Hey Daring Learners,
You know that I partnered with 21Accents to give myself, my Native-Like Fluency group, and the community members better resources to practice the American Accent.
It's been 4 months of consistent work.
I made a video to document my progress (see below), and it became obvious to me that we've been doing something right.
WHAT WORKS:- Working with a coach to improve your mouth work
Listening to correct English is not enough. Looking an IPA charts is not enough. Imitating native speakers is not enough because people can't imitate what they can't even register.
I found an accent coach who basically does the work of a very good speech pathologist. What needs to change is how you move your mouth and your tongue. To change this, you need to understand how your mouth is moving now, and why you pronounce every sound the way you do. Alex, our accent coach, gives every student very detailed feedback on their mouth position. No one has ever explained so many nuances to me before!
He is a native Spanish speaker who made an acting career in LA. He sounds like he's from California, and no one can tell that English is not his first language. He was trained by Amy Walker, and he is a managing partner at 21Accents.
I have made more progress in the last 4 months than in the last 4 years. I highly recommend that you learn with this professional if you take your time seriously.
- Understanding your mistakes
You can quickly fix your mistakes if you understand them. Most people don't make any progress because they don't know what mistakes their tongue is making. Only detailed human feedback helps you gain clarity on your incorrect pronunciation patters. Without feedback, you continue strengthening your unhelpful and unconscious patterns.
WHAT DOESN'T WORKIt makes no sense to repeat what you can't repeat yet. If your mouth and your tongue refuse to move differently, it makes sense to learn to pronounce each sound before you start imitating people.
I have a video on the shadowing exercise and why I don't do it often. It's here. Today I can add that I obviously overestimated my ability to shadow native speakers when I made that video. Now, when I am working on my melody and the nuances of rhythm, I see that I can't repeat what I hear ... simply because my mouth doesn't know how to move this way. It needs to be taught.- Learning IPA and taking phonetics courses
Everything looks easy and structured in theory, but in practice... 99% of people can't read out loud like a human. 99% of language learners can't pronounce words correctly even after they've listened to correct pronunciation a million times.
I tried that too. AI doesn't understand what you're doing wrong. It can hear that the word is wrong...but it doesn't know why. What's more, speech recognition algorithms are getting smarter today. They will do their best to understand people with a very thick accent and bad pronunciation. They don't always understand them correctly though, but the feedback people get from AI is mostly positive, even if you they mispronounce every word.
I have a very strong opinion on this. I want to speak with people. That's why feedback from AI is not as relevant.I need to see that people connect with my message rather than disconnect when I speak.I'm very excited to start a SECOND American Pronunciation group in my community of practice!
START DATE: May 29, 2024 | 6pm CETIt's a group for beginners (not beginners in English, but beginners in pronunciation work). We're going to start with the VOWELS (the same place where I started 4 months ago).
Watch a teaser and apply to join a new small group to get personal coaching from Alex Brown. The number of seats is limited.If you can't join the class tomorrow, book your seat in the group, watch the replay, and do your homework!
Alex will give you feedback during the next class.
Applications will be accepted until the group is full. LAST day to apply is May 31.
