A Sample of my Accent

Sho   Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:58 am GMT
Hello everyone,

I'm currently working on my speech and I'd like to know how I'm doing.
Because I'm going to the United States and Canada next month, I'm trying to sound natural in General American / Canadian accent.

If there's any part that sounds strange or if there's anything I can work on, I hope you can let me know:)

Also if any of you can tell where I'm from, leave a comment and I'll tell you when someone gets it right:P

Thanks in advance.

P.S. if there's a good passage I can read to show a good example of my accent, let me know... here's a script of what I've recorded this time.

"In our school, we have two French teachers. One is a French teacher. He laughs a lot with his mouth wide open. The other is a music teacher. To tell the truth, she is a bigmouth. Apart from that, she's a nice French lady."

This is a passage from my textbook and I guess the purpose is to differentiate between compound noun and descriptive phrase (French teacher as a teacher from French and a French language teacher, a big mouth and a bigmouth).
Sho   Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:09 am GMT
Oops, I forgot to mention the URL of the file.
Here it is: http://media.putfile.com/bigmouth-48
rbl   Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:39 pm GMT
Your English sounds really good! There is an accent....but I can't figure out what it is. Honestly I have no idea! I guess I've never heard it before. But no one here should have trouble understanding you. I hope you do post where you're from, because now I'm curious =)
Sho   Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:47 am GMT
rbl,

Thank for your comment. If you can't tell what accent I have, can you tell me your general impression of my accent? Also can I ask where you are from?

For posting where I'm from, I'll wait till someone makes a guess:)
Native Korean   Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:56 pm GMT
Since I am not a native speaker of English, my guess would not be accurate but let me post an impression on your English accent.

Your English is quite close to North American accent but I don't think you are a native English speaker.
The main thing I noticed is that you're emphasizing 'r' more than anyone normally would which means your 'r' sound is somewhat exaggerated.
I also found you have some traces of East Asian accent (Korean or Japanese) especially in 'p' sound when pronouncing the word 'open'.
That was very typical Korean accent of English IMHO.

Check my English accent out if you are interested:
http://media.putfile.com/Comma-Gets-A-Cure-76
Sho   Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:11 pm GMT
Native Korean,

Thanks for your comment. Your stories about the r's and p's were interesting...
Yeah maybe I do emphasize my r's a little too much. However I'm not sure about the p's being different in East Asian languages... What's the difference between the East Asian r and the English version?

Thanks!

Sho
Native Korean   Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:14 pm GMT
When you pronounced the word 'school' and 'open', the 'k' and 'p' should be fortis/hard.

Would you just check my voice review to clarify my explanation?
http://media.putfile.com/a-comment-for-sho

That's just my impression as a non-native English speaker.
Your name   Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:57 pm GMT
My guess is that it is a Japanese accent.
Sho   Fri Sep 28, 2007 5:29 pm GMT
Native Korean,
Well I'm not from Korea, but as 'Your name' guessed I'm Japanese.
Since we have some linguistic similarities in our languages, maybe it's not surprising that we have similar accents.
Anyway here's how I pronounce the words 'open' and 'school'.

http://media.putfile.com/open-school

It's weird because we're supposed to have fortis / lenis (or voiced / unvoiced) distinction unlike Korean, which has 3 way distinction of aspirated / tenius / faucalized. I listened to your 2 versions of school and open, to me one 'open' sounded more like 'oben' and the other sounded more like 'open', but I'm not sure about the difference between the first 'school' and the second.

Could you tell me what it is that sounds strange about it?

Your name,
Good guess:-) I've been told that I kind of sound like I'm from nowhere the other day when I was voice chatting, so in a way I'm relieved:)
If you don't mind can you tell me what part / parts of my accent sounded Japanese?
Sho   Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:25 am GMT
I recorded another sample of me reading the same passage, with a more relaxed tone kind of like when I'm talking to someone or reading the passage casually to someone.

http://media.putfile.com/sample2-48
Your name   Sat Sep 29, 2007 3:40 pm GMT
It is your intonation. A girl I know who spent some years in Japan when really young sounds exactly like you.
rbl   Sat Sep 29, 2007 4:08 pm GMT
Wow!! I should have known that! I have a good friend who is Japanese, she's quite elderly, and has been here in Illinois for like 30 years. Her accent is very strong though. I've known her almost all my life (I'm 20), and I still sometimes have trouble understanding her when she talks really fast. As someone else pointed out, you do seem to stress your Rs a bit more than usual but that's the most outstanding thing about your accent. Overall it's great! Keep up the good work Sho ;)
Sho   Sat Sep 29, 2007 4:36 pm GMT
Your name,
Intonation it is... I see! Thanks:) Yeah I guess it's rather easy to pick up the correct pronunciation, but it's really hard to get the intonation and rhythm right.
If you don't mind could you record yourself reading the same passage so I can compare it with yours??
Thanks again for your comment:-) You've got a language ear:-)

Does anyone know a good way to improve my intonation?

rbl,
Thanks for your comment! I know a frend who has been in the US for 10 years, and his English is almost incomprehendible... even to me. It seems that one's accent has no so much to do with how long s/he stays there, but when or at what age s/he stays there.
K. T.   Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:38 pm GMT
I'm not able to hear your file for some reason.
Sho   Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:01 am GMT
K. T.
I've got no idea. Can you listen to other putfile.com audio files?