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My accent - please evaluate! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Rafa v. 2.0 Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5625 days ago 36 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 1 of 8 04 May 2009 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello, could you please rate my spoken language skills in English and French?
I've recorded a short excerpt from "The Little Prince" - in English and in French. Prince FRA: http://www.yousendit.com/download/dVlxak8rcTJrUm1Ga1E9PQ J'ai ainsi vécu seul, sans personne avec qui parler véritablement, jusqu'à une panne dans le désert du Sahara, il y a six ans. Quelque chose s'était cassé dans mon moteur, Et comme je n'avais avec moi ni méchanicien, ni passagers, je me préparai à essayer de réussir, tout seul, une réparation difficile. C'était pour moi une question de vie ou de mort. J'avais à peine de l'eau à boire pour huit jours. Prince ENG: http://www.yousendit.com/download/dVlxak81Qk4zS3JIRGc9PQ So I lived my life alone, without anyone that I could really talk to, until I had an accident with my plane in the Desert of Sahara, six years ago. Something was broken in my engine. And as I had with me neither a mechanic nor any passengers, I set myself to attempt the difficult repairs all alone. It was a question of life or death for me: I had scarcely enough drinking water to last a week. And so, I'd like to ask native speakers of these two languages for any comments! Thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6381 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 2 of 8 04 May 2009 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Your English accent is decent. It's very easily comprehensible.
That said, it's also clearly foreign; on hearing it, I would tend to think that you're a native speaker of a Slavic language, but not instantly be sure which one. Your intonation is decent, but not perfect. So: I'd rate you as 'quite good' - not better, not worse. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rafa v. 2.0 Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5625 days ago 36 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 3 of 8 04 May 2009 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for your comment!
Are there any specific expressions that I got wrong and that give me away or is it an overall impression of 'foreignness'? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6381 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 8 04 May 2009 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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What you said is entirely correct, which makes sense given that you're quoting from "The Little Prince". 'until I had an accident with my plane in the Desert of Sahara' is an incredibly stilted sentence (it's a too-literal translation from the French), but that's not your fault - that particular translation of "The Little Prince" has a few quirks like that.
All of your vowels sound a little off to me - they simply aren't close to any major native accents' vowels. I honestly can't tell if you're trying to sound North American or British - or neither. This shows up by the time you're done with the word 'so'. I'd be sort of curious to hear how you'd say some English minimal pairs that differ only in vowel sounds - I'm not good enough at phonetics to tell from your recording whether you're distinguishing the English vowels correctly or reducing them to the nearest Polish ones. And finally, lest this discourage you: I still say your accent is good. I know people who live in English-speaking countries who sound a lot worse and are a lot harder to understand - in that respect, you're doing perfectly. Edited by Volte on 04 May 2009 at 7:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MäcØSŸ Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5751 days ago 259 posts - 392 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2 Studies: German | Message 6 of 8 04 May 2009 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
Actually it's not a schwa, but a "Close-mid front rounded vowel" [ø]. A schwa is a "mid central vowel" [ə], as in "ce" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5953 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 8 04 May 2009 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Rafa,
In the English, you could work on your "th" sounds -- both of them. You say "wizz" and "wizzout" instead of "with" and "without", "dat" instead of "that". Your pronunciation of "death" suggests that your tongue is going too high in your mouth. Your tongue should be fairly flat in your mouth and the tip should touch the tip of your teeth. Then you want to push air out between the tongue and the teeth. Don't be afraid to exaggerate -- you can even stick your tongue out past your teeth and make a thhh noise. It's like learning a martial art or a dance -- what you do slowly is always exaggerated because you'll never really do it that carefully at full speed. Edited by Cainntear on 04 May 2009 at 9:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6206 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 8 of 8 05 May 2009 at 4:21am | IP Logged | ||
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With the English, I didn't catch the "until" and the "repairs" at first.
The "until" sounded kind of like "antil". The "repairs" sounded like "repers" 1 person has voted this message useful |
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