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Old 23-06-2003, 16:22   #1
russkayatatu russkayatatu is offline
Echoes among the Stars
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: USA
Age: 41
Posts: 770

How to Have a Good Accent in a Foreign Language

Hello

OK, this thread is about pronunciation in foreign languages - how to pronounce things like a native even when the language you're learning has sounds that are VERY different from your own (Russian for a lot of non-Slavic speakers, for example).

Please note: this is just what I think, some methods, ways of thinking, etc. that have worked for me - some I employed unconsciously, some consciously - they have no authority whatsoever. I'm not a linguist, I'm not a language teacher, I'm just somebody who has studied several Indo-European languages in American schools and thought a little bit about language: how to learn it, how people use it, how it's connected to thought and how it differs from region to region. If you don't agree with anything I say, that's fine - I have problems with a lot of the formal linguistics I've been taught and have read - and I've never sat in on a "pronunciation" class, so I'm ignorant of how other people approach this topic, I admit; maybe this is even old hat. It's just that even for languages I hardly speak I have a good accent, which surprises the hell out of people, and lately I've been thinking about how and why, analyzing how I approach learning foreign languages and trying to formulate a system that's a little more universal. Anyway, this is something like what I've come up with.

So, here goes: when you're learning a language, one of the most important things you can do is LISTEN. And never stop listening. This is crucial. A lot of people, when they first learn a new word, listen to the native pronunciation once or twice, repeat, and then stop paying attention to how it's pronounced. When they come across the word again, they think, "oh yeah, I know this word," and don't reevaluate the pronuncation. I'd advise someone to listen, listen, repeat (imitating as closely as possible), then listen, listen, repeat.

Getting the right pronunciation should be a continuous process (at least for languages that have very different sounds, like Russian for English speakers). Begin with getting as close an approximation as you can get, then keep refining it. Even when you get really good, always keep one ear cocked to pick up intonation patterns, drawn-out vowels, any other pronunciation quirks that you didn't notice before; build a good base and it'll be easy to add on. And don't just listen to words...listen to phrases, how they go up and down, pitches, intonations, and try to copy. Don't make pronunciation the thing you pay the most attention to - a good accent won't help much if you have poor structure and limited vocabulary - but don't ever forget about it either; it's important.

Also, in the beginning especially, don't be so quick to say words or sentences that you pronounce things sloppily. Go slowly. You're building habits; if you begin with a good pronunciation, it will be easier to refine it later on. Don't rely too much on how a word is spelled, especially for vowels; spelling is only an approximation anyway, even in languages where spelling is not as weird as in English Words aren't something in a dictionary or on a page, they're something people say, so always pay attention to how people talk - and they will talk differently. It is amazing what you start to hear when you start to pay attention.

Another good strategy is to listen to songs in the foreign language, because then hopefully you're not listening just for comprehension but can pay attention to the way words sound - I do this all the time with languages I'm learning.

Just so you know, when I was first learning Russian my accent was FAR from perfect: I got all I could in the beginning, by for the life of me I could not pronounce soft consonants, especially a soft "L" (heard in words like "mal'chik"). I remember the first time I realized how off my pronunciation of "ocen'" ("very") was: I was watching a movie, and a man came up to the heroine on a subway, asked her if her book was interesting, and she replied "ocen'"...for some reason that time I heard it I realized how much softer the "ch" should be in that word, and then it was easier for me to hear it in other words as well. Soft "L" I finally got too, although there were several times when I would listen as hard as I could, repeat, and it would not be right; I couldn't hear it, and finally I'd stop before I got too frustrated. For me the moment of insight was when I realized I had to pay attention to the vowel, because the vowels around a soft consonant are different than around a hard one. I used to pronounce words like "govoril" (he talked) as "govoryl," with a hard "L," but when I thought of the "i," very forward, I would make a soft "L" without thinking about it. Conversely if I had the vowel wrong there was no way in hell I'd get the consonant; once you had the vowel the consonant followed naturally.

Other pronunciation things I picked up only later: vowel reductions, you gotta hear them to be able to say them, because the general rules are just general rules: a reduced "o" isn't EXACTLY the same as an "a," although "a" will take you pretty far. And there were a lot of other little things I didn't even realize I was paying attention to or copying: like "net" ("no") in Russian isn't always pronounced completely; sometimes it's shortened to "ne" - I never read that, but that's how people talk sometimes.

Of course if you want to learn English as a foreign language you might not want to lose your accent, since most Americans think foreign accents are sexy And if you've already started to learn a language and want to improve your accent I don't know if this will apply because I've never had that problem. Actually I don't know if it will help anybody but me. No, I am not really a linguistic nerd, but after so many people asked if I was Russian on hearing me speak I started to wonder what exactly I did to get an accent that's supposed to be so hard for Americans - and came up with something like this. Thank you to everyone who read this...pretty lame I know
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