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Learning a French accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| commo Newbie United States Joined 5511 days ago 13 posts - 20 votes Speaks: French | Message 17 of 27 06 April 2010 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The old FSI Introduction to French Phonology course was just made for people in your situation. Here it is: free and legal with both book and audio:
http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=French Edited by commo on 06 April 2010 at 10:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6827 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 18 of 27 07 April 2010 at 6:22am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks! Can you please explain what does "English aspiration" mean? I really don't know what a diphthong is. Can you explain what I did wrong and what it should be? Damn... I need more study. When I listen back to my voice, it sounds like shizen housen. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 19 of 27 07 April 2010 at 6:54am | IP Logged | |||||
After p, t and k, English releases a strong puff of air (compare puff and buff). This is not the case in French and is a commonly found in English natives speaking French. A diphthong is when a vowel shifts and ends in y or w, such as bay or bow. In French, bé is not like bay because we don't have the final -y sound. Similarly, beau is not like bow because we don't have the final -u sound. Compared to English, French vowels a lot more stable and do not shift over to a diphthong. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6827 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 20 of 27 07 April 2010 at 8:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks Arekkusu.
I'm going to work my @ss and get my French to something I can be proud of. I'll continue to listen, try shadowing, and try to improve my French no matter what. I'm going to probably try the all-japanese-all-the-time method and see if I can get my French sounding like a French person. Lucky I have TV5 Monde and Lingq... The problem is don't know any French people yet, and I will go to Alliance Française after I can speak it quite fluently already. My wife goes to Alliance Française for 3 months now and she can't even say her some basic sentences. So its clear which method is best for me.... just need to convince myself I am French somehow. Maybe one day I'll be worthy to speak French to French people. Once I sound good, I'll go to France or Quebec. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 21 of 27 07 April 2010 at 8:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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Wannabeafreak,
Is there a problem with your blog? I haven't been able to access it for a while even though your feed is still working. Edited by newyorkeric on 07 April 2010 at 8:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hvorki_ne Groupie Joined 5386 days ago 72 posts - 79 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic | Message 22 of 27 07 April 2010 at 10:18am | IP Logged | |||||
I'm glad you got it cleared up that imitating Clouseau won't get you anywhere- the same goes for cockney to sound british (and imitating a southern hick to sound like an american). Don't learn an accent by doing an exaggerated version of an already exaggerated version. This only works if you plan on doing a comedy routine that involves playing up stereotypes. I think that learning the accent off of TV and the local news (you can find a lot of stuff like that on youtube or online news sites) is your best bet because that's what real natives use and are accustomed to hearing. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6827 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 23 of 27 07 April 2010 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
Fixed. I actually blocked proxies because I didn't want people from my old company to laugh at me. Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Valicore Hexaglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5344 days ago 10 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Catalan, Italian Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 24 of 27 08 April 2010 at 4:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi Wannabefreak,
I'm totally new here but I can say one thing that I have seen help people when they're trying to get a more "authentic" French accent is changing the "default position" of your lips. What I mean is, pout your lips just a little bit, it helps your lips to go into the right position when you have to make sounds that are problematic for English speakers (and others), like "eu" and "u". The other thing is, as someone else mentioned, English vowels are "glide" vowels. Like when we say "o", it isn't just the "o" sound, it is "o" gliding to kind of a u sound, with "a" it is "a" gliding to an "e" sound. Try and just pronounce the first part of the vowel, and keep yourself from gliding into another vowel. Don't get discouraged, French is one of the hardest languages for learners, especially native English speakers, in terms of pronunciation. Eventually you will just "get" it. Hope it helps! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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