Improving my accent?

[Svetlana2004]

Hi Everybody!
I am trying to improve my accent in English. Does anybody have any suggestions? Thank you!!

Svetlana :roll: :roll:

 

[Steven D]

Hi Everybody!
I am trying to improve my accent in English. Does anybody have any suggestions? Thank you!!

Svetlana :roll: :roll:

I've posted a few comments about that topic here: https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7948

If you have any specific questions about this, I'd be glad to try to answer them.

:idea:

 

[Neurotica]

Hi there...

Would that be improving your english to a neutral accent or to a british or American one?

Regards,

Neurotica

 

[Steven D]

Hi there...

Would that be improving your english to a neutral accent or to a british or American one?

Regards,

Neurotica

I speak from the point of view of what we can call a "general American" accent.

In a general American accent, there may be a few qualities that are regional. However, general American, as I hear it, is a neutral American accent for the most part. It would be difficult to find anything one could consider a "perfect" GA accent. North Americans are not taught "general American". On the other hand , I think it is the case that some British English speakers are taught RP. In this way I think there is more of a conscious effort to use a standardized accent and pronunciation. Americans don't study "general American". It is, however, possible that there are Americans who make an attempt to lose a regional accent and sound more neutral.

Can a BE speaker comment on what I've said here?

Thanks,

:?: :?:

 

[Steven D]

Hi there...

Would that be improving your english to a neutral accent or to a british or American one?

Regards,

Neurotica

What do you mean by "neutral accent"?

 

[Svetlana2004]

I need to get an American accent, not British one.

 

[Nahualli]

From a linguistic perspective, there is no standard for English accents. It's like colors of the rainbow. It's hard to determine where one ends and the next begins. and it's impossible to make anyone see eye to eye on it.

What is spoken in the states is called "Standard American English". The central or most "pure" form of this is spoken in what we consider the Midwest, specifically regions of Missouri, Kansas Nebraska and Iowa. Anything from there is a different accent, hence you have your Northern, Northwestern, Western, Southern, Southwestern and Eastern accent variances.

What you choose to learn depends on where you go to study or where your language partners are from. It's really that simple The country is so big you're not going to find any one source of agreement as to the "correct" way to speak it. If you learned how to talk like a Texan and you go to California, you get looked at funny. If you talk like a North Dakotan and go to Alabama you're looked at funny there too. There's no winning

So, in short, it's all up to you

California is the best FYI

Света здесь в сан-францыско очень много русские!!

-Nah-

 

[Steven D]

I think we can hear a "general American" way of speaking by listening to, for example, NPR radio. People from all over the country speak on that station.

Some people have very pronounced regional accents and others don't have any accent that can be said to be easily idenitifiable. (Then there's everything in between.) It's the second type that I speak of that we can call "general American" as I hear it.

Generally speaking, I don't often hear any easily identifiable regional U.S. accents on NPR. They are there to be sure, but I think too much emphasis is placed on such accents at times. It depends on whose speaking, of course.

Whenever I've heard midwestern accents, I always thought they sounded quite twangy at times. I, therefore, don't quite see the midwest as being the model for "general American" necessarily. The neutral North American English accent tends more to spread itself out all across the U.S. and Canada.

That's my take on it. I haven't had the chance to travel around and speak to all kinds of people from everywhere. Still, if the media is any type of a representation of how things are, then that's how I see it.

 

[Nahualli]

I think we can hear a "general American" way of speaking by listening to, for example, NPR radio. People from all over the country speak on that station.

Some people have very pronounced regional accents and others don't have any accent that can be said to be easily indenitifiable. (Then there's everything in between.) It's the second type that I speak of that we can call "general American" as I hear it.

Generally speaking, I don't often hear any easily identifiable regional U.S. accents on NPR. They are there to be sure, but I think too much emphasis is placed on such accents at times. It depends on whose speaking, of course.

Whenever I've heard midwestern accents, I always thought they sounded quite twangy at times. I, therefore, don't quite see the midwest as being the model for "general American" necessarily. The neutral North American English accent tends more to spread itself out all across the U.S. and Canada.

That's my take on it. I haven't had the chance to travel around and speak to all kinds of people from everywhere. Still, if the media is any type of a representation of how things are, then that's how see it.

Yep... like I said it's not something you can ever get any sort of agreement on Everyone hears something different, that much is plain. I was speaking merely from a linguistic perspective. There is no right or wrong way to study language, but everyone needs *some* frame of reference to start from. What I pointed out was what they teach you in linguistics textbooks, not what you say to each other on the street.

Saying there is a "more pure" American dialect or accent is like trying to quantify which color is prettier, red or blue. You can't. It's impossible. However they do have a place relative to each other, and if you look at accent diagrams across the US you would be amazed to see that it does indeed spread out like a color spectrum.

-Nah-

 

[Steven D]

Yep... like I said it's not something you can ever get any sort of agreement on Everyone hears something different, that much is plain. I was speaking merely from a linguistic perspective. There is no right or wrong way to study language, but everyone needs *some* frame of reference to start from. What I pointed out was what they teach you in linguistics textbooks, not what you say to each other on the street.

Saying there is a "more pure" American dialect or accent is like trying to quantify which color is prettier, red or blue. You can't. It's impossible. However they do have a place relative to each other, and if you look at accent diagrams across the US you would be amazed to see that it does indeed spread out like a color spectrum.

-Nah-

I see what you mean. I think most people would agree on what a neutral North American accent is by listening to different examples. Those that might not agree would be people that have very pronounced regional accents. - Maybe

 

[Nahualli]

I see what you mean. I think most people would agree on what a neutral North American accent is by listening to different examples. Those that might not agree would be people that have very pronounced regional accents. - Maybe

Precisely, and the whole reason that they even bother diagramming and dichotomizing languages and accents to begin with is merely to trace back their relative history to each other. English is complex, and even moreso because it's spoken by so many people across the globe. But when you're looking at English in a macroscopic perspective, for instance, how it evolved from German or what influence it picked up from Latin, it helps to lump all of the accents spoken across the US into one tiny bubble so that you can look at the bigger picture over time.

There are courses and whole books dedicated to nothing else but American English, to say it's vast and varied is an understatement.

If you want an example of what I mean, however, check out this book sometime. It's fascinating.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0877790477/qid=1100140915/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-9982334-4848726?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

A whole dictionary dedicated to nothing else but "proper" pronunciation of American English. It seems silly at first but sometimes it really takes things and puts them into perspective, you can really gauge how much English changes on an almost daily basis... ahh the beauty of language

-Nah-

 

[Steven D]

I didn't mean that about all midwestern accents, just some.

Whenever I run into someone from another state or another part of the country, I can't say there's typically any sort of notable accent. I think there is more neutrality in the American English accent than is recognized at times.

I recently spotted something that sounded very New York in the speaking of a couple ESL students. I asked them if their friends or coworkers are from N.Y. Sure enough, that was the case. So, there are accents sometimes. Accents from the N.Y. area tend to stand out. It was kind of interesting to hear how it was rubbing off on a couple people whose second language is English. It was how they pronounced short "o" type sounds that gave it away.

dog, talk, bought, etc...

 

[Nahualli]

Are you a native of the country? If so it's quite possible that you simply don't hear accents. You hear them in movies a lot, like you said the NY accent is quite noticeable, yet to someone from NYC, they could tell you if someone was from Queens, Brooklyn or New Jersey. Apparantely it's that different. Someone from Boston sounds nothing like someone from NYC even tho they are only hours apart. As a Los Angeles native I swore I didn't have an accent until I came to San Francisco only to immediately pick up on the NCal accent and of course, they picked up on my SCal. Part of it is where you're from, part of it is whether or not you make it a point to pick out the subtleties in dialects. I do it out of a weird obsession I picked up with it from studying linguistics, but it's not something normal people do :lol:

-Nah-

 

[Steven D]

Are you a native of the country? If so it's quite possible that you simply don't hear accents. You hear them in movies a lot, like you said the NY accent is quite noticeable, yet to someone from NYC, they could tell you if someone was from Queens, Brooklyn or New Jersey. Apparantely it's that different. Someone from Boston sounds nothing like someone from NYC even tho they are only hours apart. As a Los Angeles native I swore I didn't have an accent until I came to San Francisco only to immediately pick up on the NCal accent and of course, they picked up on my SCal. Part of it is where you're from, part of it is whether or not you make it a point to pick out the subtleties in dialects. I do it out of a weird obsession I picked up with it from studying linguistics, but it's not something normal people do :lol:

-Nah-

Yes, I'm from Massachusetts.

I hear accents, but I just think there is a certain amount of overall neutrality across the country that might not be recognized. There are subtleties to be sure, but maybe what is subtle to one is very noticeable to another.

I've been told that I don't sound like I'm from Massachusetts.

Anyway, if we listen to anyone from any part of the country, I think we can easily classify someone's accent as being "general and neutral" or obviously regional. Then there's everything in between of course.

 

[Svetlana2004]

Hi everybody,
Thank you for the helpful advise on my accent! I am now working on it using a book and CD-ROM that my English teacher recomended. It is called "Lose your Accent in 28 Days" by Judy Ravin. I got my copy through Amazon marketplace. It is helpful because you watch the instructor's mouth as she says all the sounds. Then you have to repeat them and you can watch again and again.

I wish everybody a very happy holiday, Merry Christmas, New Year, and happy 2005!

 

[turkishcobra]

try to listen news channels to get used to accent.
you can try listening BBC if you speak with Britain accent or try CNN if you speak with American accent...just a small advice, i tried it and it did

 

[sassik]

Re: Improving my accent?

Just hang about with people that speak the way you want to speak.. If you're foreign wanting to speak good english, then enroll on an english course or learn by watching movies with subtitles..
Good Luck !

Neutral Accent - The Complete Guide

 

[sassik]

Re: Improving my accent?

Record yourself saying a sentence, then listen to it.. try doing it again and this time you will know where or how is your accent showing up while you talk.. an other good idea is atleast watch tv, and try mocking the people on tv sometimes.

http://www.neutralenglish.com