Question about pronunciation samples

[Chief123]

When I listened to many of those posted here I felt a little "out of place" because I don't sound anything like them (the ones I consider "good").

I've tried to figure out what the problem is and I realized that many of the samples sound like something a guy on TV would sound like - but not like the people I run into everyday.

I'm not really sure what my question is except to say that even though I know my pronunciation and tones needs work, I don't think I will EVER sound like the guy on TV (or some of the samples). So am I doomed?

[yonglin]

I don't think anyone will be able to provide a meaningful answer to this post without a pronunciation sample!

[yialanliu]

Most native Chinese have 2 ways of speaking manadarin. The super accurate version which is used to pass tests (for instance, pinyin accuracy is required for all teachers) and the regular version which is not accurate at all.

So I wouldn't worry if you are not super accurate as most of us are not. We can be accurate, but it's not our normal way of speaking. So if you're off, no big deal. The general rule is as long as people can understand you, you'll be fine.

[roddy]

No, you're not doomed. It may well feel like that though, and it'll get worse the longer you leave it.

I wouldn't pay much attention to the 'as long as people can understand you' school of thought. There's a huge spectrum from 'people who know you can understand you, with a bit of thought, and with strong supporting context' to 'strangers can understand you automatically pretty much all the time', and you need to decide where you want to be on that line.

Stick some samples up if you want. It might not be pretty, but it'll point you in the right direction.

[Guest realmayo]

The only thing I wonder, though, is whether there's a foreigner-speaking-Chinese equivalent to a French person speaking good English? That is, perfect English, requiring no extra effort on the listener's part, but with a definite French accent. (Obviously not just French, could be German, Russian, anything, even Scottish.) I know lots of people who speak English as a second language, with an accent, but speak it perfectly -- but my definition of "perfect" allows for a non-native accent if it doesn't make listening to them a problem in any way.