German speaking practice: Supergute Tage #1

My German pronunciation needs a lot of practice. I rarely speak it at all. Because of this, when I do actually have something I want to and can say in German, the sentence falls apart or slows right down somewhere between my brain and my mouth because my mouth simply isn't used to moving to German speech patterns.

I've filmed these speaking practice sessions so that I don't feel so much like I'm talking to myself and uploaded them here for any constructive criticism anyone might have.

The book I'm reading from here is 'Supergute Tage (oder die sonderbare Welt des Christopher Boone)' which is a translation of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' by Mark Haddon.

I apologise for both the picture and sound quality. In fact there's isn't much to see at all apart from a couple of drawings/diagrams that occur in the book and are part of the story. But sound quality doesn't help with an already poor quality accent and pronunciation! It's possible that with a combination of these things I won't be understood at all!

As for what I am reading, I understand most of it but only because I have read the English version more than once. However, I find reading it helps me to get a feel of the grammar and syntax, even without knowing what each word means individually.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Supergute
• Tage
• German
• reading
• speaking
• practice

[schockimocki]

Very good!

[HawkeHound]

@schockimocki: Thank you :)

[SchnybiTheShoehorn]

your pronunciation is actually quite good!

some thoughts:

sometimes your stress is a little off, but it's still alright.

you might want to watch your ö's and words in -rch

and nit-pickingly:

i'm not absolutely sure about this, but your ch (as in Bach) seems to be a velar [x].. where i live (lower saxony), we say it as a uvular [χ]. it's not that big a difference, but yeah.. just thought i'd mention it =)

aber sonst, echt gut! bei einigen wörtern hast du schon gar keinen akzent mehr!

[HawkeHound]

Danke! :)

I'll take your advice and work on the things you've pointed out. Thanks again!

[Coolmedia234]

It's really not that bad, just keep practicing. A wise man once said, language is a bucket full of water with a hole in the bottom, keep filing it or it will soon drain away!

[lliitt96]

gut