Chinese speech therapist for help with pronunciation

[anonymoose]

I know a few people here have used speech therapists for help with more accurate pronunciation.

 

I will be going to China in a couple of weeks hopefully, and would like to take the opportunity to get some pronunciation refinement. I will only be there for a short time, but I figure if I can have one or two sessions to point out my most glaring problems, that would already be a good improvement.

 

So, can anyone recommend any good speech therapists or any teachers who are good (i.e. very focused on detail) with pronunciation? You can PM me if you don't want to post personal details in the forum.

 

Just to be clear, I am not looking for basic help - my pronunciation is already good enough for unimpeded communication in most cases. I want fine-tuning just to sound less foreign, and need someone who can analyse and correct the details in sound.

 

Thanks.

[roddy]

Do you know where you're going in China?

 

I got a huge amount of value working with a teacher from a college of education - her day job was getting village girls through the 普通话水平测试  so they could get kindergarten or elementary school teaching jobs.

 

I'd look for places doing training for that exam - they should have the expertise. Also film and tv schools. 

 

Good luck!

[anonymoose]

I don't have a definite travel plan yet, so potentially could go anywhere where there is a good teacher. Do you still have that teacher's contact details?

[roddy]

Afraid not. In the absence of any other suggestions, I'd look for likely candidates in cities you'd like to go to. This, for example, in Beijing, turned up with 10 minutes searching.

 

Sorry I can't be of any more help...

[889]

Look for singing coaches, as well. Walk through the far corners of some of the large city parks and you'll discover that amateur opera singers are not rare in China.

[abcdefg]

8 hours ago, 889 said:

Walk through the far corners of some of the large city parks and you'll discover that amateur opera singers are not rare in China.

 

I had one as a teacher a couple years ago here in Kunming. Actually she was a professional opera singer from a family of small-time itinerant opera singers. Was just doing part-time Chinese language instruction to supplement her income during a musical "dry spell."

 

We didn't sing, but we recited lots of poetry to emphasize diction, phrasing and tones. I found it quite helpful and a pleasant change from the crushingly boring, "It looks like rain, better take your umbrella when you go to the park" type of dialogue. 

[abcdefg]

On 9/15/2017 at 3:24 AM, anonymoose said:

I will only be there for a short time, but I figure if I can have one or two sessions to point out my most glaring problems, that would already be a good improvement.

 

Meant to add that I think your reasoning is flawed. Need to practice this stuff over and over and over again with your coach. It won't stick if you just whiz through it a couple times and then run off home. Changing bad habits, such as flawed pronunciation requires lots of sustained effort, expended over a long time.

[roddy]

I doubt anonymoose expects to resolve any issues in one trip to the voice-doctor. But if he can get a diagnosis and some solid advice he knows what to work on in the longer term. 

[anonymoose]

19 hours ago, abcdefg said:

Meant to add that I think your reasoning is flawed. Need to practice this stuff over and over and over again with your coach. It won't stick if you just whiz through it a couple times and then run off home. Changing bad habits, such as flawed pronunciation requires lots of sustained effort, expended over a long time.

 

Read Roddy's post.

[abcdefg]

Hope that it works out for you. Improving one's pronunciation is a never-ending task.

 

Last week I was in Macau. Had a foot massage one afternoon. The masseuse was from the Mainland and we spoke Putonghua. Near the end, I asked her where she was from. 你是哪里人？ She answered, "Yunnan Kunming." 云南昆明

 

"Oh," I replied, "me too." 我也是昆明人。

 

She said, "Yeah, I thought I recognized your (crappy) accent. " 嗯，我以为认识过你的口音。

 

Knowing smiles all around. (Kunming street-level spoken Chinese is known for not being very "standard." 标准)

 

[anonymoose]

Thanks guys. Not sure why, but I did not see all of your responses last time I logged in.

 

Anyway, I have planned my itinerary now. I think I may have to give the pronunciation coaching a miss on this trip - I'm not really spending long enough in any one place.

[roddy]

Nobody who posted gets moderated, so all the posts should have been visible. Let me know if something seems wrong. 

[anonymoose]

1 hour ago, roddy said:

Nobody who posted gets moderated, so all the posts should have been visible. Let me know if something seems wrong. 

 

It was probably my fault, but I'll blame the site anyway to save face.

[roddy]

And I'll pretend I didn't read that.