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Improving my English pronunciation | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Ibryam000 Diglot Newbie France Joined 4667 days ago 37 posts - 50 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Bulgarian, Spanish | Message 9 of 15 18 March 2012 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I've made a new one, I'm struggling a bit with the text (http://europeanhistory.about.com/b/2012/03/16/500-german-fa irytales-rediscovered.htm) but please tell me only about the general pronunciation. Are my "r" OK ?
http://dl.free.fr/gcE30a5FE 632Ko Thanks a lot! Edited by Ibryam000 on 18 March 2012 at 11:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Ibryam000 Diglot Newbie France Joined 4667 days ago 37 posts - 50 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Bulgarian, Spanish | Message 10 of 15 18 March 2012 at 11:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Download : click on "Télécharger ce fichier".
You can also listen to it at : http://yourlisten.com/channel/content/118805/eng%20pro Edited by Ibryam000 on 19 March 2012 at 11:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| lazyday Newbie United States Joined 7155 days ago 21 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 15 20 March 2012 at 5:48am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Hey! First, much better choice in my opinion for a reading selection.
The main pronunciation problem I noticed is the word work (maybe like world was a problem last time). It my be that it is repeated several times in the reading so it stands out. The part of the sentence, "Now a new society in Germany is bringing his work back," could almost pass for native if not for the word work. Maybe if you pronounced it more like werk it would sound better to my ears? Just a guess. A few other notes: Standard (American) pronunciation of the word guardian would have a silent u and I assume it is the same for the British newspaper. Some words with 'er' such as gath(er)ed and broth(er)s sound a bit off but you sound OK on G(er)many. It could be just that you dwell on the sound in the first two examples but skim it quickly in the word Germany and so it sounds better to me. Finally the 'ear' in appear sounds off. I notice a fair amount of improvement for such a short time and look forward to hearing you continue to improve. Edited by lazyday on 20 March 2012 at 6:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Ibryam000 Diglot Newbie France Joined 4667 days ago 37 posts - 50 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Bulgarian, Spanish | Message 12 of 15 20 March 2012 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Once again that's very helpful, thank you very much.
Indeed, when pronuncing work as werk it sounds better but I've always had difficulty saying work/world/word (like most French people!). I think the fact that the word "appear" sounds off is due to the lack of aspiration. I'm working on this but it is difficult to put the right amount of air. Your feedbacks are always very helpful and motivating, I'll work on that and post another recording in a few days. Thanks and keep posting! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Ibryam000 Diglot Newbie France Joined 4667 days ago 37 posts - 50 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Bulgarian, Spanish | Message 13 of 15 25 March 2012 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Here is the recording I made today: http://yourlisten.com/channel/content/119544/dsfsdf
"If you're up for an adventure, check out Governor's Island. Fairly unknown yet fun and happening, it's an up-and-coming attraction for many reasons. This 172-acre island is a former military base, sold in 2003 to the people of New York. There are many ongoing exhibits and events featured on the Island and the best part about it -- it's all free. Only a short ferry ride away, it's definitely a must-see." Edited by Ibryam000 on 26 March 2012 at 1:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| nonneb Pentaglot Groupie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4753 days ago 80 posts - 173 votes  Speaks: English*, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, Hungarian, French | Message 14 of 15 26 March 2012 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
I bolded all the things that weren't quite right. Remember, I'm picking out very specific and mostly small things: You're 100% understandable and it's very obvious that you've spent time working on your accent. Keep up the good work. R's are a consistent problem, and occasionally vowels. The "York" sounded very nice though, and your intonation was excellent and authentic in most parts. Some notes - up: needs more "p." The aspirate into the "f." Governor's: The first vowel is like "u" in "cut," not "u" in "put." acre: the first vowel is like "a" in "bake," not "a" in "apple." all: get another opinion on this too, but it sounds like you might be pulling the tip of your tongue too far back. In both the light and dark "l", the tip of my tongue is on or more frequently outside of (between) my teeth. The "ll" in "all" should be the unvelarized English "l". I think that's what you were aiming for, but just to be sure :) it's: I heard "is", like iz. more "t", and the s is unvoiced.
Living in Germany, this is a pleasant change. How flattering! Edited by nonneb on 26 March 2012 at 10:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Ibryam000 Diglot Newbie France Joined 4667 days ago 37 posts - 50 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Bulgarian, Spanish | Message 15 of 15 27 March 2012 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
It is pleasant and motivating when efforts are acknowledged, thank you!
I'm wondering why "York" sounds better than the other words such as "short"...
Thanks for these feedbacks. Indeed my "all" is off, the "ll" sounds like the French l, which isn't pronounced with the tip of the tongue on or between the teeth. I actually believe that the French l is different from both the dark and the light l in English.
I must clarify this point because I've seen in some threads people saying that trying to master an accent is useless unless your grammar is excellent. I know that my grammar isn't excellent and my vocabulary is quite limited. However, I feel pronunciation is at this time what I need to improve in order to be more confident when speaking. And that is something I enjoy studying! So what is the point of discouraging people doing something they like? Saying people what they should and what they shouldn't do without taking what people likes into account and thinking that learning a language is a linear process are precisely the reasons why school system in the field of language learning is doomed to failure. Anyway, I'll keep it up and thank you guys for all these useful advices and feedbacks. Edited by Ibryam000 on 27 March 2012 at 5:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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