Need some detailed comments on their pronunciation...

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Suzuko

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Oct 14, 2012
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Hi everyone,

I know this is not your business, but could anyone (native speakers preferred) give me your take on their pronunciation?

tp://dl.dropbox.com/u/17434844/hirosimanodosummit/11070715.MP3

(please add "ht" before tp:/dl.....)
In this file, there are three Japanese people talking in English about how Japanese people speak poor English, shy away from speaking their minds, etc. They speak only Japanese for the first minute of the file, so you might want to skip that part.

For clarity, let's say the most talkative guy in this file is Mr. A (the guy who starts the English conversation), the second Mr. B, and the least Mr. C (he says "you know, I do a lot of businesses with Koreans" at around 4:50 in the file).

According to some Japanese guy who claims he knows how to speak English like a native speaker (especially a white person), Mr. A is a genius because he sounds like a white American in terms of pronunciation accuracy and voice. He thinks Mr. A is the only person among the three whose voice is like that of a white person. He also believes that native speakers of English use their vocal organs differently from native speakers of Japanese, which I actually think is partly true. But he seems to believe too much of it and dismiss Mr. C as just a good speaker of English, not even close to Mr. A in terms of pronunciation.

Anyway, I found it ridiculous and said, "Mr. C sounds the closest to a native speaker, even though he doesn't talk much during this conversation. More importantly, there’s not much difference in the accuracy of pronunciation among these three. Voice doesn't matter as much as you think." Apparently, he and his followers think I am crazy and have no listening comprehension ability.

Am I wrong to think that Mr. C sounds more natural than the other two? I totally know this is just a trifling matter and not worth arguing over, but it would be really nice if some native speakers commented on this file. The more detailed the comments are, the more appreciated!
 

SlickVic9000

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Oct 19, 2011
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The first guy to speak (the one introduces the topic in English) has a pretty strong accent. I had to listen a little more closely to discern what he was saying sometimes. The second guy to jump in to the conversation had a very understandable accent. I'd say he kind of wavered between a Japanese accent and an American accent. The third guy (who I think spoke the least) had a near spot on accent with the occasional pronunciation slip. Overall, the conversation felt a little halting. Even if they all had perfect accents, I'd get the feeling that English was not their first language.
Is this the sort of answer you're looking for?
 
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