This
semester we focus on pronunciation. First we had to decide if we want to speak
with an American accent or with a British accent. Since I worked in the States
as an aupair, the decision was not really hard for me - American English sounds
more natural to me, probably because my ears are used to it. After almost two
years living in California, my host family told me that my pronunciation
improved a lot. Other American people noticed an accent but did not think it
was German - probably because the “German German” accent they are used to is different
than my “Austrian German” accent.
I have to admit that my pronunciation got
worse since I am back in Austria, obviously, because I stopped speaking English
every day. One way to improve my pronunciation is to read books out loud, or
sometimes I watch movies and repeat phrases. I can only do that when my
roommates are not here, because otherwise they think something is wrong with me
;)
A few weeks ago I started to use Antimoon.
It is a great source to improve your pronunciation. The tips they provide are
really helpful, and they tell you about the importance of pronunciation. I want
to finish up with a quote I found on an Antimoon
subpage:
“English
pronunciation is unpredictable. If you don’t put effort into English
pronunciation, you will make mistakes, and mistakes can turn into bad habits.
The longer you ignore pronunciation, the more bad habits you will form. So
don’t put it off.“
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