Judge My French

[Jaleel10]

I only listened to the beginning, but I will say that your awesome French accent is ruined because you keep saying "um". If you practice saying « euh » instead, you will sound 100x better.

yeah, euh is a better French place holder. I also like "enfin...." And "c'est à dire que..."

Oh wow. This interesting. Are there resources where I can see the 'place holders' for other languages ? It would go a long way in improving my Spanish

[Sarafina]

I'm not in a position to comment on your French sorry. However, I would probably not put too much work into pronunciation just yet. You're focusing on a specific exam and I would say your accent is good enough for the IB (though, as mentioned I would try and frop the ums). It may have changed, but my understanding of IB marking was that pronunciation is a fairly small area to get marks from. Your accent definitely seems good enough for that. You don't have that much time, focus on stuff that you'll get more marks from. In the future, you can go back and work with pronunciation textbooks, etc.

Thank you. I've finished my individual oral exam. I think I have a group oral near the next of the month. I guess maybe now is not the best time to focusing on pronunciation. Although pronunciation is a relative small aspect, I've noticed that accent and pronunciation can give a perception whether fairly or unfairly of having a higher level than you actually are. People are more likely to want to continue to engage in conversation with you. I learnt this the hard way.

I am only spending 15 minutes a day of focused pronunciation work. I wish I could spend longer working on it but as you've said before I need to focus on the things that will get me more marks.

[Sarafina]

Sarafina, could you read us a short written text that you have practised before? Then we could see better whether something basic goes wrong.

That's a great suggestion. I was meant to upload one yesterday and I accidentally clicked 'Retry' instead of 'Listen'. I haven't been feeling at well or sleeping at all I know it's no excuse. Hopefully I can practice reading a short written text and then recording it.

[Deinonysus]

I only listened to the beginning, but I will say that your awesome French accent is ruined because you keep saying "um". If you practice saying « euh » instead, you will sound 100x better.

yeah, euh is a better French place holder. I also like "enfin...." And "c'est à dire que..."

Oh wow. This interesting. Are there resources where I can see the 'place holders' for other languages ? It would go a long way in improving my Spanish

Good question! I found this on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filler_(linguistics)

I thought it was interesting that the article says Afrikaans uses basically the same filler sounds as English. Is that accurate?

This is from the reference that the Wiki article used for its Spanish section:

Question: In English we have many "filler" words for when we don't know how to continue on in a sentence, or that can even express a certain emotion (e.g., "err..."). I am thinking of words such as hmmm... err... like (ooh, I hate that. Hey, I used another one.). What I would like to know is, what are some types of "words" such as this in Spanish?

Answer: My least favorite is "you know." In any case, in Spanish those "filler" words are called muletillas (or, less commonly, palabras de relleno) and are very common.

But Spanish speakers tend not to use one-syllable utterances as much as in English. Instead, they tend to use common words like este (usually pronounced as esteeeee, depending on how nervous the person is), esto (or estoooo) or in Mexico o sea (which roughly means "I mean"). Che is often heard in Argentina. In other areas you may hear es decir (meaning, roughly, "that is to say"). The "err" has its equivalent in the sound "eeeehh," and em is similar to the English "ummm."

Also, it is very common to use pues, which has a variety of meanings. Pues can be used at the start of a sentence as a kind of filler while you can get your thoughts together. Or try a ver, which can be thought of as "let's see" or "we'll see."

https://www.thoughtco.com/filler-words- ... es-3079581

[Cavesa]

For studying the French place holders (and lots of other useful stuff too) I recommend Kaamelott. There is no better resource!

[Jaleel10]

Thank you very much, Deinonysus (Greek myhtology fan or dinosaur fan ?) !

I really needed something like this.

I thought it was interesting that the article says Afrikaans uses basically the same filler sounds as English. Is that accurate?

Uhm. Now that I think about it we do haha. Probably because the language is so small in South Africa compared to English. In this way it's more likely to be influenced by it. So I don't know if it is the same for Dutch.

[Deinonysus]

Thank you very much, Deinonysus (Greek myhtology fan or dinosaur fan ?) !

I really needed something like this.

Both! It's a combination of Dionysus and Deinonychus, so Deinonysus is the Greek god of drunk raptors.

Glad it was helpful!

I thought it was interesting that the article says Afrikaans uses basically the same filler sounds as English. Is that accurate?

Uhm. Now that I think about it we do haha. Probably because the language is so small in South Africa compared to English. In this way it's more likely to be influenced by it. So I don't know if it is the same for Dutch.

Interesting! The Wiki article says that the Dutch use "ehm" and "dus" as fillers, so maybe Afrikaans was influenced by anglophone South Africans.

[tarvos]

Ehm, dus, euh... (a little in the French style)

[Sarafina]

I haven't done any speaking at all because of exams, stress and -insert blah blah excuse-
I plan on really doing a thorough study of French phonetics (and phonology?) in the summer holidays by going through Phonétique Progressive du Français, FSI French Phonology and some shadowing using dialogue from either 7jours or GoldenMoustache

But for now, I just want to still continue practising speaking in French so by the summer holidays when I resume my Italki lessons I won't be completely rusty and can actually remember how to say a semi-coherent sentence.

I am responding to a prompt which just says 'la déclin de biodiversité'. At least I was able to come up with something in French on the spot I apologise in advance- it is riddled with so many hesitations and pauses and awkward intonation.
https://vocaroo.com/i/s0QleSxVozNp

When I listen to myself, I hear the pronunciations mistakes that I know not to make but when I'm put on the spot I just throw the rules of French phonetics outside the window.

[Arnaud]

I am responding to a prompt which just says 'la déclin de biodiversité'. At least I was able to come up with something in French on the spot I apologise in advance- it is riddled with so many hesitations and pauses and awkward intonation.
https://vocaroo.com/i/s0QleSxVozNp

When I listen to myself, I hear the pronunciations mistakes that I know not to make but when I'm put on the spot I just throw the rules of French phonetics outside the window.

Here's the transcription of what you said: you'll see that some words are missing because they are difficult to understand for me.
More work is needed, visibly...

Il faut souligner que le déclin de la biodiversité a bien plus d'ampleur et des conséquences plus sérieuses que nous l'imaginons. Par exemple, en 2040...2050, 20 % des espèces pourrait disparaître et (cela) s'accompagne d'une désorganisation de la chaîne alimentaire. Encore, l'ensemble de l'écosystème est touché parce que sa stabilité dépend de la diversité des ??? qu'il abrite. La biodiversité de l'environnement purement polaire est l'une des premières victimes du réchauffement climatique. En effet, l'écosystème marin est touché par l'augmentation des températures et par conséquent les populations des diverses espèces polaires chutent.