How to Master Successfully Any Language of the World 22
intermediate or advanced learner – they will always sound like “beginners” and treated as
“beginners” no matter how correctly they speak. Unfortunately, it is much easier to
acquire proper accent at the Beginners level, than at any other. The importance of
mastering the proper accent is often underestimated during language courses or in
textbooks, so I want to specially stress this datum here.
Proper accent can never be explained in books. Like it’s practically impossible to explain
basic colors. It should be demonstrated. However, proper mouth positioning for a specific
language may be described. Probably, one day I’ll do a research about accents.
In order to drill the correct accent you will need an audio recording and an audio recorder
for yourself. A transcript is highly advised, too. First, listen to the recording, phrase by
phrase, and mark the music of the language and the pace you hear. Mark the words that
are pronounced in some unexpected or “wrong” way. Mark exactly what you hear. Then
listen to a phrase of no longer than 1.5-2 seconds, and then say it yourself. Record
yourself saying it and listen to it immediately. Hearing yourself speaking a foreign
language may be fun! Or, it may be funny – it differs THAT much from the original
recording! Pay attention to the music of the language and the pace. Simulate them. Play
them. Be an actor and act the character of your recording. While you are speaking, try to
change the position of your tongue or lips. Take notice, when you sound more closely to
the recording. And please, remember: Most important accent work should be done at this
level. From the very beginning! It will be much more difficult to get rid of a “bad”
accent, than to acquire the right one from the very beginning.
As for myself, I had learnt two languages without paying attention to the correct accent.
Indeed, I just bypassed the whole accent issue about these two. And I could never acquire
proper pronunciation ever since. My grammar, vocabulary and cultural knowledge
increased, one to advanced, another to intermediate. But once I open my mouth, native
speakers hear immediately where do I come from and often treat me as a “learner”.
Reading and Writing – Don’t Dig Too Deep
At this level written communication is less important than oral communication. However,
at A1 alphabet may be introduced and a few most common and important signs should be
read. Reading and writing will be somewhat more stressed at A2. Here you should know
to read and write the words and sentences that you have already learnt. However,
throughout the whole A level, words should be better presented orally. The reason is, that
the sound “a” in the language you are trying to learn, sounds usually NOT exactly the
same as “a” in your native language. The same is true about “B”, “CH”, etc. Close as it
can be, IT IS NEVER EXACTLY THE SAME! So, a written word will just confuse you.
Copyright © 2012 Dmitry Slomov. All rights reserved.
Dmitry Slomov is a language learning consultant, a tutor and the author of the Russian Language Course – Lessons with Dmitry
Contact Dmitry at: http://www.courseofrussian.com/en/contact.html
