. You can hear it here at 0:17, 0:27 and 0:34.
The way that native-English speakers address this, is they take breathes when it’s appropriate to take a breath, not when they need them. Instead of saying 10 words and then needing a breath, a strategic speaker may take a breath after 3 words, then 7 words. If it makes sense for dramatic emphasis to pause after 3 words, don’t force all 10 out. Native English speakers develop this skill a little more spontaneously but with a little practice, non-native English speakers can recognize and intentionally implement this for themselves. Anywhere where you would have a comma, period, or other punctuation mark is a good starting point to consider taking a pause or breath.
Room For Improvement - Where To Improve?
For Darko, there are a couple things that I think would improve his communication, but I honestly don’t think pronunciation is a top priority.
Get Comfortable With Silence. Become a little more comfortable with silence and organizing your thoughts before speaking. Trying to fill the gap or silence with unnecessary sound or speaking prematurely when the framework of the sentence isn’t fully flushed out can sometimes cause you to stumble, repeat, and trip over the sounds or have to start over again. It’s unnecessary and can cause people to lose your train of thought, like here. And don’t get me wrong, Darko has made huge strides in that regard already compared with his previous interview here.
Be Intentional With Intonation. Knowing the kind of message you are communicating and having that reflected in your intonation communicates a level of consistency in the way you speak, similar to how a smile typically communicates calmness and a general positive feeling. Intonation is similar in that it helps to communicate consistency with your words. Imagine if you said, “You’re great!” but had a frown on your face. The inconsistency between your facial expression and the word choice causes people to doubt what you say. Your intonation can likewise cause doubt. If I have a rising intonation, “You’re great!” may sound like “You’re great?” which can communicate uncertainty in the listener. Does he actually think I’m great or is he just saying that?
If Pronunciation Is a Target, the EE-IH (’beat’ vs. ‘bit’) and OO-UH (’Luke’ vs. ‘look’) vowel substitutions are probably the biggest potential for communication breakdowns. The context of speech is probably sufficient enough in most situations to provide enough clarity for listeners to figure out the actual word in the moment but it can certainly be a practice-able area for improvement.
Overall, Darko Is a Strong Communicator.
Overall, Darko has all the tools to be an effective communicator. His pronunciation doesn’t hold him back. Look at how he commands the room and communicates seriousness here. He uses hand gestures, pauses, emphasis, and enunciation.
His energy and charisma is exciting and infectious. He’s helped change the vibe of the team and although they’ve recently had a couple losses, I’m eager to see how his communication with the players, his player coach style, and teaching style translate to player development.
