Can may you help improving my accent?

Fabio   Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:54 am GMT
Could you please listen to my voice on livemocha:

http://www.livemocha.com/submissions/review/11667324

I would be glad if you could point me out my mistakes and what I can do to improve my listening.

Thank you.
Uriel   Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:21 am GMT
It's "CUR-rently" and "PRO-grammer", so those are just issues of getting the stress on the right syllable. "Nurse" betrays a little difficulty with the "er" sound; it sounds a little like "noorse". You are pretty rhotic in your delivery, like a North American, so your best bet is to learn to say that our way rather than British-style (just my opinion, of course). You want to use the same sound in "nurse" as you used in the last syllable of "doctor".

You have a little trouble getting from "six" to "years"; you have a sort of j sound in between them. Make them cleaner. "Architect" is pronounced "arkitekt" (all hard C's), not "arshitect", but you just have to know that, unfortunately. "Occupation" is "ahk-yoo-pation" with a pronounced Y-sound between the C and the U; don't forget that Y. You dropped the S in "years" when taking about your brother, and you have a kind of weird "oo" in "school", as if you were saying "skyewl".
K.   Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:26 pm GMT
I can understand your recording, Fabio. Uriel gave you some good feedback. "Architect" is what stuck out the most. Remember to make "chi" sound like the word "key" in English. Also, I second the idea that you need a "cleaner" sound, so separate the words until you can pronounce them clearly. It really wasn't all that bad. Maybe you can get a native speaker at Livemocha to record how it should sound. That should help you with your intonation.

Best wishes and much success
K.   Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:33 pm GMT
Your title would be better as:

Could you help me with my accent?
or
Can you help me with my accent?
K.   Wed Jan 20, 2010 1:11 am GMT
Sorry, I meant that the "chi" should have that hard "k" sound Uriel mentioned.