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~German Accents~ | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| LebensForm Senior Member Austria Joined 5051 days ago 212 posts - 264 votes  Studies: German | Message 1 of 3 20 July 2011 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There have probably been tons of topic on this before so my apologies in advance if there were. But what are some good tips for developing and perfecting a German accent? When I speak German, I don't want to sound too Americanized, even though I live here but would it be beneficial to try and speak in English with a German accent and then just shift that for when I speak German, since the accent would already be somewhat developed? If this would work, does anyone have any good ideas on how to have an"authentic" sounding German accent. I have listened to countless videos on youtube, and watched movies and whanot, trying to establish this accent but there are so many dialects in German (like many other languages) that I'm not even sure how to go about this. Sorry, if my question is confusing.
Thanks. Edited by LebensForm on 20 July 2011 at 6:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 2 of 3 20 July 2011 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't think that you could pull this off (just imagine your best friend speaking English to you like Inspector Clouseau all day long). Unless you're actor/artist, in which case you could order one of the many German accent training CDs for English speaking actors. While this won't teach you to speak German, it'll hopefully make you more aware of differences in pronunciation between the two languages. BTW, sneaking in some English sentences with a slight German accent when doing shopping at a mall etc. might actually be more doable than trying to speak English with a heavy German accent like the stereotypical German villain in a Hollywood movie.
Unless you plan to stay in a place where Hochdeutsch is almost considered a foreign language, e.g. Switzerland, I'd just stick with Hochdeutsch. If you find your language CDs too boring, just try to mimic your favorite German actor/actress, provided they don't portray someone who has a heavy regional accent. (You could always pick up a regional accent later.) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5149 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 3 of 3 20 July 2011 at 10:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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One thing that I think has helped me is working with voice recognition computer software. I started out with the Tell Me More program and then got one from Digital Publishing, which proved to be less glitchy. I found that when I recorded myself speaking a German word or sentence and then listened to it back-to-back with the same word(s)spoken by a native speaker, the discrepancies jumped out at me. I also got both FSI German courses and made CDs with pauses so I could repeat after the speakers while I was driving around in the car. I think that helps, too, although it's harder to assess one's own pronunciation of something while in the act of speaking it.
I joined a local German club and asked the native speakers to point out shortcomings in my pronunciation, which they were happy to do. Then I recorded some German and posted it on the Internet and got valuable feedback from Doitsujin. I try to expose myself as much as possible to spoken German by watching German news and videos on the Internet (ARD Mediathek is excellent) and German movies and documentaries I get from Amazon.de. I just got some episodes of Tatort (the legendary German TV crime drama series) on DVD, and they're absolutely loaded with idiomatic colloquial German. Not only that, they're set in various German cities, so you get to hear the regional differences and most of them have German subtitles. They're pretty pricey, though, and you need to have a region 2 player. I hope this helps. If anybody else has suggestions, I'm always looking for ways to improve my German. Edited by AlOlaf on 21 July 2011 at 2:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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