Pronunciation!

Hi guys!

This is my second blog post on pronunciation.  I think pronunciation is as important as learning vocabulary if you’re up to learn a language. We just started “polishing” our pronunciation in our classes in university. Up until now we have focused on writing texts, learning vocabulary and this kind of stuff. But now we are suddenly confronted with pronunciation!

I think if you are studying the English language in university, you just HAVE to speak a higher level of English. You can’t just come into class where everything is in English and have a German accent! (or whatever accent you have). I think it’s almost inappropriate in university. So what is a good way to get rid of the accent of yours?

Watch some movies or videos on the internet. Youtube is a great source for videos on pronunciation, believe me! What I personally like to do is listen to the video and repeat what the person in the video said. It helps to pause after a sentence and try to repeat it at the same speed. 

Check this out!

 Try it with this video, it's great!

If you want to take it one step further, record yourself. Just do the same thing as usual with the video and stopping and talking but add a recorder. This might be the best thing I have done to improve my pronunciation so far. I wanted to record myself for fun while I was...talking to myself...don’t judge…

So yeah I recorded myself and listened to it. It was shocking. I mean, it was great to hear my mistakes and to know what I should improve, but I never heard those mistakes while just speaking. Try this out, it helps a lot!

So what should you do if you listen to yourself and feel ashamed of your horrible English?

PRACTICE!

There are TONS of videos online to help you with your pronunciation. Just don’t forget it’s not only about the sounds, it’s also about your mouth movements. In German, you speak in a relatively tense way, whereas in English you should probably relax your cheeks. It’s like sports: the more you train your muscles, the better you get!

But the most important thing is not to give up. If you can’t pronounce something as good as you want to, no problem! Just keep trying and eventually you’ll do it! Don’t stress yourself too much, unless you’re a university student. University students consist of stress. But it’s okay if you just want to learn a language and aren’t pronouncing everything perfectly. As I said, practice, practice, practice!

Thanks for reading and good luck!!

Bye!