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What is going on here?? | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | Accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Darya0Khoshki Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5054 days ago 71 posts - 91 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Iraqi) Studies: Persian | Message 1 of 11 09 March 2015 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is really embarrassing, but it's crippling my confidence and I thought I would ask for
input before asking *native speakers*. So I'm told my pronunciation is good. Actually I've been told by lots of people that I don't have an accent -- I don't believe that, but they seem sincere and honestly baffled and I'm not asking them for feedback or anything. I get mistaken for a native speaker a lot. BUT ..... I feel like people have SO much trouble understanding me!! It's so embarrassing and I can't figure what I'm doing wrong. I am TERRIFIED to open my mouth as it gets worse and worse. I hang around other non-native speakers and I don't see them having the same problem. Meaning, the native speakers seem to have no trouble understanding their VERY thick and noticable to my ears foreign accents. If my pronunciation is supposed to be so good, why can't people understand me??? I feel so discouraged because I shouldn't have to have a perfect accent in my second language (how many people do?? Not very many!) but I do need to be confident that when I open my mouth people will understand me. I just get more and more nervous and end up shutting myself off from native speakers. Any ideas what is going on? I am too embarrassed to ask people why they can't understand me. Someone did tell me I speak softly, but that shouldn't account for all of the problem. THis needs to stop!! I desperately want to have relationships with native speakers!! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5045 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 11 09 March 2015 at 7:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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What language are you speaking? Is it Iraqi Arabic?
Strength of accent isn't always correlated with intelligibility. Some people with very obvious foreign accents are easy to understand because they speak slowly, distinctly, and consistently. Some native speakers speak quickly and mumble. So it's very possible that your accent is close to native, yet hard to understand. -Is the problem real? What exactly do you mean when you say people don't understand you? -Do you ever have this problem in your native language? -Is your grammar good? It doesn't help to have a good accent, if the thing you're trying to say is wrong. -Are you speaking too quickly or too softly? It could be as simple as slowing down and speaking up. -Do you mumble? Work on enunciating the words clearly, both in your native and second language. -Are you speaking the same dialect/accent as the people who can't understand you? If not, it's not your fault. The most important thing is not to lose your confidence. People DO care what you have to say. Repeat yourself until they understand you. If they do not listen, they don't deserve your company. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5367 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 3 of 11 09 March 2015 at 8:45pm | IP Logged | ||
Something doesn't quite add up. I can't imagine a situation where I would believe someone is a native speaker after hearing them talk, but without understanding them well. That just doesn't add up. Or do you mean that your pronunciation of individual words is good but that your knowledge of the language is poor? I'd like to help, but the question just doesn't make sense as you presented it. Edited by Arekkusu on 09 March 2015 at 8:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Darya0Khoshki Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5054 days ago 71 posts - 91 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Iraqi) Studies: Persian | Message 4 of 11 09 March 2015 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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Robarb, that's helpful.
Areksu, I'm as baffled as you are! LOL. Not that people can NEVER understand me, just that I feel like I have to worry SO MUCH about whether or not I'm going to be understood. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5367 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 5 of 11 10 March 2015 at 1:54pm | IP Logged | ||
You could look for an online coach, a native speaker whom you will fill in on this issue and whose sole purpose could be to help you through this phase. Take is slowly and see what gives. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5212 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 6 of 11 11 March 2015 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Politicians, economists, snake oil sellers of any kind... your pick, really. If you think you understand them and you don't feel the urge to reach for your wallet / punch them in the face, you don't actually understand what they say ;) OK, a bit more seriously, if your pronunciation is really OK, then you should start questioning what you in fact say. Maybe you make poor word choices, or go in roundabouts too often. Compare what you say with what others (who are not "hard to understand") would or do say. Edit: I overlooked robarb's neat summary of the question, sorry. Edited by mrwarper on 11 March 2015 at 1:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Darya0Khoshki Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5054 days ago 71 posts - 91 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Iraqi) Studies: Persian | Message 7 of 11 11 March 2015 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks.
I think volume and mumbling / lack of speaking with clarity and confidence are a factor. There may also be issues of word choice and perhaps intonation but I have finding that as I raise my voice the problem is significantly improved. I get asked to repeat myself to a lesser extent but still I feel somewhat consistently in my native language as well and I think it's a lack of speaking loudly and clearly. Thanks! The more success I have, the more my confidence grows. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6583 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 11 11 March 2015 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm nearing 25 and finally starting to discover how often people don't *really* understand what I tell them, and how my style is abstract and concise and usually if they do understand, they'll ask many questions if they care enough. Maybe there's nothing *wrong* with your speech, it can just be harder to understand if someone's way of thinking is different. Have mercy for these poor people ;)
1 person has voted this message useful |
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