You only need one to help you out. As a German learner, you can use hochdeutsch, our standard German dialect, to your advantage. Most German natives will be used to speaking to all kinds of people every day whose dialect is very different from their own. It is normal for Germans to modify their pronunciation to be more generic, so for you as a foreigner there is just no need to worry whether your accent is spot-on.
I regularly see language learners make a lot out of immersion through listening. Listening practice is really important. As Ron from Language Surfer put it in a recent podcast interview I did with him: You want to become used to being uncomfortable as early as possible. Passive immersion is fantastic for getting a little bit uncomfortable.
For the purpose of improving your accent, you should slow down your listening practice and focus on intensive listening. That way, you can make sure you understand every word and repeat words and phrases as many times as necessary so you can really work out what people are saying. For German learners, there are many slow language resources to start you off. Alternatively, find short clips of natural, native content at Audio Lingua. You want to find clips that are so short that you can easily work with them intensively. That means five minute podcasts rather than audiobooks and movies. Listen to and transcribe what you are hearing, then check for correct spelling.
Say the words out loud, and finally record yourself. This trains you in recognising words and accents. In the German language, fricatives play a significant role. Fricatives are all sounds produced from the lip shape that produces the letters f and v in English. Instead, you want to aim for a very soft v , with your front teeth gently touching the lower lip and opening from there.
Tip 2: Don’t Get Hung Up on Dialect
The German v is pronounced in two different ways. Listen to this word for an example. It can also occur at the start of words such as Vakuum that originate in Latin or French. You can pick and choose whether you would like to roll your r. Rolling the r is not compulsory in German. Every German vowel has a long and a short pronunciation, and there are consistent rules that will tell you when a vowel is pronounced short or long.
Soundcloud offers all kinds of possibilities when you want to improve your accent and pronunciation.
- A Kidnapped Santa Claus.
- A Foreignising or a Domesticating Approach in Translating Dialects? Andrea Camilleri’s detective novels in English and The Simpsons in Italian (Tesi Book 1).
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- 3 Ways to Lose Your Accent - wikiHow.
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You can not only find independent musicians and songs in your target language, but also use the hashtag for your language to hear spoken word content from many radio channels. Recently, Soundcloud has even started offering podcasts as part of its service. When you upload your own recording, others can comment on it and highlight the specific point in the recording their comment refers to. So where you are practicing pronunciation, you can get exact feedback about the sounds you are struggling with.
Come and join our free group Speak German like a Native in which I regularly upload and review new German pronunciation materials, and submit your own German pronunciation recording for feedback from the group. Which sounds in German are tricky for you? Kerstin Cable is a native German speaker and is working on her eighth language. She teaches online courses in German, French and Teacher Training. Check out her website Fluent Language to discover more about Kerstin and her languages.
Choose a short speech or passage from a book. Turn on a recording device, like your smartphone, and say the passage out loud. Note what you need to work on to reduce your accent. Stress the correct syllables. Different languages emphasize different parts of the word. Many languages are syllable-timed, which means that every word in the sentence is the same length.
German Accent Reduction Tips
English usually stresses the important words in the sentence. Watch television and listen to the radio. When learning any accent, listening to and imitating a native speaker is the most important step and fastest way to learn. Spend some time each day watching a T. If possible, listen to a few sentences, pause it, and then repeat those sentences. Work with a tutor. This is surest way to lose your accent. A tutor can focus on your accent and come up with a plan to help you lose it and take on your desired accent.
The tutor will likely meet with you at least once a week and give you exercises to work. You can find a tutor through an online search, at a local community college, non-profit organization, or even a library.
Reduce your German Accent | VOICE SCIENCE
If the cost is too much, you can save up to cover the costs, negotiate a payment plan with the tutor, or look up online tutors that may be cheaper than an in-person tutor. Listen to a native speaker in person. This way, you will hear the speaker live and hear how their voice sounds fairly unrehearsed. Listen carefully to how they pace themselves and any words that are specific to the accent they are using.
Get involved with the local community. A great and inexpensive way to work on losing your accent is to get involved with a community of native speakers. You could get involved with a club like a book club , church, or group for whatever interests you. This will allow you to practice your accent and provide you with people that can gently correct you when you make a mistake. Join a group of other non-native speakers.
You should spend most of your time practicing with native speakers, but it would also help to practice with people that you feel comfortable talking with. It will especially help you if you are shy when talking to native speakers because talking to non-native speakers will help you gain confidence. You can look online for a group or ask around at a college campus. Ask to be corrected when you mispronounce something.
German Pronunciation: 6 Really Effective Tips for a Better German Accent
Not being allowed to continue making the same mistake will help you correct yourself faster. The person should correct you in a polite and constructive way rather than being rude when they correct you. Watch YouTube videos about pronunciation. There are languages on YouTube dedicated to helping you learn just about any language you can imagine. Specifically, look for videos that focus on pronunciation.
Watch past videos and subscribe to the channel for future videos. You can often tell that a channel is helpful if they have a lot of subscribers and put out content regularly. Focus on the accent you want to imitate. For example, if you want to mask your accent and take on a southern accent, listen to a reality T. Or, if you want to work on a Parisian French accent, watch a Parisian talk show. Buy a pronunciation dictionary. A dictionary will teach you how to correctly pronounce the word and break it down for you.
Go through a page of the dictionary each day. Pronounce each words slowly and carefully. Use an online dictionary. An online dictionary gives you the option to hear the word pronounced out loud for you. You can keep the print dictionary with you and listen to the word spoken aloud online. Check out books and audiobooks from your local library. Yes, you can totally do that.
- The Long Shot (Mike Cramer Book 2);
- Cacciatori di stelle cadenti (Varia) (Italian Edition)?
- Merger By Matrimony (Mills & Boon Modern) (9 to 5, Book 13)?
Just make sure you focus on the one you speak the most, for example, if you are speaking English for most of your day, then just concentrate on that. Remember that pronunciations are the most important thing to learn or master in a new accent. Not Helpful 1 Helpful 7. I practice reading out loud in English every day, however usually after only ten minutes my throat starts hurting, which makes me have to stop or else I cough after everything I say.
What can I do? Prepare a mug of tea with honey before you start each session and sip from the cup when your throat feels dry. The tea will lubricate your throat.