my audio sample - comments welcome!

hi guys, here is the recording of me reading a text sample. I think I sound more convincing in natural speech (here I paused a tiny bit before every word because I had to read it).

any suggestion how to improve my RP very welcome!

btw I have been living in England for a year. In a couple of years' time I want to move to America and at that point my goal would be to be mistaken for an Englishman by an American. I hope that is doable.

http://www.zshare.net/download/672527481ebacfc5/

Look, I know that you're from Poland. Even though I still consider your accent a native-like. I think that the way you sound now would be convincing not only for Americans but for some Britons as well.

A question for you:

I betcha aksed plenty of people in UK about your accent. I think that at least some of them thought that you're a born Brit. Am I right?

If I were to give you any advice, it would be to remember that 's' is pronounced like 'z' when making a word plural.

Apart from that, you'd probably have been able to fool me that you're English - and I'm English.

Well done!
Darren said you're Polish, is that so? If so, even more well done!

I wonder if the whole thing about not pronouncing the plural s's as z's is common to natives of other Slavic languages? This is a second poster from Eastern Europe who has that issue.

>> If I were to give you any advice, it would be to remember that 's' is pronounced like 'z' when making a word plural. <<

COMPLETE BULL-SHIT

In my opinion accent is more about "articulatory settings" than actual pronunciation. You can pronounce every single vowel and consonant perfectly, moreover you can even pronounce every single word correctly and clearly, have perfect intonation and yet sound not in the least native.

I got one more question to plummy lover.

Have you been working on your accent by yourself only/with some friends or with a qualified speech language pathologist/accent trainer?

Taking into account the actual time you spent in the UK I think either you're one of these extremely talented poeple who can do it by themselves in a short period of time (very few can do it at all...) or you're being helped by a very qualified specialist/expert.

<< COMPLETE BULL-SHIT >>

Explain yourself.

>> If I were to give you any advice, it would be to remember that 's' is pronounced like 'z' when making a word plural. <<

Cats, guests, desks.. and many more.

My advice would be to deny you come from shitty Poland.
Everyone will assume you are a pick-pocket like all the others.

>> I betcha aksed plenty of people in UK about your accent. I think that at least some of them thought that you're a born Brit. Am I right?

I didn't ask a lot of people about my accent but most of the time they say that it is generally good. I've been told that my accent sounds posh and Polish at the same time.
When I start talking to a person for the first time they usually assume that I am British but usually after a couple of minutes they realize their mistake. If I tell them my name they usually ask "why on earth my parents would want to call a child like that".

>> If I were to give you any advice, it would be to remember that 's' is pronounced like 'z' when making a word plural.

thanks. I haven't actually thought about it before so I'll try to remember that.

>> Have you been working on your accent by yourself only/with some friends or with a qualified speech language pathologist/accent trainer?

I haven't been 'working' on it with anyone else but me; unless you take into account simply talking to people (and being corrected by them when I make a mistake - this however doesn't happen very often because English people are quite polite and not very keen to tell me when I'm wrong).

>> Taking into account the actual time you spent in the UK I think either you're one of these extremely talented poeple who can do it by themselves in a short period of time (very few can do it at all...) or you're being helped by a very qualified specialist/expert.

Well, when I arrived in England last year I already knew English quite well from school, Internet etc. so it's not fair to say that I acually learnt a language in a year. But after reading your comments I am quite optimistic, thanks!

hi, plummylover, are you there? I think I know how to refine your accent.

Hey, I'm Polish too, just like you and (unfortunately?) I could tell straight away that you are Polish. I've been studying in Britain for a few years now and maybe that's why I can hear the difference, but to me you dont sound like a native Englis or American speaker at all. Having said that, your accent is still pretty good compared to some foreigners who I met here.

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HAVING AN ACCENT AS LONG AS YOU ARE UNDERSTOOD.

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So, are ya Chinese or Japanese?

<<but to me you dont sound like a native Englis or American speaker at all>>


And I guess your assessment is supported by something. Is it overall quality of plummylover's voice or the actual pronuciation of some words? Or maybe you think he doesn't sound native because he unvoices the final consonants (s instead of z)? Meg, Could you elaborate?