my accent

watermark   Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:04 pm GMT
could you give me some feedback on my accent?

http://www.livemocha.com/submissions/review/5467965

Thank you.
audio   Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:01 pm GMT
Sorry, is there an audio file? I just see the text
Mark   Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:09 pm GMT
The accent is very good but it seems like you have to invest a lot of effort in speaking. You should talk regularly with someone, in English.
watermark   Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:45 pm GMT
audio, press that play button and you will hear the sound.

Mark, thank you for your comment. You are right, I don't have many chances talking in English. I need to speak in a more relaxed way. Thank you.
welp...   Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:32 am GMT
your accent is pretty much the most one can hope for from a foreigner (although you still could polish your vowel sounds a bit, and also work on the "le" in "people", right now it kind of sounds like pee-poo to me). umm, other than that you just need some practice to read more fluently ^_^ 加油!!!
watermark   Thu Mar 19, 2009 2:49 am GMT
Thank you so much welp....

I do feel it difficult to pronounce the weak 'l'. My vowels are not long enough, I guess. I also feel I need to work hard on the intonation. 谢谢!!!
annon   Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:06 am GMT
I thought it sounded very nice! :)

I think your vowels sound perfect. Making them longer would be unnatural in my opinion.

The only thing you should work on would be your "r"s. You do a great job emphasizing them but you do it a bit too much.

For example, your speed slows down a lot when you say "February" because you're trying to hard to pronounce the "r"s.

With practice, you can soften them up a bit. It will make your speech sound much more natural and your speed with increase.
watermark   Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:24 pm GMT
Thank you for your comment annon!I also feel that I tried too much for the pronunciation that it is not very natural.

I practice English pronunciation through VOA special English. I download it to my ipod and repeat after the speaker because the speaker speaks very slowly. But it seems to me the speaker is speaking like a news anchor, not very relaxed, I don't see people speak that way in real life. Maybe I should look for something more casual. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Darren   Thu Mar 19, 2009 2:11 pm GMT
You should also work more on these sounds:

"Millions" was mispronounced but later the sound ɪ was better.

ɝ --- as in fireworks, their,


æ in "many" was kinda weird.
c   Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:00 pm GMT
People with the California and Canadian vowel shift have ash in "many".
watermark   Thu Mar 19, 2009 7:44 pm GMT
Darren, thank you so much for you comments. I will work on the vowel sounds. Thanks!
Darren   Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:18 pm GMT
I can tell that you (IMO) sound almost like a native speaker in :

between January 21 and February

go home to be with their families

biggest and most important holiday
cnalbingham   Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:36 am GMT
Many of the words sounded native, or darned close:

of, in, the, go, bus, and, with, to, be, new, etc.