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My first recordings

Xie   Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:20 am GMT

http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t10001-15.htm I got interested after reading the above thread. I've managed to upload my first audio file. I'm afraid that I speak both English and German with a heavy accent, so please comment freely on any mistakes I made and my accent. I think it's fairly non-rhotic, and I haven't had time to work on a native accent, even though I can see I'd learn very bad English from the loads of accents everywhere in my university. The file: http://media.putfile.com/080315-The-Little-Prince-Chapter-1-en-by-Xieza I've just read Chapter 1 of the Little Prince, which I think should be fairly good English to read. I didn't want to sound boring, so I mimicked an audiobook reader who might be American. The German version: http://media.putfile.com/080315-The-Little-Prince-Chapter-1-de-by-Xieza Unlike the English version, I only listened to the German audios for a couple of times. Both speakers spoke very quickly, so I relied on nothing other than previous knowledge and didn't mimic them. There are a few stops because I said the wrong words and thus edited it (with Goldwave). I have some off-topic issues, though. I have a chronic problem of getting somewhat coarse, perhaps because I often have too little sleep (the Chinese call it "up-fire", referring to acnes or a sore throat or something similar) and I don't exactly know how to maintain a good voice (so, I beg your advice!), so my voice may sound unclear. Second, what do you think of my pitch? Do I have a higher pitch than you do (I'm a young adult), and is my pitch very different from yours (regardless of native language)? I'm curious because it seems to be related to linguistic background. It seems that most young speakers of anything other than Chinese tend to speak their languages with a lower pitch than I do.

Gabriel   Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:53 pm GMT

I cannot comment on your German, and your English I can evaluate only as a near-native speaker. I think your accent is very good. Even though some of the individual sounds differ from the ones that natives would use, your intonation and rhythm are quite natural and have the effect of making you sound a lot better. Your pitch is definitely higher than mine. Here's my own recording of that same passage that I posted in the English language forum as a sample of what I consider my international accent: http://media.putfile.com/little-prince-39

Guest   Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:43 pm GMT

I do not support perfectionism, so I'm not going to tell you about details of your speech. All I can say is that I was able to completely understand both, your English and German.

Xie   Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:32 am GMT

I think I do need more comments! :) I certainly need to work more on it.