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M500@lemmy.ml

Can someone tell me how bad my English is? Been taking accent reduction classes for over an year. Can you also guess where I am from? (voca.ro)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by CatDogL0ver@lemmy.world to c/englishlearning@lemmy.ml

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My accent is all over the place. I live in the US but my tutor is British. I am learning a hybrid accent. I prefer RP accent.

Any tips?

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[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

A tip from an average American:

Although a few vowel sounds are off, your words are understandable and those clipped consonants of the RP accent are helping with that. But there's a singsong quality to your speaking (at least in this reading) that seems to not only cause you to sometimes accent the wrong part of a word, it also overrides the usual emphasis on the most important words. Talk to your coach about how to break up the rhythm, lean on the words that make your point, and whip past the rest, while also using higher and lower notes 🎶 for expression. In English, a word can be spoken with different tones depending on how it's being used in the sentence.

[–] CatDogL0ver@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What'"s singsong quality of speech? Like singing? Or my pitch is too high? Monotonous?

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Not monotonous, it's musical in that there are high/low notes and downbeats, but.. it's as if the "song" was written first and the "lyrics" don't quite fit.

Think of a song that was originally written in English and translated to your home language. You understand the words because they're familiar but some sound weird because they're forced to fit the music. Then think of a clever song written in your own language, often funny songs are a good example, where they start with the idea, and some phrases, maybe some rhymes, and then create and weave the music around the words to bring out the meaning.

Getting the "music" right is one of the hardest things about learning another language, because we learned and babbled the tune of our own language before we even spoke it.

As a step, make sure to learn the syllable(s) that get the hard accent in each word, and stick to it every time. Because English is such a jumble of stolen words and phrases, it's not consistent about which part of (for instance) three-syllable words gets the beat, but it is pretty consistent about each individual one.

Edited to put in some beats, and highlight the accented syllable in the long words. The bold isn't stronger than the italic, it's just a different purpose.

[–] CatDogL0ver@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Thank you. I will tell my British tutor. I think the term you are describing is cadence. My tutor told me many times but I just can't get it right.

Again, thank you again for your kind advice

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Obviously it's going to be hardest in spontaneous conversation, but for a planned speech, you could type as I did or use highlighters to indicate the most important words and phrases, and/or remind yourself which syllable gets stressed in tricky words.

Just to add to your difficulty, English vs. American differences include stressing different parts of words.

[–] CatDogL0ver@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Thank you so much. ありがとうございます

[–] Nunar@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You're doing great! There's still a very thick accent and difficulty with some of the transitions. Keep it up!

[–] CatDogL0ver@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

So what kind of accent will you guess?

[–] zzx@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

American here, very understandable! I like your voice. I would say the accent is medium thickness- doesn't prevent me from understanding you at all!

I saw you wanted someone to guess at your accent: I guess I would guess African? I am not good at accents lol.