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Acquiring an American Accent - SoundCloud | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| FabienSnauwaert Triglot Newbie France voyageauboutdelalangRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4281 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Hungarian, Russian | Message 1 of 4 05 March 2013 at 7:06am | IP Logged |
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Hello,
THE INTRO Many years, on January 1st, I've decided and applied myself to a "fun" New-Year resolution. Once, it was to use my other hand exclusively (I'm now ambidextrous). Another time, it was to not drink any alcohol for one year (and I'm now sometimes too sober!) For 2013, here is my resolution: to acquire as CLOSE an American accent as possible. I'm able to pose as a native in writing and, when I speak, people usually do not guess I'm French (even though it is a rare thing for French speakers). However, I most certainly don't sound native and this is what I want to fix. I know it's a rare enough thing but I know it's been done before, I have examples of it. I also have many leads and ways on how to do this... and I've been diving into it! Please, do not turn this thread into a debate into whether this is doable or not. Feel free to open such a debate elsewhere but not in here. Thanks. THE ACTION I've been practicing my American accent every day I could, in the morning, since January 1st, 2013. I just record myself and look for things to fix and improve. I've been uploading those recordings on SoundCloud, where I wouldn't expect anyone to care for them. However, in here, who knows? ;) I've been using several techniques of my own choosing so far, mostly trying to make it fun for me to do. (Remember, it has to be fun; to me it is the key to learning a lot anyway.) You can listen to my daily progress here: https://soundcloud.com/fabien-snauwaert/sets (Being a new member, I cannot post link yet, you'll need to copy-paste.) Feel free to click, visit and see the difference between early January and now. In January, I'd record myself improvising a quick monologue and try and fix it. In February, I'd use movie quotes for me to align myself with them and get better. This month, I'm using a mix of techniques (monologues, reading quotes out loud and modeling public figures I like). I use Audacity (a free piece of software) to see the audio waves of both my models and my recordings. It's helped me tremendously already in improving the RHYTHM in my speech (and, in doing so, word stress and syllable stress). I'm using as much as I can from phonetics to correct myself. I'm at over 600 comments/corrections in total now on SoundCloud. PLEASE, HELP? Now, I don't expect anyone to be a fraction as involved in this project as I am but, that said, getting help from native speakers who love languages would be great! If you're so inclined, please leave me comments on the SoundCloud tracks or in here :) In return, I will be not only willing but HAPPY to provide some very thorough feedback to people learning French. Just post a link to a recording of you speaking the language and I'll give you my best feedback. Thanks for reading, Fabien P.S.: as for the accent itself... There is no such thing as a totally neutral accent. My goal for now is to sound kind of 'generic' in my accent (ie: "General American"). However, I might get more specific as I make more progress. For example, picking up an accent from California might make a lot of sense. Edited by FabienSnauwaert on 05 March 2013 at 7:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Travis.H Triglot Groupie United States Joined 4454 days ago 59 posts - 91 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, Sign Language Studies: French | Message 2 of 4 05 March 2013 at 9:35am | IP Logged |
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Your accent sounds pretty good already.
I listened to the recording that popped up on the link you posted. Here's a few things I noticed. Overall your accent isn't bad at all. If I met you I wouldn't be able to place where you were from easily if at all. The reason people might mistake your accent for German is because of how you pronounce your 'th's (voiced and non-voiced). Clearly articulating your 'th' sounds would help remove that misconception. In the lines "So, what I'm doing right here", "...at the start of the year" and "I've been working..." the 'r' dropped from the end of 'here' and 'year' and I hear more of an "euh" sound instead of a strong "r" in "working". Standard American English really stresses and rounds the 'r's everywhere in the word. British English tends to drop them near the end of the word. Overall very good. I don't see why you wouldn't be able to sound native with some practice. One technique that might help you is to take an audio piece that you have a text for and try taking notes on intonation and pronunciation. Edited by Travis.H on 05 March 2013 at 3:09pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4663 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 4 05 March 2013 at 12:18pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome to HTLAL!
Sounds like a good deal (French accent help for English accent help) and an ambitious goal. I'm listening to your March 4th recording. Some comments: I've done French-English exchanges with a number of Francophones and can say you *don't* have the typical French accent in English. I don't know if I'd be able to guess your origin from accent alone, though sometimes the wording of a phrase sounds right out of French ("we're Monday" = "on est lundi") or simply a bit unusual ("I will keep being understood" rather than "I will still be understood"). One of the main obstacles to your sounding ("General") American is that your distribution of "r" often sounds more like a non-rhotic accent (maybe an English accent). Here are some words on your March 4th recording where it stuck out to me: we're proper Saturdays order however recording software (the o vowel is off, too) source If you want to sound General American, you really need to give the "r" a good "rrrr" and can't let it drop. :-) Some other words that stuck out as non-American to me (mostly the vowels were off): freely hopefully model also try [really slight] right now understood Finally, your unvoiced "th" sometimes sounds like "s" to my ears. Maybe try practicing some pairs like "youth" and "use", and "thin" and "sin." I made a recording of the two word lists above, in the same order, just to give you a model for them: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bfpu9s6pn6fyp7u/words1.mp3?m Next time I record some French, I'll drop a link here. :-) Edited by tastyonions on 05 March 2013 at 12:35pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| FabienSnauwaert Triglot Newbie France voyageauboutdelalangRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4281 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Hungarian, Russian | Message 4 of 4 06 March 2013 at 5:32am | IP Logged |
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Thanks a lot guys, that's quite helpful.
Anytime Brian, I've subscribed to the thread so I'll get an email any time you post something in here. Thanks for the recordings also, good idea! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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