Here’s the next installment in my American General Pronunciation video series, and today I’m talking about the following things:
- Why it’s important to engage in long self-practice sessions
- Why your ability to mimic a few sentences of a native speaker doesn’t necessarily translate into ability to sound like one all the time
As you may remember, I started my American Pronunciation mission on 4 July which is a few weeks ago, and ever since I’ve been practicing my American English at least an hour a day ❗
At this moment in time I feel that I’ve become comfortable enough to speak fluently without FOCUSING on certain sounds
Of course, I am paying attention to the way I speak, but what I meant by the lack of focus is the following.
In the very beginning of my accent acquisition I used to repeat single words, sentences and make effort to pronounce the basic sounds correctly. Yet I couldn’t speak in English fluently and pronounce the same sounds consistently in all words! I would have to pause a lot to think about how this or that particular word would have to be pronounced.
A few weeks into the American Pronunciation mission my long hours of repeating, mimicking and self-practicing has finally paid off because one fine day I realized I could maintain fluent speech, sound like an American (meaning – getting similar sounds correctly in most words), and focus on the actual conversation rather than focusing on HOW this or that particular word is pronounced!
It’s a great feeling, and while I realize there’s an awful lot more work to be done before I’m finished with this accent mission, I’m quite pleased with my results so far.
What do you think?
Do I sound like an American in the video above?
I would love to hear your opinion on it as well as any constructive criticism! 😀
Chat soon,
Robby 😉
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