What do you think of my accent?

Matt   Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:53 pm GMT
Hello, here's my record (628K, 39s):
http://sites.google.com/site/crcr333/crr.mp3
What do you think of my accent? Is is pleasent?

If you want, try to guess my nationality :)
Gueast   Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:00 pm GMT
That's a good example of what I mean by "mixing up dialects" in my thread "BrE and AmE inevitably together?"

<<But now, after only two weeks, she can read much faster...>>
You pronounce "after" and "faster" with a South-UK "ah".

<<...she has learned in the past two weeks...>>
But here you pronounce "past" with a short "a" (like most Americans), where "ah" was expected if you were pronouncing words with the Bath-Trap split.

<<...made good progress...>>
The "oh" you have in "progress" sounds British, but you don't seem to use that "oh" in the other words you pronounce with that same phoneme.

<...a lot of English recently... the chance... >>
Your "a lot of" and "chance" sound very American

<<...her vocabulary keeps growing...>>
Yet you pronounce "vocabulary" the British way (without secondary stress, one different phoneme)



This is what happens when you just try to imitate native speakers but you don't make a conscious effort to only learn one dialect and stick to it.
I'm not a native speaker, by the way. I'd like to know what native speakers think of this issue. Anyway Matt, you are understandable :) Can't guess where you're from.
Matt   Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:12 pm GMT
Yeah. I've just read your topic and thought: this is about me!

At the beginning, I wanted to have British accent but about a year ago I changed my mind.

And now I'm mixed up ;-) Many of my words are still ~British.
Learner   Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:13 pm GMT
It seems to me that you're trying an American accent, and I would say your native tongue is Portuguese.
I'm not native, but it seems clera to me that you're not a native American speaker either, one problem I notice is the pronuntiation of the vowel in "book".
Matt   Sat Jan 30, 2010 3:08 pm GMT
Learner,

Thanks for your opinion. I will work on my 'u'.

And no, not Portugese nor Spanish :)
-   Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:23 pm GMT
Are you Polish?
Matt   Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:28 pm GMT
Yes.
estvn   Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:03 pm GMT
<<But now, after only two weeks, she can read much faster...>>
You pronounce "after" and "faster" with a South-UK "ah".

<<...she has learned in the past two weeks...>>
But here you pronounce "past" with a short "a" (like most Americans), where "ah" was expected if you were pronouncing words with the Bath-Trap split.

<<...a lot of English recently... the chance... >>
Your "a lot of" and "chance" sound very American

~~~~~

i dont hear "past" with the short "a"/[æ]. it sounds like a low and front /a/, and 'after' and 'faster' with a more back, but still /a/. 'ah' is [ɑ] in my case...

"alot of" and "chance" definitely sound american
Sexy Allah   Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:14 pm GMT
Matt, your voice is sexy.
Matt   Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:36 pm GMT
Sexy Allah, thank you, I hope you're not gay.

Thanks for your opinions. I'm eager to get to know what else I could improve.