My sound clip

[Kenny同志]

Hey everyone, I recorded a piece of my reading and I invite you to comment on it.

For long, I have not been confident with my spoken English and I am planning on hiring a private tutor to help me sound native. Given my current pronunciation of my spoken English, do you think it’s worth the try? What do you think I can do to improve my pronunciation?

Thanks for your advice and suggestions.

Regards,

Kenny

Sound clip 04.amr

[anonymoose]

What format is that file?

[gato]

QuickTIme.

[Kenny同志]

I recorded with my Nokia cell phone. The file is in amr format and can be opened by 暴风影音.

[gato]

How about recording yourself reading these news stories and compare with National Public Radio (NPR's) version? Both recording and transcripts are available on the NPR website.

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2&prgDate=4-21-2011

April 21, 2011

Thursday's Show

[anonymoose]

Quite good. Better than most of our Chinese attempts. Sounds a bit like Stephen Hawking.

[gato]

Stephen Hawking talks through a machine....

[Kenny同志]

I want to sound British but I am afraid I sound more American, so I think it would take me far more efforts to sound British than to sound American. Thank you Gato for the great link though. I will try and check out whether there are any international students around from Britain. If there are, I think I’d give it a try to switch to a British accent.

@Anonymoose

I feel so. I am just not fluent as I have very few opportunities to talk to a native speaker face to face.

PS: someone once said I sounded like Nicolas Cage.

[gato]

I think a British accent is harder to learn, maybe because it's more stiff. Most Chinese attempting a British accent sounds phony to me. Maybe just an American prejudice....

[Kenny同志]

I agree it's harder to learn, but it doesn't hurt to give it a try, right? Perhaps if a female tutor (of my age)is wiling to help me I will learn faster.

[gato]

Kate Middleton is taken, but there should be others.

[Kenny同志]

Come on. I don't need the princess.

[imron]

Most Chinese attempting a British accent sounds phony to me

I would say the same thing about Chinese attempting American accents

The other thing I would try to address, and that many Chinese learners of English have trouble with, is correctly identifying and pronouncing each syllable of a word. In English, syllables are typically defined by a vowel sound, and it's important to make sure you don't accidentally drop them. One example that comes up a few times in your recording is the word scientific. In your recording, you tend to merge the the first two syllables Sci-en, into a single 'Sign' leading the word to sound like it only has three syllables 'Sign-ti-fic' rather than four 'Sci-en-ti-fic'. The difference can be quite subtle, but it can have a noticable impact on how well you are understood.

[Kenny同志]

Thanks Imron. I will take note.

[Scoobyqueen]

You reading is fluid with correct pausing and rhythm. However there are some pronunciation issues which you may wish to address. The "l" is often pronounced like an "n" cnarity fundamenta..y,primariny, pub...ished (sounds like punished)onny instead of only.

Maybe you can prolong some of your vowels more, stay a bit longer on them and if they have a diphthong pronounce it: eg cornerstone ( "stoun"and also a clear "n" at the end) but this is not a major issue. Just a few things in addition to the above.

I presented your clip to a Brit who cant understand any Chinese and asked him for his opinion without saying which nationality you were and he thought you sounded Chinese and had some difficulty in understanding what you were saying because some of the longer words werent pronounced clearly enough.

A tutor will certainly help you address the issues. keep going.

[Hugh]

I think a British accent is harder to learn, maybe because it's more stiff.

I think that perception just exists because it's hard for Americans to imitate a British accent. British people tend to think an American accent sounds forced for the same reason.

I want to sound British

Why is that, out of interest? I'd say just go for whatever is easiest to pronounce clearly.

[skylee]

Why is this thread put under "Learning Chinese"?

Too bad I can't play that file.

[Kenny同志]

Oh, Scoobyqueen, thanks a million for being so detailed. Your advice is very helpful.

@East Asia Student.

It’s just personal preference, buddy.

@Skylee

Sorry I put it in the wrong place. Admin please move the thread to where it should be.

[马盖云]

Someone earlier mentioned that you skipped some syllables...I would also mention that in some cases there seem to be extra syllables! I will try to notate the words and times when that happened later.

The comment about sounding like Stephen Hawking was spot on! Not sure if the original comment was joking, but the implication is that it sounds a little like a text-to-speech synthesizer! The range of tones was somewhat monophonic and there were few stresses given to syllables that are usually said with more stress. Also, the pacing... there should be more of a pause between phrases that are set off by commas (,) and longer yet still pauses between sentences. Many text-to-speech programs have this exact same flaw, so maybe that is what makes it sound somewhat synthetic.

It is said that English is not a tonal language, but truly in a sense it is. Syllables that are spelled the same way can sound radically different depending on what other syllables they are paired with. :-)

Tonal inflection and stresses, as well as rythym and pacing go a long way to making speech sound more native.

Of course your english is 100% better than my Chinese, so take it for what it is worth!

加油！

[歐博思]

My first impression is that your intonation and rhythm are pretty good. However, like others said: pronunciation needs more focus. I had to rewind a couple times in some places to understand.