Speak like a native speaker, learn IPA is must?

[EngFan]

Hi All,

Some people say learning IPA is useless, waste the time, even you have learnt the IPA, you won't speak english like a native speaker, they prefer to learn it in movie, TV or talking to native speaker....I would like to consult the language experts here, non-native speakers learn to speak english without IPA, is it possible to become a native-like? Please advise!!

EngFan

[DontBanMe]

Hi All,

Some people say learning IPA is useless, waste the time, even you have learnt the IPA, you won't speak english like a native speaker, they prefer to learn it in movie, TV or talking to native speaker....I would like to consult the language experts here, non-native speakers learn to speak english without IPA, is it possible to become a native-like? Please advise!!

EngFan

well, I've been learning phonetics since the last year. Well, for me, I like the way how native speaker speak english. their pronunciation are so nice to hear.
Before I learnt phonetics, my pronunciation was suckish. But ever since I've learnt phonetics, I've been able to pronounce the words I wasn't able to. Plus, I do have my own accents. (When I go traveling in my own country, people are always asking me if I'm from US or overseas. one of my friend said my accent is weird, though.neither like american nor british accent. but I don't care!) Well, I bet you could speak like American or British speaker if you lived in US or UK for more than 4 years. Well, no matter if you can speak like native speaker or not, learning phonetics doesn't harm you at all. Do have a faith in yourself. Good luck!

[5jj]

Many people become proficient in English without learning the IPA symbols. However learning and remembering the pronunciation of new words without the help of a teacher is much simpler if you can read IPA transcriptions.

Without a native speaker to help you, how would you pronounce these, if you didn't understand the phonetic transcriptions? - bough, cough, dough, through, thorough, thought, rough; knight, awry, pneumonia, etc

[BobK]

Many people become proficient in English without learning the IPA symbols. However learning and remembering the pronunciation of new words without the help of a teacher is much simpler if you can read IPA transcriptions.

Without a native speaker to help you, how would you pronounce these, if you didn't understand the phonetic transcriptions? - bough, cough, dough, through, thorough, thought, rough; knight, awry, pneumonia, etc

Absolutely. You can learn well enough to communicate effectively without IPA transcriptions. But to learn anything (not just language) you have to be able to find stuff out for yourself. The IPA symbols let you do that.

b