Comment by senthil_rajasek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by senthil_rajasek | Hacker News Reader

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senthil_rajasek

I went through this process on my own. I grew up in India and my first language is Tamil which is very distant to the European languages. I now live in the midwest. I can't tell the differences between regional American accents except the very famous Bostonian "paak the car" but I've listed some tips on how I improved my pronunciation.

When I started doing stand up comedy 12 years ago I realized I needed to work on my accent[1].

Here are some tips,

Pronunciation of english sounds is influenced by your first language.

Understand phonetics.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/fohull/a_yea...

Follow the links to Pronunciation: Basics, prosody and phonetics on the page above and understand how sounds are made.

If you don't understand the mechanics of tongue position, lip shapes, where the sound originates (front of the mouth or back of the throat) then you may not be able make the right sound.

If you can spend money get expert help (speech therapist, though I haven't done this personally).

Practice. Speaking involves physical muscles so practice those muscles.

Record yourself and listen ( after a few days). Observe pronunciations that need to be fixed and repeat.

In time, the mechanics of tongue position, lip shapes etc., will become subconscious and you will not have to worry about this consciously and you will speak naturally.

1. Most recent stand up comedy performance. https://youtu.be/845a6wyO5h0

You didn’t ask for feedback but based on context I think you might appreciate it. I’m also assuming you’re going for a standard/midwestern American accent. If not, this won’t apply. The only phonemes that stand out to me in your stand up are the “r-colored” vowels like “ar” in farm, the “er” in “New Jersey” and “nervous”, and the “or” in “for”, the “ir” in “shirt”. (Actually “ir” in shirt and “er” in “nervous” are the same phoneme /ɝ/ and you did pronounce it at the end of “power” at one point.)

https://youtu.be/wBuA589kfMg In this video at 4:28 she demonstrates these “r-controlled” vowels (I was wondered what they were called).

This one has a fuller explanation of “r-colored” vowels and even gets into what makes “ir” in bird even more unique. https://youtu.be/GbLcJ1G6Fiw

But then, these are the types of sounds that are different by region, like the “paak the cah” example you said for Boston, certain southern accents, let alone other countries (England RP etc) which are often non-rhotic.

I enjoyed your standup talking about pronouncing emoji and banana, and about emoji finally letting us let out our feelings. :) I checked out your other clips. I guess the one you linked here is unlisted.

Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it.

I'd love to learn phonetics, but with written materials like this it feels like learning to ride a bike by reading a book. I'm still at a loss with regards to how to actually make the sound. Without a teacher, I don't think I even realize my own mistakes.

How did you learn to physically make the sound? How much time did you spend practicing daily?

Thanks so much for the advice. I too hope to do stand up one day.

You are right. Language is a living thing and the spoken language needs to be practiced in real life.

For some aspects of phonetics I found this book helpful,

https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Accent_Trainin...

Also, I had help from friends in the comedy world sometimes. I would ask them if I am saying a word right before going on stage.

It took many years but that's because I had to learn it without any books. I was willing to become a child and look like an idiot for a long time.

If I had to do it all over again I would invest time in learning phonetics.

I personally found that learning the intonation and 'rhythm' of the language has way more influence on how easily the other person understands you.

If the goal to for people to understand you ( vs sounding like a native speaker). I would focus more on the flow and the music of the language. Unfortunately this is cultural and can only be picked up passively through cultural immersion. You cannot pick this up as an outsider.

btw, your standup was really funny, kudos for putting yourself out there like that. That's amazing.

That's impressive work if you only learned English as an adult. There are whole sentences in there where you sound like a native speaker. I'd say your biggest remaining issue is rhoticism with words like Jersey.

I don't think you need professional help with that. Your original accent you picked up because of the people around you. If you are with Japanese you will pick up a Japanese accent. If you are around bangaldesis you'll pick up a South Asian accent. You can simulate the same using the internet

Edit: It might be easy to pick up accents maybe because I know 5 languages and also I'm a teenager and not an adult.

Note : I'm also south Indian who has never been outside the country but I can tell if it's a southern accent or a Midwestern accent or an upper class coastal accent.

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