Baby talk
A huge mistake many of us make when learning a language is we don't take the time to learn good pronounciation right from the beginning. Without a bit of mastery of the sounds, it's harder to remember new vocabulary words. Native speakers can quickly learn (most) new words in English because we don't have to worry about pronouncing it correctly. I don't think I need to say that remembering, for example, one of those enormously long German words would be far more difficult if you're unsure how to pronounce half the syllables. If you can't make certain sounds, decide on a precise way to approximate them and use the approximation rigorously. One excellent way to improve pronunciation is of course the obvious listening to tapes and repeating. You'd be surprised how poorly we hear our own voices, so I highly recommend recording yourself and comparing the recordings of yourself to the native speaker. Another good method for learning good pronounciation is a trick all babies know and we adults forget: baby talk. The trick is to just combine a bunch of vowels and consonants from the language without any sense or syntax or meaning. Divide and conquer: this is the best way to approach a new language. Sitting in your room saying 'goo goo ga ga bonjour' might seem a little silly at first, but it works.
Sent by: Mark
Comments
Another sure way is to have a conversation with a native without first being embarrassed about bad pronunciation. Keep improving on this. With time you will master the language.
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