View this blog in another language

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Tip #8 - embrace sounding weird

Go for what seems weirdest
Have you ever heard a Frenchman, Spaniard, English-speaker or Asian try to speak another language? And when I ask you that question the first thing you can hear in your mind is either their accent or a specific grammar mistake they tend to make when speaking? Well, one of the reasons for this is that they haven't totally embraced weirdness. Or even aimed for it.

Familiar is bad, really bad
When learning or trying to pronounce we tend to go with what we are used to. So you can imagine that, when say being an English speaker speaking French but not willing to sound really, really different to when you speak English, well then you will sound like an English speaker speaking French. It's that simple.

The trick is to really listen to how a French speaker says something, then attempt to pronounce it exactly; in the process tangling and mangling your vocal chords if you have to. Break down the sounds into little manageable bits, do them one at a time, roll them together. Check that it's right. Then repeat. Don't worry about how difficult it is. Your chords will get used to it. Sometimes, you can actually say that if you do not sound like yourself, then you are doing a great job.

On Ephisto you can listen to words in articles and then repeat them after your digital language coach.

No comments: