十招助您打造美国腔
Makers：
James
Jacob
Heaven
Assistants：
Michael Ma
Shane Chen
Recorders:
Enoch Zhu
Romance
Jane
——
Ten Ways to Help You Acquire an American Accent
In order to help the Chinese saints become fluent in speaking American English, we have summed up ten major steps to help you acquire a flawless American accent.
While you are learning this, we suggest that you find a companion to help you practice and learn effectively and continually. Our attitude should be humble, trusting each other, willing to be corrected by our companion, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)
We believe that as long as you really practice for a period of time according to this set of methods, your American-style speech will definitely show a great improvement!
I. PRONUNCIATION
This section is made up of six units:
1. Wrong pronunciation
2. Local accent
3. British interference
4. Labial sounds and echo effects
5. Tongue-biting sounds
6. Voiceless shifts
Unit One — Wrong Pronunciation
1. How to discover mistakes
a. When you are not sure how to pronounce a word
b. When your companion points out your mistake
2. How to search for the correct pronunciation
On the Internet or on your smartphone, use the Baidu translation app to search for the word and listen to the genuine American speaker’s pronunciation.
3. How to rectify your pronunciation
Repeat after the American speaker, at least 5 times for each word; then speak to your companion, or use Weixin recording and send it to your companion for evaluation.
4. Examples of common mistakes
He, love, again, very
Unit Two — Local Accent
The Chinese language is built up of monosyllabic words or characters, and [translator’s note: aside from “n” and “ng”] the ending of a monosyllable with a consonant is non-existent. Because of this, many learners of American English have the habit of adding an extra vowel sound after the ending consonant of English words. The three most common occurrences are the following:
1. After t, d, k, g, p, b — mistakenly adding an ending sound [ə]
E.g. Christ-ə, spirit-ə, God-ə, Lord-ə
like-ə, book-ə, big-ə, job-ə
2. After m, f, v, (p) — mistakenly adding an ending sound [ʊ]
E.g. Jerusalem-u, life-u, love-u, map-u
3. After s, z, ts, ds — mistakenly adding an ending sound [i]
E.g. miss-i, realize-i, parents-i, seeds-i
Unit Three — British Interference
Generally speaking, British pronunciation gives you a feeling of gentle elegance, gentlemanly perfection; American pronunciation, however, gives you a feeling of boldness and casualness. The differences between British and American pronunciations are reflected mainly in the vowels a and o and the consonant r.
Please listen to the pronunciation of the following words; pay attention to the differences between British and American.
Vowel o — God, not, body, topic, Solomon, lock, problem
Consonant r — Lord, source, door, for, more, world, here
Vowel a — can’t, ask, last,
answer (translator’s note: The sound heard for “answer” in the second column is not British, but American.)
chance, after, half
Unit Four — Labial Sounds and Echo Effects
Because of the different ways Chinese words are pronounced, the English spoken by most Chinese clearly lack a hint of charm.
For example, when we say the word “now”, we usually use only the area of the lips, but Americans very spontaneously include an echo effect in their pronunciation. Specifically, when they are pronouncing vowels, they open their mouth, so that the sound comes out not merely from the lips, but even more from deep inside, resulting in an echo effect.
E.g. right now, downtown
Unit Five — Tongue-biting Sounds
Many people fail to notice the distinctions between [θ] and [s] and between [ð] and [z]. Actually, it is not difficult to distinguish one from the other, because in pronouncing [θ] or [ð], the upper and lower set of teeth should lightly touch (bite on) the tongue. Pronouncing [s] and [z] does not require biting the tongue.
E.g. think, death, that, there
Unit Six — Voiceless Shifts
A shift applies to a voiceless consonant that is pronounced as its opposite voiced consonant. In most cases, when two voiceless consonants appear together at the beginning of a syllable, the second consonant becomes voiced. The common cases are
[sp] ➡️ [sb] , [st] ➡️ [sd]
[sk] ➡️ [sg] , [str] ➡️ [sdr]
E.g. spirit, start, sky, strike
Furthermore, in American English the “t” between two vowels must be pronounced as “d”.
E.g. Better is pronounced as beder.
Water is pronounced as wader.
II. INTONATION
Unit One. Rising tone in mid-sentence
Unit Two. Emphasis on the first word in a phrase
Unit Three. Cadence
Unit Four. Continuity of pronunciation
Unit One. Rising tone in mid-sentence
The pronunciation of Chinese words is fixed and generally does not change because of its position in a sentence. English words, however, usually follow a rising intonation at every pause within the sentence.
Please listen to a portion of Bro. Lee’s recorded message.
“You wait for another five years, …”
Unit Two. Emphasis on the first word in a phrase
An important key to speaking good English is to ascertain the emphasized word in a phrase.
Within a phrase, the custom in Chinese is to emphasize the second half of the phrase, but the tendency in English is to emphasize the first half.
E.g. Jesus Christ, church life, Holy Spirit, good land
Unit Three. Cadence
Another characteristic of English is the use of rising and falling intonations between words and sentences.
Based on the importance of the main ideas to be expressed, some words in a sentence should be emphasized, and some syllables in a word must be stressed.
Emphasis can be made either by lengthening the syllable or raising the pitch, whereas deemphasis can be done lowering the pitch. The result is a cadence of sounds that are pleasant to hear.
E.g. I saw her at the meeting.
I need to believe into Jesus Christ.
Unit Four. Continuity of pronunciation
Chinese pronunciation is habitually interspersed with more broken sentences and pauses. American English is customarily expressed through the emphasis on the continuity of breathing and rhythm.
Please listen to a portion of Bro. Ron’s recorded message and study the entirety of the relationship between rhythm and breathing.
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