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Shadowing for English accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 5875 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 9 17 July 2010 at 9:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I posted briefly about this in the Accent reduction courses thread but I don't want to
de-rail it, so I'm making my own. Basically, I want a proper English accent. I'm rarely taken for a foreigner when in England, but that's probably mostly due to English people not being used to Scandinavian accents (people familiar with them instantly hears I'm Scandinavian at least). I'm generally taken for either Irish, Northern Irish or in a few cases American or South African. I would like either an Irish or a Cockney accent, and I figured shadowing is the way to go to acquire them. Does anyone have any extensive sound clips with either accents, or any tips of some, such as audiobooks or extensive talks? Preferrably as strong an accent as possible, I could tone it down afterwards. Would be very appreciated! :) - Henrik Edited by mrhenrik on 17 July 2010 at 9:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5094 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 2 of 9 17 July 2010 at 10:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Isn't a cockney accent something you want to get rid of as fast as possible?
Or have you fallen in love with a flower girl? 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BartoG Diglot Senior Member United States confession Joined 5243 days ago 292 posts - 818 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek | Message 3 of 9 17 July 2010 at 11:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Google David Alan Stern. He does a program, Acting with an Accent, for which Irish and Cockney dialects are available. I can see the use of shadowing for practice, but you need to know what you're practicing!
I don't know about the Cockney or Irish courses, but the British RP course appears to be quite thorough. I only did the first three tracks, before discovering that I wasn't that interested in RP pronunciation after all. But if you're serious, the course will teach you a lot about the mechanics of making your mouth move right so that the sounds of your chosen dialect come out naturally. I was amazed to discover that you don't actually need to imitate British vowel sounds if you're placing your resonance and tightening the corners of your mouth properly - with the mouth properly prepared they just come out that way. And the final Rs take care of themselves as well. Assuming that you're supposed to practice the exercises in later lessons as much as those in the beginning, I'm guessing the one hour course has five or six hours of training, at which point you'll be ready to shadow with a proper accent, not just what Irish or Cockney sounds like to you. Best of luck. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 5875 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 9 18 July 2010 at 2:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks a lot for the tip BartoG, I'll definitely check that out!
linoleng, that's indeed the word on the street, but the word on the street is silly and can't appreciate the completely insane beauty that is cockney. Prefer Irish a tiny bit more though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5123 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 5 of 9 18 July 2010 at 4:31am | IP Logged | ||
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 5875 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 9 18 July 2010 at 5:51am | IP Logged | ||
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I was rather asking for tips on learning the accents, not what people think of them. A
lot of people don't like the cockney accent, sure, just like a lot of people don't like the sound of Dutch, or Mandarin, or American English. People have different tastes, isn't it beautiful? ;) Edited by mrhenrik on 18 July 2010 at 5:56am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5356 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 7 of 9 19 July 2010 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are 4 videos from Prof A. about accents, in which he says that shadowing is not especially helpful for acquiring a good accent. He got his good German accent by using a private tutor, and living in the country.
That said, I'm sure it beats other self-study methods. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5562 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 8 of 9 19 July 2010 at 7:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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One drawback of David Alan Stern's program is that it is made for Americans, and starts from a Standard Northern American accent which I can't even imitate well.
I don't think it's especially useful for foreign accent reduction, and I'd rather have a nondescript English + German accent mix than a local + German one. (I'd love to learn David Tennant's accent, by the way) This girl does some nice imitations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k and has a tutorial on how she learns accents http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJyTA4VlZus some of it is helpful, but it's also obvious that she can't explain everything she does, like the '5 vowels' comment at the beginning of that video - that's where her talent comes into place, because she obviously can learn to copy the exact sound she hears while still thinking in the five vowel letters English is written in. I do believe that in order to learn an accent you don't only need input and practice, but also feedback. Both of speakers of that accent who want to help you to acquire it, and of speakers who can point out your Norwegianisms to you (unless you do have a special talent and/or are a trained actor, maybe then you could manage it on your own) Shadowing might help with the input and practice, especially if you shadow radio plays, podcasts and such - conversation, even scripted conversation is probably better than audio books. But I doubt it will be enough. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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