Hello, everybody ) I have been learning English for many years. I always am trying to learn more, and improve Recently I am assisting in basic English class for children. My accent and pronunciation is no problem to me in Yakutsk. However, currently I am in Moscow and occasionally meeting with native speakers. )) I can not feel confident with my accent, or incorrect pronunciation. I would appreciate very much your help ) tips or advice to correct mistakes in my speaking. Pronunciation is my concern, I still can find it very difficult. Below is link to my listen page, with a very short clip that may play automatically! Please help me if you can! http://yourlisten.com/KoryssaRUS/english-practice Also, I am sorry for the sound of metro into the clip, it was made today in class and I did not think it would be so loud.
Your pronunciation sounds good. Not sure why you would want to change your accent. Most of the time that only happens by being immersed in the culture where a different accent is used. I understood you just fine and I have absolutely no experience communication with Russians.
Hello. This is how I would have written your post... I have a feeling when you are speaking English you speak as you write English. It's perfectly understandable, but there are subtle things that are not quite right. I can't really hear the clip that well... I heard something about rabbits? :/ The only words/sentences I could hear that didn't sound quite right were: You seemed to say: Why you working? Rather than: Why are you working? When you said: Food It sounded like: Fud The oo has to be a little longer, like: foood You also said 'store' a little short, too. It sounded like: stur Rather than: store It needs to be longer: stoooore (it's or or not ur - if that makes sense) (It's also what Americans would say rather than British/English people would say - we would say 'shop') I think you pronounced 'came', lets say, differently *cough* It should sound like: Kaim (if that makes sense) You seemed to struggle with 'hungry' Mmm, I pronounce it as: hun-ger-re 'summer' sounded like 'osama' It was very good, though. 1000% better than my Russian.
you sound normal to me...there is plenty of "old country" russians,ukrainians and poles in my neighbourhood...you sound just as good as most of them who've lived here for decades or longer i would say just a bit "choppy" and i would agree the accent is strong
Thank you so much for replies and kind words! It is reassuring ) odon, it also is very useful critcism for me I have class in 1 hour, and will speak about your corrections. Thank you for your time to help me.
Koryssa, you really really have nothing to worry about regarding your accent and spoken English (or written English). Sure, you might make the odd mistake (as does everyone, including native English speakers). But the way we speak reflects our personality, our background, everything about us. If you try and remove or reduce someone's accent, you take away their charm, warmth, infact their whole identity, IMO. Some English people have this obsession with what they wrongly call "proper English". These people associate accents with innate worth and "social class" etc (just the sort of Bourgoisie rubbish that Russia aimed to stamp out). Some people call this "snobbery". Bizarrely they tolerate Scottish accents etc, but have a huge problem with people who have accents from the big cities. I think that people with these views aren't worth the time of day. I think the skills when reading a foreign language text are pacing (the speed at which you read), the emphasis on certain words in the sentence and also the intonation, which I think is very different from accent. These are the things non native speakers would have to work on.
English is laden with rules---that are broken constantly! You were perfectly understood--thing is to talk to english speakers as much as possible. Emphasis is very important, as Iamnotaman said. Ex= are you going to town? =Straightforward request. Are YOU going to town? = Maybe some doubt about the person being asked about going to town for SOME reason. ARE you going to town. = maybe some doubt about being previously asked or relates to the last inquiry. Are you going TO town? =Maybe not all the way or maybe later. Are you GOING to town? = Maybe some reason you should not? Or maybe the matter had not been resolved, therefore re-asked. Hope I did this somewhat clearly. Just proves how each word in a sentence can have different implications/meanings. That's subtle, for sure. There are so many "exceptions that prove the rule", that speaking the language as much as possible helps.
scratcho and Iamnotaman, I am sorry that I am late. I also wish to say thank you so much, for your help and encouraging words!
I noticed a few things. When you said "accent" the emphasis should be on the first syllable. Also, the "g" in hungry needs to be stronger. Grrrrr kind of like the growl of a tiger. Then the last word sounded like weenter instead of winter. Other than that it was awesome.
