Hi, everyone!
Sorry I did not post a new thread this week until now, and also for not responding to the most recent posts. I check the blog daily, but this week my computer was having issues so I couldn't check the blog.
For this week, please consider the problems that were pointed out to you in class. Also please think about the problems that you had in class. Specifically, what sounds did you have trouble pronouncing? And what about the rhythm and stress lesson from today's class? Was it difficult for you to mimic the Seinfeld clip? Do you find yourself stressing words correctly when you converse with your friends?
I am looking forward to reading your posts. Please finish posting by next Thursday's class.
Thanks,
Anthony
4 comments:
Hi, Anthony. How was your weekend? Thank you for your kind concern at the last class. I enjoyed my dinner.
I understood how different the meaning of a sentence would be depends on which words are stressed. However, it is really hard for me to correctly mimic the Seinfeld Clip. I cannot stress particular words in the sentence smoothly. Every time I try to stress particular words, such as “I don’t think you DO.”, I tend to break the flow of the sentence before the words to be stressed. In other words, I always stop a little bit before pronouncing the words to be strongly pronounced. I need mroe practice to stress particular words without losing fluency in a whole sentence.
In a daily conversation, I’m more likely to choose wrong pro-verb/helping-verb when I try to stress it as a response to others (because I’m sometimes surprised or excited too much?). For example, when my friend says “I don’t think he won’t win the game”, I tend to respond wrong, such as “I think he IS” or “I think he DO” instead of “WILL”.
Practice, practice, and practice...
Oops, let me correct one sentence on my post.
Wrong:friend says “I don’t think he won’t win the game”
Corrent:friend says "I think he won't win the game"
Thanks,
Reiko
Hi Anthony,
I really enjoyed the "Seinfeld" and it was very funny. I read some stories about it after class. This TV show was very popular in the US in 90s and it won many awards. I watched some clips on YouTube and they are very interesting. I like them and tried to copy them, but I was unable to speak in their way.
When I was in some restaurants and told waitresses that I need some “hot water” for my friend, the waitresses looked confused. I guess there were couple reasons: first, it isn’t common to order hot water in an American restaurant; second, I didn’t pronounce it correct. After I said it word by word, “HoT Water”, they understood me. I may skip “t” when I say “hot”.
I have difficulty pronouncing word ending with “m” or “n” or with unstressed “m” or “n” in the middle. For example, I pronounce “Seinfeld” incorrectly and my pronunciation sounds like “Seifeld”. I skipped “n”. Sorry, I confused you in our last class. Or my pronunciation of “demand” is like “demad.” I am unable to differentiate “a” and “e” correctly. When I say “staples”, it is like “steples”.
Thanks a lot. See you in class.
For me, after classes, the most struggling problem with pronunciation I encounter now is actually not how to have my pronunciation right but that I do not really have enough attention to my pronunciation when I speak, honestly. And, neither do I put much focus on the rhythm and stress problem when I talk to someone. To quote my mom, my speech is always too fast, flat, and thus slurred whether in English or Mandarin (!). Take the Seinfeld clip mimicking for instance, I found it pretty hard (and to some extent, embarrassing) for me to have my speech exaggeratedly up and down. I did try to correct this weakness of mine; however, as Reiko has mentioned above, my speech then get stammered and unnatural sometimes when trying to stress particular words. It is absolutely not my nature to speak in a very dramatic way. Well, I am not excusing myself. So, I think that there is the must-do list with my trouble pronouncing for now: (stole from Reiko’s posting again) practice slowing down my speech, practice paying greater attention to my pronunciation when speaking, and practice speaking more emotional. In a word, being a more dramatic speaker with correct pronunciation is an urgency, though it is crazy hard for me.
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