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How to Speak Fluent English?

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Re: How to Speak Fluent English?

#22
Check out BoldVoice (YC S21) - I'm biased as a cofounder :) We built this for immigrants who want to improve their spoken English, with a focus on pronunciation. You will get videos from speech/accent coaches + feedback from AI as you speak. The inspiration was my own experience as an immigrant in the US - I was struggling with speaking confidently, even though on paper my English was good. BoldVoice is what I wish I had back then - hope it can be helpful to you too.

Other than that - practice speaking as much as you can! Also, watch native speakers and focus on how they move their mouths to make sounds. Try to copy their speech cadence and repeat the phrases in their pronunciation and musicality. This is called shadowing and can be very effective (and free!)

Re: How to Speak Fluent English?

#24
Completely personal anecdote.

I lived in China for a couple of years and worked really hard to learn Mandarin. The turning point for me was in the shape of my mouth. When speaking Mandarin, I had to close/tighten my mouth more than if I was speaking English. I think a lot of the tonal languages require you to close your mouth down, whereas English is spoken more with an open mouth. That can be tough and weird for people to do.

So my advice honestly is to try talking like a Texan. Talk with a big voice, amplify your voice, and open your mouth up.

Re: How to Speak Fluent English?

#25
Another thing to do is to binge lots of media in English at a level you can handle or slightly beyond that. It's the idea behind something known as Comprehensible Input.

Combined with things like using frequency lists in Anki and working exercises, and practicing speaking out loud, you can make a lot of progress.

So consider watching cartoons and other TV shows, movies, music, etc.

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