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Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

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Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#101

Post by fsckboy »

Barrin92 wrote: post #75
zwieback wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I've been speaking (American) English 99% of the time for the past thirty years but still have a noticeable German accent, never get any flak for that. Apparently Joseph Conrad spoke with a heavy Polish accent so that's my excuse. What's sad is that educated people look down on people speaking "grammatically incorrect" even if their way of speaking is consistent within their group and conveying meaning perfe…

>but still have a noticeable German accent my German accent only got less notable after speaking a ton of English living in English speaking countries for several years. For some reason losing the accent was way harder than getting rid of an accent in French. Especially words like 'strength'. If German is your first language there is something about 'r' and 'th' sounds that's so hard to get right.

a segment of Americans pronounce that word "shtrenkth", kinda drives me crazy. Colin Powell did, and my little sister does. I have no explanation.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#102

Post by m463 »

camoufleur wrote: post #19
narag wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an English name. It's the name of a spanish river. Wad is river in Arabic. They pronounce it correctly. It's common that foreign words are adopted and adapted to the host language, but sometimes, specially if they're names, the original pronounciation lingers.

I think that's their point. I think the proper (Spanish) pronunciation is gwah-dah-loo-peh.

right.

And funny that I once ordered a sandwich in mexico, but they couldn't understand me until I pronounced it like san-doo-weee-ch

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#103

Post by gnicholas »

teach wrote: post #3

This is really interesting! Instead of "here's how you are SUPPOSED to pronounce" any given word or phrase, you show how a bunch of native English speakers actually pronounce it. Maybe everyone is wrong, but if your goal is to be understood then you'd be better mimicking what they do than just being technically correct. :) For example, there's a street in the city I live in spelled "Guadalupe". Natives pretty much un…

Same for Hermosa Beach, Los Gatos, and many other CA towns. Even though I speak Spanish, I'm always caught off-guard when someone pronounces these places the Spanish way.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#104

Post by lottin »

rafaelvasco wrote: post #39

For me it was all about listening to a lot of people talking in English, memorizing the exact sounds and pronunciation. And then reading books out loud everyday. It helps that I have a very good ear, but it should work for anyone.

Without proper knowledge of English phonetics and dialects, this method isn't going to take you very far. For example, in English, vowel length carries phonetic information, whereas in other languages it does not. If you mother tongue happens to fall in the latter category, it's extremely unlikely that you'll figure out how vowel length works, or even that you have to pay attention to it.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#105

Post by praveen9920 »

shijie wrote: post #38

Something I’ve learned as someone with high proficiency in another language that I learned in adulthood (I would never say fluent, maybe “functionally” fluent): Poor pronunciation (I.e. thick accent) but good grammar is usually more forgiven by a native than great pronunciation but poor grammar. Because then you sound more native, but you sound a bit… mentally slow. I am in the latter camp. My Mandarin Chinese accent…

I will have to disagree here. I have a South Indian accent and a good grip on grammar, at least when I'm speaking, Most of the native English speakers I encountered had trouble understanding some of the words I was pronouncing even if it was within context.

My understanding is that everyone's brain is wired to expect a word in a certain way and unless you have encountered other accents, the speaker has to repeat what they have been saying.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#106

Post by Scarblac »

gilleain wrote: post #14
teach wrote: post #3

This is really interesting! Instead of "here's how you are SUPPOSED to pronounce" any given word or phrase, you show how a bunch of native English speakers actually pronounce it. Maybe everyone is wrong, but if your goal is to be understood then you'd be better mimicking what they do than just being technically correct. :) For example, there's a street in the city I live in spelled "Guadalupe". Natives pretty much un…

Yeah I jut looked up some examples from this list https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-49813249 > starting with 'Frome'. The first video hit had someone pronouncing it rhyming with 'home' when it's meant to be "Froom". Ok, so it got 'Ballachulish' from a video specifically about Scottish Gaelic. (As an aside - how is 'Omagh' difficult?)

> As an aside - how is 'Omagh' difficult?

Same way as every other English word - the spelling seems unrelated to the pronunciation.

I've never heard this word. Is the 'gh' part pronounced as in though or as in tough?

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#107

Post by CliffStoll »

Fifty-five year old true story: I was dating a woman in Buffalo; we're both native speakers. She tells me to meet her at a place on "Gothee" Street, over in the Lovejoy district.

I bike over to the east side of town, and search all over for Gothee Street. No luck. Ask a few locals - nada. Spend a half hour looking; eventually give up.

Next morning, there's hell to pay. She waited an hour for me.

What happened? "It's Goethe Street, stupid," she says" "G O E T H E"

I had no idea of this super-local pronunciation -- I'd always pronounced the poet's name as "G uh - t uh"

(Similar thing happened in a town near Rochester, New York: How do you pronounce Chili, NY ? You'd better say "Chy - Ly" unless you want to sound like a stranger.)

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#108

Post by avgcorrection »

But why would I want to sound like a native?

- English accent: monocle vibes

- Australian accent: Crocodile Dundee (badass but I can’t embody that)

- Standard American accent: incredible “twang” (sounds like all wovels are sent through a wah-wah pedal)

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#109

Post by mkarrmann »

queuebert wrote: post #64
shijie wrote: post #38

Something I’ve learned as someone with high proficiency in another language that I learned in adulthood (I would never say fluent, maybe “functionally” fluent): Poor pronunciation (I.e. thick accent) but good grammar is usually more forgiven by a native than great pronunciation but poor grammar. Because then you sound more native, but you sound a bit… mentally slow. I am in the latter camp. My Mandarin Chinese accent…

The problem I've had with Mandarin is keeping my accent means imparting tones to the words which could change their meaning. But I agree with your general point.

There's a difference between an accent and incorrect pronunciation, and using the wrong tone is the latter.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#110

Post by lynguist »

tarkin2 wrote: post #67
smokel wrote: post #42

As a non-native speaker, I was interested in learning the perfect British accent. Turns out there is no such thing. There are many different accents, but none of them is the default. "Received pronunciation" [1] probably comes closest, but apparently it makes you sound like someone who is a non-native speaker and who tried to learn a default accent. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

In fact, I find it strange when Germans, for example, have a 'perfect British accent'. Even I would say it's perfect. Problem is, no one speaks like that... except the Germans. It also goes with grammatical accuracy as well. If any German, or Nordic etc, says "With whom were you speaking" it marks them as a foreigner instantly.

It’s not grammatical accuracy on their part, it’s the opposite, it’s a calque, a word by word translation from their native tongue.

If it was actually perfect grammatical accuracy on their part they’d be saying “Who were you talking to” or “Who were you speaking to”.

Correct is what the people say, not the opinion of literal singular English language teachers.

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