Today, I read a post on Reddit where this guy asked people if there was any language that they regretted learning. Well, I kind of regret having studied German, even though it wasn't by choice. I wish I had learned English instead when I was in elementary and middle school; then, I wouldn't have such a strong Hungarian-German accent. The funny thing is, I don't even know German anymore, but the pronunciation stayed in my English a bit.
And that brings me to my question: 'Have you ever had or do you have any achievements that are considered positive in our society but are actually negative for you? For example, a language you learned, a marriage you had, a car you bought, a place where you traveled, and so on?
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What a thought-provoking question! I don't have an answer to your question, but I have a sort of anti-answer. I taught myself how to blow bubbles in gum and roll my r's and other trivial things, but I haven't learned how to whistle. It annoys me.
For your English pronunciation, you could record yourself speaking your posts aloud and insert a link of the voice recording.
For reference, just in case anyone is interested. https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/18zefyi/have_you_ever_learned_a_language_that_you_regret/
Until I was 40, I always had cars. They were expensive, the insurance was expensive, and I live on an island, so I barely used them. In other words, I had cars (mostly Mercedes) because I felt I was expected to have them. Then, with the advent of Uber, I thought about it one day and decided that living in Florida, on an island, beautiful weather, why not buy a scooter to get around and if I need a car for any reason, I can take one of my brothers' cars or just call an Uber. I haven't owned a car since — almost ten years now. And I don't miss 'em! 👍🏻🤩
I'd love to hear your accent. You can record something on Vocaroo and post it here — maybe a snippet from this post. By the way, aside from being an editor, I'm also an American English accent coach: I help Americans standardize their accent and help foreigners acquire a more American pronunciation. If you ever want to work with me on your accent, it'll be my pleasure (no charge!).
I'm so glad to see that "my" Vocaroo initiative kicked in. It really is a great way to get feedback on pronunciation, once one manages to overcome (or rather, put aside for a while) the fear of starting with it.
As with many other similar things, the amount of positive (rather than negative, off-putting or even toxic) feedback and the welcoming that one gets around here is just great.
My English pronunciation also suffered a lot from my (by now likely stronger) German, in a way that I didn't anticipate nor wanted to happen. People like @CocoPop and other pronunciation and language experts are very helpful, if you want to work on your general pronunciation. In my personal case, this is one of the things that I actually want to continue with (retake), together with language learning/improving in general terms, but where other things ended up having the more urgent priority in life.
And my invitation to you still stands, @edufuga, whenever you decide to circle back to pronunciation.
Great to know, thanks! Once things settle down again, hopefully soon, at last, I guess I will find the time and the energy for getting back at it. It's definitely not for lack of interest.
@JGComm & @CocoPop https://voca.ro/11myC6vLcWUg
@JGComm You found it :D
@CocoPop Thank you for the offer! I'd love to.
@CocoPop Thank you for the offer! I'd love to!
@CocoPop Carless life sounds so much easier. How often are you in a situation when you need a car? Is only using Uber enough?
@JGComm if it helps I can't blow bubbles nor whistle 😅
Also recorded another post of mine : https://journaly.com/post/35232
@Norbs Thank you so much for the recordings — it's great to put a voice to the name. To be frank, your English is so natural and native that it took me by surprise to hear that you have such a heavy accent. And there's nothing wrong with that! I love accents. But if you don't love yours, I can definitely help. By the way, all I hear is a Hungarian accent — no German. And I know exactly what you need to work on: ❶ the sounds of American English ❷ rhythm ❸ intonation. I can help you with all that whenever you're ready and at your own pace 👍🏻😉
To answer your question, I almost never need a car. With adequate planning, I can get anywhere on my scooter. If the weather doesn't cooperate, I just take my brother's second car. And if I have to go to Miami or something, I hire a driver (I hate long drives!)
@CocoPop Well, yeah, this is a bit difficult to work on as an adult. I tried looking for tutors to improve my accent on a website called Preply, but everyone said my accent was really good. However, I believe they just weren't experienced with accent coaching, so they felt uncomfortable.
The main point is communication. As long as people can understand me, I should be fine. But sometimes it bothers me because I put a lot of hours into English, but I don't get the expected result back, at least in this area of English learning. Native English speakers, especially those from the United States, sometimes struggle to understand me. I have been working on improving my communication skills, for example, through techniques like shadowing. It's an ongoing process
The German pronunciation comes up when I don't know how to pronounce something, and I pronounce it in a Germanish way.
If you tell me how to start it, and what to do, I'm ready :)
@CocoPop I've always wanted to ask a professional about this: I heard that it's not possible to acquire a native accent of a language after the age of 12. I'd like to ask, in your experience, as someone who works in this field, in your opinion how true is that, what is your opinion on improving your accent as an adult?
I'm not CocoPop, but I think this (suposedly not being able to acquire a native accent as an adult, or after 12, or whatever) is BS (that's Latin for "nonsense"). Of course, it depends on multiple factors, like time × energy, (phonetic) similarity to your native language or others you speak well, ability, awareness and openess to recognize and produce new sounds, imitate the tone, etc. As with almost anything, people tend to overthink the "you either need to be young or a genius, or both" factor, which is just not true. In the specific case of pronunciation, I have personally experienced it several times. True, most people don't take the time and put in the energy needed for it, myself included (for some languages), but that's because of other reasons.
To add to Ed's comment, you may not be able to reach complete lack of accent, but that still leaves a lot of potential for progress. To put it in mathematical terms, you might be able to reach 98% accent reduction. It might not be 100%, but at that point, who cares? On the flip side, if you give up before you start your accent reduction, just because of age, your percentage will automatically be 0%, a self-fulfilling belief at that point. Does that make sense, what I'm trying to say?
@edufuga and @JGComm I agree with both of you. You made very good points!
@Norbs I can’t agree with that statistic. I’ve heard too many success stories, some of them own my students, who’ve acquired an amazing accent way past 12. If you have Telegram, look for me.
Found you. Telegram said that we have to be mutual contacts. My telegram username is norbs93
I sent you a message :)