5 Things to Remember for English Pronunciation

This video tells you about what to do to improve your English pronunciation.

 

Hello there! What’s going on everybody? This is Yeongdeok. Only a few English learners are pretty much like native English speakers in terms of pronunciation. So you better think about what to do to make sure that people understand your pronunciation in case you are supposed to speak only in English. I’m going to share with you 5 things to do for your better pronunciation. Let’s get started!

 

#1 Add stress to words 

What exists in English but doesn’t exist in Korean is stress. English is a stressed language, which means some words are more important than others. For example, the word “national” is pronounced with a stress at the beginning, so it sounds like this “NA-tion-al” if you say this word like ”na-TION-al”, your partner might not identify the word. The same word’s meaning also depends on where you put the stress in a word. Say this word out loud: “address”  the noun “ADDress” is the place where you live, and the verb “addRESS” is to speak to someone. What about something like ”she got up on the wrong side of the bed?” You should give an accent to certain words that have important meaning to make it sound a little bit like music. It all sounds too complicated, doesn’t it? Don’t worry. You don’t have to memorize all those stress rules. You should instead keep listening and practicing. With enough practice you can get what sounds right. To be honest, I don’t know every detail of the stress rules either. 

 

#2 SAY Out LOUD and record yourself 

You guys can speak to your smartphone, which has built-in video recorders. You can use it to record yourself and test your pronunciation. Compare your recording to what you can listen to online. I think 'YOUGLISH' is such a great website, where You can easily find some videos on YouTube that already have the same English expressions you practice. If you compare the two and notice something quite different, try again. let’s say you record yourself with a sentence like “what are you talking about” and then you go to YOUGLISH, where you then type the same sentence in the search box, you will get what it sounds like from tons of different videos. After each time you should recheck the recording, highlight your weak points in the sentence and then say it out loud again. Of course, it’s tedious work, but this activity will definitely help you with pronunciation. Remember that you can ignore anything slightly different between the two.

 

#3 Learn English with your mouth and ears [shadowing]

One of the most important parts of English learning is grammar, which helps you better understand your target language, So many Koreans usually spend quite a bit of time on grammar. That is the thing. Koreans do not seem to perceive English as a language, which causes them to say English in awkward ways. They don’t actually need to practice English with their mouth and ears. That is the place where shadowing comes in. Shadowing is pretty much like copying what exactly native English speakers are saying. Technically Shadowing is an awesome one that is used to echo the speaker's voice and their speech patterns such as their pacing, their intonation, and even their accent, all of which are very different from one language to another. Shadowing stimulates so much of your physical parts like mouth and ears that it helps you articulate English. With that being said, some Koreans doubt that repeating phrases is helpful in some respects. For me shadowing has been a lot of help. 

 

#4 Lifestyle 

I once lived abroad. I expected my English to grow naturally, whereas I did not often talk in English. My lifestyle back then was nothing like what I really made plans for. I always went to KOREA TOWN, met some Korean friends, and communicated in Korean. One year into it, my English fluency didn’t get better at all. I realized that English proficiency had little to do with where I lived. I have seen so many Koreans speak English naturally with good pronunciation although they have never been to English speaking countries. I asked them if they could share with me some tips about what they did for English. They all said, like they talk in English every day no matter what. Make it a rule that you spend at least some time chatting in English. The more you practice, the much better your English will be. If you have English speaking partners, talk with them in person about whatever you guys are interested in. Otherwise, talk online or talk to yourself if you will. The thing is, you should talk a lot under any circumstances.  

 

#5 Do not be shy and even embarrassed 

Actually the last one is a psychological part of English. Koreans have for the most part been able to learn extremely complex grammatical rules and structures. This, of course, is guaranteed to prevent anyone from trying English. We cannot think about grammar and speaking at the same time. If an American speaks Korean, he might say, “I speak some Korean.” If a Korean speaks English, he is likely to say (in Korean) “I almost don’t speak.” Perfection is the goal for Koreans, while Americans tolerate great variation in dialects and accents. In Korea, being from a different province in a country can result in people making fun of your dialect. Learning a language should begin as it does naturally — with speaking and listening, as a child learns from parents and others. In other words, It is not your fault that you make lots of mistakes while speaking English with correct pronunciation. It is just a natural part of learning another language. So you don’t have to feel embarrassed when speaking English. You don’t need to be reluctant to think about what to say before you speak. Such a big hesitation keeps you from improving your pronunciation. Why don’t you try to get rid of feelings like shyness and embarrassment. Look at kids. They don’t feel anything unsettling about what they say. They always feel super excited to talk a lot with their family. They don’t care that their mother tongue is not perfect. Please be more like kids in some ways they learn a language. 

 

The Bottom Line

better pronunciation will only work in combination with all the 5 things. You shouldn’t focus on solely cramming in just a bit and expect to enhance your pronunciation all at once. To make your pronunciation go natural, it is essential to utilize the whole things in which you can make your way considerably toward a pronunciation. It is probably a long journey. English pronunciation is diverse amongst English speakers. It is ridiculous to judge  one by proper sound. English is just a lingua franca across the globe. Now that I live in Korea, I sometimes hear someone speaking English. Most of them are non-natives. Their English sounds a little strange. Hey! Would anybody care about it? It is more or less nonsense to become a natural English speaker. You have to enhance your pronunciation to an extent that English speakers understand yours. If so, do not ever be obsessed with your pronunciation. It is a colossal waste of your time.