accent

[Tide]

Hi everybody
Please mention how can I improve my accent ? Can I for instance listen to a tape cotaning English texts read by an American or British person? And repeat it after him/her?
Thanks foy your help

[sheena55ro]

Hi everybody
Please mention how can I improve my accent ? Can I for instance listen to a tape cotaning English texts read by an American or British person? And repeat it after him/her?
Thanks foy your help

In my opinion, listening to British TV , radio programmes and native speakers will improve a lot your accent although you will never get a proper British accent.
I myself had the opportunity to talk to an American teacher who told me that I had an American accent rather than a British one.
Anyway, accent differs from individual to individual if you think of so many dialects spoken by English language natives.
Or, am I wrong?
I would like to hear[ read] some other people`s opinions.

[Tdol]

Also record yourself so that you can hear exactly how you are saying things.

[Tide]

In my opinion, listening to British TV , radio programmes and native speakers will improve a lot your accent although you will never get a proper British accent.
I myself had the opportunity to talk to an American teacher who told me that I had an American accent rather than a British one.
Anyway, accent differs from individual to individual if you think of so many dialects spoken by English language natives.
Or, am I wrong?
I would like to hear[ read] some other people`s opinions.

Unfortunatly I don't have access to British or American tv programes.I had opportunity to talk to a German who spoke American accent and prefered it to British and he said my English was well and everyone could understand me.
But I'd like to improve my accent.
I'm agree with you that accents differ from individual to individual but how sould your accent be so that a native couldnt recognise you are a nonnative ?

[Tide]

Also record yourself so that you can hear exactly how you are saying things.

Thanks a lot this is a good idea.

[Teacher Dude]

As well as listening to others, it's vital you listen to yourself. What we say and what we think we say are often two, very different things. Try listening to a short passage in English and then recording yourself.

You can do this on a lot of mobile phones or mp3 players.

Try this site for ideas.

http://teacherdudebbq.blogspot.com/2...ng-skills.html

[AlainK]

Unfortunatly I don't have access to British or American tv programes.I had opportunity to talk to a German who spoke American accent and prefered it to British and he said my English was well and everyone could understand me.

Aiming at excellence is a very positive attiotude in life.
I found this quote looking for an equivalent of the French saying "la perfection n'est pas de ce monde" :
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” (it's said to be from a football coach) that sounds very sensible to me.

As long as everyone can understand you, and your English tends towards excellence, i think there is no problem, unless you want to infiltrate the CIA or the MI5 (or 6 ?...).

I sometimes think that using the right word is more important tahn having a perfect accent.

Nabokov had an accent, when i read Lolita, and Ada, I was amazed at the way he could juggle between different languages.

I had a Romanian student in one of my classes this year. She had a lovely accent, it sounded much more musical than many local French accents, and although she made a few mistakes that a native would never make, her French was more correct than those of some native kids, even for grammar.

My two centimes d'euro worth...

[enca999]

I use a free software called EZPronounce to improve my pronunciation. It helps a lot.

[nemesiser]

I'm agree with you that accents differ from individual to individual but how sould your accent be so that a native couldnt recognise you are a nonnative ?

As a matter of fact, you can speak english fluently but u will never be able to speak english like a native. I think its good enough to make native english speakers understand what you say. For instance in my language, when I hear a person talks on the phone, I could tell you whereabouts he/she is from in my country, so it's not so hard to recognize a foreigner is speaking my language.

[diaby]

hey i am seeking someone who help me for improved my english i want to speak english fluently i am so serious about .
my main problem is phonetics