[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How to get better at spoken English?
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       Ask HN: How to get better at spoken English?
        
       English is not my native language and while I'm good at reading and
       writing it I lack good pronunciation. Other non-native speakers,
       what did help you get better at speaking English?
        
       Author : kcindric
       Score  : 10 points
       Date   : 2023-01-17 21:17 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
       | spacemule wrote:
       | I'm going through the opposite situation, but hopefully my
       | experience will help. English is my mother tongue, and I
       | immigrated to Israel where the only people who consistently speak
       | English are high-tech workers, cab drivers, and 1 out of every 4
       | police officers. Of those, only the high-tech workers are in any
       | way fluent. I completed a six-month language program, but I still
       | couldn't speak or even read more than basic signs with any
       | confidence. After 2 years here, I moved from a job for English-
       | speaking immigrants to a job in Hebrew where everyone understood
       | English.
       | 
       | I started working on a few projects with one engineer who reads
       | English but cannot speak it. In a matter of weeks, my Hebrew
       | pronunciation, comprehension, and fluency went through the roof.
       | Since then, I've been started making friends with people at
       | stores near my house, making phone calls to solve things that
       | could be solved with an online form (and Google Translate). I'm
       | still nowhere near fluent, but I gained confidence from being
       | forced to speak and write.
       | 
       | The main thing is, just be prepared to speak, not be understood
       | entirely, and make mistakes. The other day, I accidentally told
       | the clerk at a store near my house that I didn't need a bag
       | because I had large cunts instead of large pockets. We laughed, I
       | survived, and I'll never get those words confused again.
        
       | terminal_d wrote:
       | Starting early trumps everything else.
       | 
       | You can still try and be competent in a year or two, but you'll
       | sound weird saying certain words.
       | 
       | Read more, speak more, and try to not translate from your native
       | language to english.
        
       | OneFunFellow wrote:
       | Enjoy
       | 
       | https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Voice_Acting/Enunciation_Exe...
        
       | FinnKuhn wrote:
       | Playing video games, which have a voice chat, or joining a
       | discord server and playing together with others are what has
       | helped me and many friends of mine (in Europe) with practicing
       | English.
        
       | torstenvl wrote:
       | I'm a native English speaker but have a linguistics degree and
       | have been a tutor. My mental model is that there are three broad
       | things you need.
       | 
       | Knowing what it's supposed to sound like: for this I recommend
       | radio and TV. This will help with aural comprehension as well.
       | 
       | Knowing how to make the sounds: for this, learning the IPA and
       | looking at IPA pronunciation guides is very useful.
       | 
       | Putting it into practice: Find a native speaker who is learning
       | your native language. Get coffee once a week. Speak English half
       | the time and your native language half the time. If you can't
       | make that work, try dictating to your phone/computer in English.
       | If your pronunciation is good, you'll get better accuracy. Gamify
       | it for yourself if you can.
        
       | Malky wrote:
       | Speak as much as possible, even if your only conversation partner
       | is your dog.
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-17 23:02 UTC)