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Shadowing and the sex of the narrator?

  Tags: Shadowing | Gender
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
Amun
Triglot
Groupie
Netherlands
Joined 5057 days ago

52 posts - 72 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, French
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 1 of 7
30 June 2013 at 6:30pm | IP Logged 
For accent reduction purposes in my target languages I am trying out the 'shadowing'
method. So, I have a question if the sex really matters of the narrator (audio) you are
trying to shadow?

I ask this because there is a slight bias towards female narrators in the audiobook
industry (I suppose their voices are universally regarded as more pleasant). So, it can be
hard to find male narrators of the books I like.

Edited by Amun on 30 June 2013 at 8:34pm

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Retinend
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SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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 Message 2 of 7
30 June 2013 at 6:58pm | IP Logged 
No I don't think it matters in the slightest. Shadowing, amongst many things, has helped
me enormously with my pronunciation but it can't miraculously make me sound like the
opposite gender.

Women tend to represent the more "posh" end of any community of speakers, so the worst
case is that you won't sound very street. I'd be interested to hear in a few months what
effect shadowing has had on your established foreign accent, if you would remember to
update.
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Amun
Triglot
Groupie
Netherlands
Joined 5057 days ago

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Speaks: Dutch*, English, French
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 3 of 7
30 June 2013 at 8:14pm | IP Logged 
Retinend wrote:
No I don't think it matters in the slightest. Shadowing, amongst many things, has helped me enormously with my pronunciation
but it can't miraculously make me sound like the opposite gender.

Women tend to represent the more "posh" end of any community of speakers, so the worst case is that you won't sound very street.


Thanks for the reassurance. :) I'm not too worried about ending up sounding like the opposite gender.
However, I am bit worried that I'll subconsciously acquire the wrong pitch levels and inappropriate resonance in my L2 & L3..

I doubt it would have any major influence, but I still would like to know if people have successfully used recordings of the opposite gender for shadowing purposes.

Retinend wrote:
I'd be interested to hear in a few months what effect shadowing has
had on your established foreign accent if you would remember to update.


Sure, I'll try to update this thread if I manage to make shadowing a habit and stick to it.
I have a habit for breaking habits, but I'll do my best stick to this one. :)

Edited by Amun on 30 June 2013 at 8:23pm

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Bao
Diglot
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 Message 4 of 7
30 June 2013 at 10:23pm | IP Logged 
In my experience it doesn't matter too much, as I tend to use people I identify with as
voice models including pitch and modulation. When I don't particularly identify with a
native speaker I only copy and memorize the parts I recognize as not specific to that one
speaker.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Volte
Tetraglot
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Switzerland
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 Message 5 of 7
01 July 2013 at 1:36am | IP Logged 
It depends a bit on the language. For both English and French, you should be fine.
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Iversen
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 Message 6 of 7
01 July 2013 at 9:58am | IP Logged 
I would be more worried about getting used to using the wrong grammatical gender.
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Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6438 days ago

4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 7 of 7
01 July 2013 at 8:48pm | IP Logged 
Iversen wrote:
I would be more worried about getting used to using the wrong grammatical gender.


It's not much of a problem with literature, as the narrator often doesn't match the gender of the purported speaker either. With other formats, it can be.


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