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How is my American accent? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| chronik Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 6008 days ago 42 posts - 42 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: Italian | Message 1 of 14 17 May 2009 at 2:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've been training my American accent for a while and it is a lot better than it used to be. However, I don't know if it's near native yet, so I want your opinion. Please, judge it and tell me where I can make it better.
I tried to upload the file in the sound gallery here on the site but I got an error, so I uploaded it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOlmQ4FDG90&fmt=18 I read the beginning of the article "What is necessary to learn English well?" written by Tomasz P. Szynalski from antimoon.com. The full article can be found here: http://www.antimoon.com/how/motiv-intro.htm Transcript: What is necessary to learn English well? Learning English requires action. You may know all the learning tips, but if you don't start doing things, you will achieve nothing. The fact is, if you want to learn to speak English well, you must change your life. Here are some examples of things you will have to do: * read a book in English for an hour every day, analyzing the grammar in sentences and looking up words in an English dictionary * listen to an audiobook or other recording in English, stopping it frequently, trying to understand what is being said, and trying to imitate the speaker's pronunciation * spend your afternoon practicing the pronunciation of the English "r" sound * carefully write an e-mail message in English, using a dictionary or a Web search every 20 seconds to make sure every word is correct, and taking 5 minutes to write one sentence * think about an English sentence you've read, wondering if it could say "a" instead of "the" in the sentence, and trying to find similar sentences on the Web to find out the answer * walk down the street and build simple English sentences in your head (talking to yourself in English about the things you see around you) Thank you. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Akipenda Lugha Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5740 days ago 78 posts - 82 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Swahili, Sign Language, Spanish | Message 2 of 14 17 May 2009 at 5:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey Chronik. This is a fun question, I don't often think about what makes
'good' English pronunciation. Your pronunciation is obviously very good, but it does not sound like a native English accent. In particular, your vowel sounds, especially 'o' and sometimes the 'i' are off and sound Latin American. Also you are speaking somewhat quickly in the clip which blurs some pronunciations. For instances the ending of 'sentecES' needs to be clearer. Still, I don't think anyone in North America would have difficulty understanding you. I hope my languages are one day as good as your English! Edited by Akipenda Lugha on 17 May 2009 at 5:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| paparaciii Diglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6338 days ago 204 posts - 223 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian Studies: English | Message 3 of 14 17 May 2009 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You don't sound like a native but your English is pretty good.
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| couragepiece93 Groupie United States Joined 5770 days ago 77 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian, Latin | Message 4 of 14 18 May 2009 at 1:39am | IP Logged | |||||
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It actually does sound very close to native English, but I had a very hard time understanding it simply because of how quickly it was spoken. Just slow it down a bit, and it will be great ;)
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| chronik Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 6008 days ago 42 posts - 42 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: Italian | Message 5 of 14 18 May 2009 at 4:02am | IP Logged | |||||
In which words do you think it sounds weird? There are quite a few sounds i and o can assume! (English spelling doesn't help anything).
I had only 60 seconds so I tried to read as much as I could hehe, sorry about that. Anyway, I do speak slower when talking to people. Thanks everyone. Edited by chronik on 18 May 2009 at 4:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| GuardianJY Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5687 days ago 74 posts - 72 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Italian, Swedish, French | Message 6 of 14 18 May 2009 at 4:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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Your pronunciation is remarkably good for being a non-native speaker. I've heard of native speakers having a worse English accent than you have, if that means anything to you. The errors you did make are likely because of how fast you were speaking. Just work on vowels in various words and you likely won't be perceived as a foreigner by many people. (EXCEPT if you go to Britain)
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| sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5748 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch | Message 7 of 14 18 May 2009 at 4:40am | IP Logged | |||||
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I thought you sounded great. Being a foreigner to English speaking countries myself, I cannot judge you and say that you sound like a foreigner. At least you are trying to improve your American accent. I don't speak with any type of English accent. My vocabulary is a mangled mix of British and American terms. This is due to the reason of my time I spend in Britain occasionally, and the year I spent in America. GOOD JOB! KEEP TRYING!
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| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6829 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 8 of 14 18 May 2009 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I can immediately tell you are not a native English speaker. It sounds like you are from South America but lived in America for more than half your life.
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