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How To Sound English

How To Sound English

Date: Nov 13 2007

Topic: Speaking

Author: Vanhallo

Lesson

Hello. To begin with I have to say that I'm not English myself. Actaully that makes me more suitable to talk about this than if I had been English really. I'll explain why later. I'll try to write down some general advices in how you could sound more English. 

I have studied English for eight years and I have always had an ability to sound as if I actually come from the countries whos language I'm studying. I have studied English (obviuosly), French, German and some brief Chinese. I am by no means good at any of those languages (except maybe English) but since I do have the ability to sound authentic I still get top grades in them. For example in French I only just managed thru barely in my opinion. My vocabularly was very limited and in knowledge I deserved maybe an average grade but I still got top grades. In other words I was able to fool the teacher that I was good at french by just sounding as if I were from France. Unfair grades perhaps? But honestly if you got top grades and knew you deserved less, would you argue with your teacher about it? I think not. This is not really a natural talent I believe, I just have some special techniques that enables me to sound as a native speaker.

Enough of the bullshit. In order to sound English you really need to get the correct accent. If you nail the pronunciations it will be good too but that's not what makes you sound as if you were from England. I can pronounce an English word perfectly well with a Swedish accent (I'm from Sweden by the way, nice to meet you), just as you probably could do with your own accent. First things first. Choose an accent. You could for example chose a british, american, canadian or australian accent. I have involuntary chosen the american accent since there are so many american movies and tv-shows on Swedish television. The american accent is also kind of easy to adapt to. I just have to say that I do love the british accent but I'm to lazy to change now.

Once you have chosen the accent try find and listen to a native speaker and then try to imitate that person. If you doesn't have the opportunity to meet up with a native speaker, television is a good alternative. Atleast it is in Sweden since we do not dub any movies or shows. There must be someway you can get the opportunity to listen to an English accent. Use your imagination. Once you now know how it sounds like and you have tried to imitate it I have a little exercise that I find useful. Speak on your own language with the accent you discovered!!! Then you can say the same sentence both with your native accent and your newly discovered English accent in order to compare. If you do that you will eventually learn how your mouth is shaping the words differently depending on which accent you use.

When you have the accent you will automatically be able to pronunciate the most words corretly. In other words you will get a lot of things for free when nailing the accent (not everything though).

So that's it. You now know how to sound English.

No. Sorry it isn't as easy as that. Although I reckon that this is something most people could learn, you really have to practice alot.

The reason I said that I perhaps was more suitable of talking about the subject than a true English person is that a true English person is raised with the accent from the beginning. He/she never needed to adapt in the first place.

If you by some reason completely disagree or think that this is complete rubbish then please ignore it and forget all about it. There's no need for rude comments however if you have some more tips on this subject then please share.

Have a great day!

Comments

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lotussy

lotussy

China

I think you have a deep thoutht on English,we can have more free talk at:www.jakarl.com

02:01 PM Sep 24 2012 |

kimmy562

Morocco

my pronounciation is good but i find many hindereds in communication and the lacking of knowledge

01:38 PM Oct 01 2010 |

ramesh.sinha1

India

good tips! I am working on it, and its quite helpful!

hey thanks!

09:26 PM Aug 13 2010 |

rudy_khalil

Syrian Arab Republic

thanks for the lesson 

I've been doing some of what you said but I haven't been able  to speak english like a native speaker yet cause I've been doing it for less than a month , but it really works 

11:30 PM Dec 16 2008 |

Darfoon

Sudan

this is a very good lesson . and by the way i am now improving my british accent , i like it , and i always watch TV to make my self like a native speaker.

thanks

06:46 PM Dec 14 2008 |

dido2007dz

dido2007dz

Algeria

well . i think that your english is good …and you have a good accent as I ve understood from your expression..Now I need your help to teach me pronounciation plz if possible.cos I ve lack in that ,thx a lot Smile

09:45 PM Jan 15 2008 |

applepupil

applepupil

China

good

01:15 AM Dec 28 2007 |

lgf8211

China

you did a good job!

03:45 AM Dec 23 2007 |

sassy_gurl

sassy_gurl

Japan

nice!!!you`re english is perfect!!pls teach me more especially writing essays and memorizing words fast!!thank you!!^^

06:47 PM Dec 22 2007 |

fosath

fosath

China

   Very   good

   Yet  my  English  is  badly.

05:21 AM Dec 15 2007 |

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