I read an account of a polyglot, a Korean person who grew up in Japan, who achieved perfect accents in Chinese (I don't recall what dialect) as well as English. The method involved watching T.V./movies at a ratio of 4-5 hours to accompany every hour of study. I've heard you comment on how you do not like T.V. Idon't blame you for that. Have you ever heard of anyone doing this? I wonder what your thoughts are on this method?
I tend to agree. I had a four week immersion class in Germany, and the teacher (a fantastic teacher actually) constantly corrected our pronunciation. It could be discouraging and make you feel like you weren't coming along well, but she made a great point -- if you learn mistakes early on, and constantly repeat them, then can become extremely hard to unlearn.
Some tough accent teaching can be helpful in the very beginning, especially because you can max out on vocab/grammar info and get fatigue
You should definitely set a goal for learning the languages you've decided to learn. I've made some videos about this as well. I will send them to you shortly.
Agreed. I'd say that accent matters only to the point where where one is clearly understood - past that, it's just polish. Moreover, I don't see that having a foreign accent is in any way a bad thing, it's natural and largely unavoidable - and charming.
I'd be more concerned with increasing my expressiveness and the cultural aspects of how to use the language effectively.
With enough exposure and mimicking of natural content the accent will look after itself surely?
Accents are one thing, but there are sounds that I've never used in my life and I don't have an adequate method of acquiring intelligible versions of them.
With me, I tend to pick up the accents before i pick up the language so i haven't had a big problem with them. Mandarin Chinese was the hardest because of the tones, but even without using an accent or not all the tones or wrong ones, as a non native speaker, most people will consider the context and be able to understand what I'm saying anyway. That's whats important.
I think there is some neutral standart "accent" in every language. The sort of language you would hear on "Evening News" in every country. This sort of thing would be understood by everyone.
I agree that at first, being understood is all that matters. I went thru phases in advanced stages of my Japanese where aquiring native pronunciation was important for my professional goals- its hard to get and I still don't have it.
In the beginning of studying a new language, accent is not that important. Now, in Mandarin because its tonal, accent and pronunciation seems to be a huge focus even at the beginning stages. Messing up the tones means I won't be understood.
You mean dialects, right? Not like a British accent or something. That's what I'm going to assume.
I always choose an accent. I think that it is impossible to learn a language without choosing an accent. I speak Tuscan Italian, Austrian German, Copenhagen Danish, Kansai Japanese, Argentinean Spanish, Southern Vietnamese, etc etc etc.
You have to pick one, especially with languages like Spanish or Portuguese (idk if you have studied these). You have to choose Mexican Spanish, or Spanish Spanish
I read an account of a polyglot, a Korean person who grew up in Japan, who achieved perfect accents in Chinese (I don't recall what dialect) as well as English. The method involved watching T.V./movies at a ratio of 4-5 hours to accompany every hour of study. I've heard you comment on how you do not like T.V. Idon't blame you for that. Have you ever heard of anyone doing this? I wonder what your thoughts are on this method?
mykalLarue 11 months ago
I tend to agree. I had a four week immersion class in Germany, and the teacher (a fantastic teacher actually) constantly corrected our pronunciation. It could be discouraging and make you feel like you weren't coming along well, but she made a great point -- if you learn mistakes early on, and constantly repeat them, then can become extremely hard to unlearn.
Some tough accent teaching can be helpful in the very beginning, especially because you can max out on vocab/grammar info and get fatigue
crock703 1 year ago
Great video, I also believe that the main point should be to be understood
jmarsh8822 2 years ago
How should i set up my mind while i learning multi-language?
Datuksri007 2 years ago
You should definitely set a goal for learning the languages you've decided to learn. I've made some videos about this as well. I will send them to you shortly.
laoshu505000 2 years ago
Agreed. I'd say that accent matters only to the point where where one is clearly understood - past that, it's just polish. Moreover, I don't see that having a foreign accent is in any way a bad thing, it's natural and largely unavoidable - and charming.
I'd be more concerned with increasing my expressiveness and the cultural aspects of how to use the language effectively.
With enough exposure and mimicking of natural content the accent will look after itself surely?
Cool vid!
acromel 2 years ago
Accents are one thing, but there are sounds that I've never used in my life and I don't have an adequate method of acquiring intelligible versions of them.
ElCagafuego 2 years ago
I learned Japanese in the Kanto/Tokyo dialect as my japanese teachers speak it that way.
i find it peculiar that we all picked up the habit of saying ひ as し as in 人＝しと or 一つ＝しとつ
:D the mandarin i learned was with a cantonese accent as my teacher was cantonese.
atomic24x7 2 years ago
With me, I tend to pick up the accents before i pick up the language so i haven't had a big problem with them. Mandarin Chinese was the hardest because of the tones, but even without using an accent or not all the tones or wrong ones, as a non native speaker, most people will consider the context and be able to understand what I'm saying anyway. That's whats important.
Lokoboy84 2 years ago
I think there is some neutral standart "accent" in every language. The sort of language you would hear on "Evening News" in every country. This sort of thing would be understood by everyone.
happydreamfreak 2 years ago
I agree that at first, being understood is all that matters. I went thru phases in advanced stages of my Japanese where aquiring native pronunciation was important for my professional goals- its hard to get and I still don't have it.
In the beginning of studying a new language, accent is not that important. Now, in Mandarin because its tonal, accent and pronunciation seems to be a huge focus even at the beginning stages. Messing up the tones means I won't be understood.
saiyouken 2 years ago 5
You mean dialects, right? Not like a British accent or something. That's what I'm going to assume.
I always choose an accent. I think that it is impossible to learn a language without choosing an accent. I speak Tuscan Italian, Austrian German, Copenhagen Danish, Kansai Japanese, Argentinean Spanish, Southern Vietnamese, etc etc etc.
You have to pick one, especially with languages like Spanish or Portuguese (idk if you have studied these). You have to choose Mexican Spanish, or Spanish Spanish
ILuvEire 2 years ago 3
it would be difficult to acquire accent like a native speaker.
KhmerD0g 2 years ago
Did you figure that out all by urself?
insanelygreatproduct 2 years ago
that's common knowledge. i'm surprised u couldn't figure it out.
KhmerD0g 2 years ago
Oh it is? This is news to me.
insanelygreatproduct 2 years ago