Pronunciation practice

[MacGyver]

I am currently learning Korean. When I read anything out loud it all comes out as a garbled mess. I need to seriously improve how i pronounce words. I have an italki teacher and she is really good, but I need to practice way more outside of lesson hours.

What do people find the best way to improve pronunciation. Shadowing? My plan of attack is to listen to simple texts (either from textbooks or from something like Talk To Me In Koreans Iyagi) and repeat over and over and over....

Does anyone have any suggestions? Please help!

[Xenops]

I mainly use Pimsleur for pronunciation, but Leosmith (I think it was) wrote a review of the Korean Pimsleur series.

[Henkkles]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/510 ... dacity.pdf

This article changed how I view pronunciation practice for good.

[Ani]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51074116/Kjellin-Practise-Pronunciation-w-Audacity.pdf

This article changed how I view pronunciation practice for good.

Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to reading this. I hope I am not mixing you up with someone but IIRC, you posted a sample of your English pronunciation once and it was excellent. Probably better than mine I'll be really happy to see what method you use.

[blaurebell]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51074116/Kjellin-Practise-Pronunciation-w-Audacity.pdf
This article changed how I view pronunciation practice for good.

Yes, great article! There is one thing where I don't quite agree. Although generally the advice about minimal pairs is sound, you first have to train yourself to hear the difference, before you can hear the sounds that you are supposed to produce. Do not repeat them together, yes, but do train your ears. For French, FSI Basic has excellent minimal pairs listening drills and there is also: https://fluent-forever.com/ for many other languages. I used his trainer for Russian and French and found it particularly helpful for Russian. My brother doesn't even hear the difference between the normal consonants and the consonants softened by the soft sign ь. He will therefore always mix up the pronunciation of those, sometimes to general hilarity because he'd unintentionally say rude or funny things. Before the Russian pronunciation trainer I couldn't hear the difference either, now I can. One should use this trainer for listening only though, otherwise the problems described in the article above will occur. So, I would start with minimal pairs listening exercises and then do exactly what is described in the article.

[reineke]

It's a matter of perception and muscle memory. I initially provided a link to FSI Korean. It's always good to provide some background. You received some good advice here

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3933&p=49129#p49129

I would target pronunciation separately. I would also drop the subs and try to tune in to some live TV. On youtube you may find helpful videos about Korean pronunciation. Real life tutoring sessions could prove useful.

[Steve]

I've been using Audacity for years in a manner similar to that described in the article. I found the article helpful.

One point I think that needs to be emphasized. Part of learning new phonemes requires developing muscles in your mouth in different ways. Sometimes your muscles are simply not capable of doing particular sounds until they've been exercised enough.

I've found learning some new phonemes (e.g. Rs in Spanish) was like learning to play guitar. I remember fighting with bar chords for a long time. I tried a few times and gave up. At some point, I hung with it for a few weeks. I literally went from not being able to do them one day to being able to the next day. I couldn't hold them very long at that point, but I could do it. In hindsight, my fingers were not strong enough to do them correctly. It was the process of repeatedly trying to hold them that strengthened the muscles to the point where it worked. When my fingers were strong enough, it was easy.

When I started Assimil's Spanish with Ease, I did the lessons in the morning. I also spent about 30 to 60 minutes most evenings focused on pronunciation. I used Audacity to repeat individual words, phrases, and sentences in previous Assimil lessons which I easily understood. I found that after about 3 to 4 weeks, my mouth started naturally going to a different default position in Spanish than English. Many phonemes now feel natural in this position compared to my initial English mouth position.

[MacGyver]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51074116/Kjellin-Practise-Pronunciation-w-Audacity.pdf

This article changed how I view pronunciation practice for good.

Wow! Thanks, that is amazing.

[MacGyver]

It's a matter of perception and muscle memory. I initially provided a link to FSI Korean. It's always good to provide some background. You received some good advice here

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3933&p=49129#p49129

I would target pronunciation separately. I would also drop the subs and try to tune in to some live TV. On youtube you may find helpful videos about Korean pronunciation. Real life tutoring sessions could prove useful.

Thanks. I think one of my problems was while I was listening to a lot, but not repeating or shadowing.

[Voytek]

Some interesting things about improving an accent and pronunciation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hd-Cvle1Fg