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Learning accents | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | Accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| bd1 Triglot Newbie Ireland Joined 4884 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish | Message 1 of 5 24 April 2011 at 3:19pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hi all,
In the last two years I have learnt a considerable amount of Italian and Spanish mostly through travel and study. Now I don't have a problem conversing in either language with native speakers and I'm very happy with this! I do have one problem which tends to knock the confidence out of me regularly though; my accent. Sometimes I can hear an echo of my voice, when talking on Skype for example, and it makes me very self-aware and as a result I speak a lot less. Also despite a lot of practice and embarrassing exercises I can't roll my r's! (Although my Italian r is better than my Spanish r). Is there anybody else who has had greater problems with accents rather than the actual language? Any tips or particular resources for practicing and/or perfecting this aspect? I think its a real shame that, what most people seem to consider one of the easier elements of language learning is letting me down. Although two years ago, before I started learning either language, I had such a strong Dublin accent that none of my grandparents could understand me, so I have made quite a bit of progress - I would just like to do it quicker! Thanks, any help appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5478 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 5 24 April 2011 at 3:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Luca is my role-model in terms of how to improve your accent.
His blog has a series of articles on the topic. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5107 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 3 of 5 24 April 2011 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Just think about all the very powerful or famous men (and women), politicians, scientists, artists. Most of them speak with rather terrible accents, and - nobody cares, they don't care, their listeners don't care, so you don't have to feel bad about your accent, either.
Not such a big deal.
This is hardly true, a vast majority of people speak with foreign accent, and the natives don't expect you to speak with native accent. Because it is so rare. This does not mean you should not work and improve, of course, I don't think it is not important, that's not what I mean, just to avoid heated discussions, but there is no reason to feel embarrassed about something that is so common that nobody expects it any different. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| AndrewW Newbie United States Joined 4816 days ago 29 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 5 24 April 2011 at 5:13pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It'd be interesting to hear from native Italian and Spanish speakers on how they view the accents of people
speaking their language. With English, in the US at least, it seems there is almost a romanticism of certain accents. Especially certain European ones. I just got off the phone with a friend from Italy, and I find her accent very pretty. It's definitely not anything I'd tell her to "fix". Another one of my friends is dating an Italian girl that is here studying and people always say, "I love her accent" after meeting her. Maybe it's just Italian girls we like? ;p But no, I like a lot of the accents of Spanish people speaking English too. Those are really the only two I'm exposed to on any regular basis. Although that's all obviously predicated on them being able to speak good English still. If they're pronouncing words incorrectly to the point of not being understood and constantly pausing and searching for words, that's different. And there are also some accents that I find "harsher" and not as pleasant to listen to. But it's not generally a problem or anything I'd hold against the person speaking. Edited by AndrewW on 24 April 2011 at 5:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Haukilahti Triglot Groupie Finland Joined 4773 days ago 94 posts - 126 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Polish | Message 5 of 5 24 April 2011 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Besides Italy is so full of dialects and accents that you will probably be taken for an Italian from another region than for a foreigner. I don't know about Spanish though.
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