Finding your voice

[kdavid]

Hello all,

How many of you have found your Chinese "voice?" And by "voice" I guess I mean accent. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to differentiate between the sounds of English and Chinese, but how well can westerners actually mask their native accents when speaking another language? Or, are we doomed to always hear that "there's just something... different."

Also, what techniques are you using (if at all) to change the sound of your voice? The only example I can think of is changing the muscles / moving your mouth differently when speaking, as, for example, when doing an Irish / Scottish accent (or any other for that matter).

I've been astounded to meet many English language students who speak with perfect American / British accents. I've always been envious of this ability and really want to have the perfect northeastern Chinese accent.

Thanks in advance!

[Jive Turkey]

The idea that it is impossible for an adult learner to attain native-like proficiency in an L2 once held axiomatic status in both popular and academic discussions of language acquisition. Folks who believe that you will never achieve native-like skills usually base their arguments on the critical period hypothesis. One of the stronger claims that the pro-CHP people once made is that adult L2 learners can't acquire native-like pronunciation. Interestingly, this is one dimension of performance where research in the past few years has shown that adult learners definitely can reach native-like levels. The common factors for subjects who tested within native ranges for pronunciation (or other dimensions of performance) were length of residence, age on arrival and various affective variables. Most of these people arrived in the L2 country in their twenties and were dead set on assimilating. So yes, you can have a native-like accent. Most people don't, though.

Getting to native level in pronunciation would be a long road, but the best thing you can do is become a good listener and analyst of the sounds you here. You can't pronounce natively that which you can't hear or distinguish from other sounds. Don't just focus on segmental features of the language; also try to pay attention to and mimic sentence level features like stress and intonation. Don't worry too much about manipulating the muscles in your throat and mouth to make new sounds. That is actually not something that seems to be affected by maturation for most people. Your throat and mouth will eventually get comfortable with the new sounds you're making.

[Hero Doug]

Nice post Jive Turkey, but what do you mean by L2?

From what I gather this is a foreign country where they speak a different language then you do?

[Lu]

L2 = 2nd Language.

[Xiao Kui]

Recently I find that my "voice" has begun to sound remarkably more (in rhythm at least) like the narrator of a Chinese audio book I've been listening too and the CRI broadcasters. So I guess your voice will end up sounding like whichever Chinese people you listen to most - you'll end up imitating them either on purpose or, in my case, subconsciously.

[Hero Doug]

Thanks for the confirmation

[Gulao]

I'm fairly far along this road, I feel. At this point, I can actually distinguish aspirated from unaspirated on a fairly regular basis without resorting to asking myself whether it sounds more like a voiced or voiceless consonant. Furthermore, I spent a year or two ensuring that at least my places of articulation were correct. I've also been observing the way that tones act in speech; they aren't static in terms of the area of the range they occupy, but rather can appear in different places. Contour is more important.

The one thing I have trouble with is a more authentic style of speech and syntactical understanding. The latter is simply English paradigms infringing on the weaker Chinese ones. The former is more that I feell like if I began to adopt chinese mannerisms of emphasis and intonation, it'd feel like I was trying too hard, and would just look silly to Chinese. I know this is probably an inaccurate view, but it's more of a subconscious hang-up than something I can just sweep under the rug, unlike the heckling I get from my white American peers for paying such diligent attention to tones (they call me 古声调; how mean).

[Kellian]

I just copy my friends... they think it's pretty funny when I say "okay-la"... recently a teacher told me "we don't say dui-yaaaaaa" and then I realised that I'd been hanging around my Taiwanese friend who says "dui-yaaaaaa" a lot. Actually, though my Chinese itself isn't stellar, a lot of people have told me that my accent for the stuff I own is pretty good. For the longest time, I really thought that the word for shao zi (spoon) was sao zi cause I live in Shanghai. If you don't have Chinese friends, you can always watch sitcoms and movies- press pause... copy...rewind... play... repeat. Every non-native English speaker I've met with a perfect accent has learned it by copying friends or TV. But I think personally my safest bet is to expect that my voice will be that of a laowai speaking Chinese.

[Hero Doug]

As long as I'm understood (which is still rare sadly) I'm happy. Way back in the day when I was studying French I had a book that kept reiterating "near enough is good enough". I personally like that kind of thinking because even if I take the time to learn one lesson perfectly, which would take a lot longer, I'll use or say parts of that lesson incorrectly later anyways because it's so fresh.

As for my voice, I'm not really studying speaking right now, so I have the voice of, well, someone who sucks.