Pronunciation diary #2

Hey guys,

It is time to talk about pronunciation again. Yay, who does not like pronunciation? ;) This is the second part of my pronunciation diary.

I want to share with you my method that I used while studying for my oral exam on Thursday. The oral exam is over!!! :D I felt such a relief after I was done with it. It was not bad at all. I was afraid of it, but it turned out good. :) Besides learning the Porter words, I also had to work on my pronunciation.

In my last feedback Frank told me that my biggest problems are that I speak too fast and the “th” sound. I needed to work on those two things before the exam. I know that I speak too fast and it is really a problem because sometimes my own mother cannot understand me. Most people just speak really quickly in their mother tongue, but I speak like that in every foreign language I am fluent in. Now, I try to speak slowly and enunciate my words, but sometimes I forget, and slip back into my old talking speed. I worked on that with my roommate. I would get a text and read it out loud, if she could follow, then the speed was good, if she could not, then I had to do it again, but more slowly this time. We went through many texts. In the end it was worth it. I think that I am now able to speak in appropriate speed when I am talking in class or reading a text out loud. However, I think that I will still read/talk fast when I am not in class. Sorry, I cannot really help it. Blessing or curse? :S

Furthermore, I had to work on the “th” sound. It is not really that I do not know how to pronounce it, but sometimes I am lazy when I read/speak and I just mispronounce it. Since Youtube is a great source for basically everything I looked up how to correctly pronounce words that contain “th” and came across this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5LO0hHGfQg I recommend watching it. It is not long and it really helps. Side-effect, you might spit around while trying to imitate the guy but that is ok ;) After some time spent spitting around, I found this pronunciation practice sheet http://www.vitaeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/th-sound-Handout.pdf

Again, my roommate and I decided to do it together. Honestly, we looked like nutcases ready to be hospitalized while yelling out words containing “th”. We even made up our own language:

A: Three! (Hi!)

B: Three! Thirteen? (Hi! How are you doing?)

A: Thousand! There? (Great! You?)

B: Bathroom :( (Not good.)

As you can see we had a lot of fun practicing our pronunciation. As I said in my other blog post I wrote about pronunciation, practicing it can be really fun. It all comes down to your attitude. If you go in and start learning it while thinking “I hate this crap, let's just get it over with” you will hate it. However, if you have a positive attitude things will be much easier.

XOXO A.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”  Mahatma Gandhi

Reflection on Pecha Kucha

It feels like Pecha Kucha was ages ago, but in reality it was just before Christmas. We were working on many projects this semester and had to write a lot of homework. Since we are getting close to the end of the winter semester, it is time to look back at what we have done. One of our biggest projects was the Pecha Kucha project. Pecha Kucha what? Pecha Kucha is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each (six minutes and 40 seconds in total).

When Frank told us to research it for homework I had no idea what it was. I read through some blog posts and articles, but did not give it much thought until Frank told us that we will have to do a presentation like this ourselves! I thought he was joking. I do not know what to tell you. Usually I cannot wait to do a presentation, but that was not the case with Pecha Kucha. First, we got a partner for our project. Mine was Katharina and we got along well. Then, we were supposed to choose a topic. The topics were actually really interesting. Mine was the Maltese language. I loved my topic. When I was on Malta in 2011 I thought I would understand what they are talking because I assumed that the language is similar to Italian, which I speak a little. The truth is, I did not understand a single word because it is nothing like spoken Italian. When I was given the chance to do research on Maltese I was really excited. I learned that Maltese is the only Semitic language written with Latin letters. While preserving its Arabic roots, it the course of its history, Maltese pronunciation and words has been subject to strong influence from Italian and, more recently, English. Maltese, as well as English are the official languages in Malta.

My peers had also good topics for their presentations. Laura and Andrina talked about the Slovenian, and Harald and Orsy about the Hungarian language in Austria. Another cool topic was bilingual schools in Austria. If I would have to judge Pecha Kucha on the topics I listened to, I would say that it was an awesome project and that I would love to do it again, but that is not the case. Honesty is the best policy, right? I hated Pecha Kucha. I hated the way I had to present my topic. I think that every single topic we had to do was fun and that we could have learned so much from the presentation, but it was not like that. In my opinion, the whole learning process got lost in the nervousness of presenting. I know how I felt, at least. I was really under stress because of it. It is not easy to have to present one slide in exactly 20 seconds. When practicing I was either too slow or too fast, or I could not remember my lines. I was also nervous because I did not know whether our videos are going to work or not. On presentation day, at least I think so; I and my partner lost it. She was too slow and talked into my slide, and then I had to be super-fast to catch up and stay within the 20 seconds. Whenever I would catch up she would again be too slow. On one slide I could not remember my lines so I had to leave out a sentence or two. I could not wait for the presentation to be over, honestly.

I never ever want to do a Pecha Kucha presentation again. It was no fun to me, on the contrary my heart started racing, my hands started sweating and a total chaos was in my head. I really love doing presentations; it is one of my favorite parts of class. For instance the last year’s Culture Project was one of my highlights from my first year in university. I really enjoyed doing that presentation. Everyone was so relaxed and looking forward to presenting something they have been working on for weeks. Though we had a limited time there as well, the pressure was not that big. If I would ever get the chance to do either Pecha Kucha or Culture Project again, my answer would be the latter. Maybe my peers liked my Maltese presentation, maybe they did not, I do not know since we did not get any feedback. What I do know, however, is that I am not satisfied with the way I presented it. I hope you guys are satisfied with how you presented your presentation and that you had more fun doing it.

XOXO A.

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone" :)

Serbia's requirements for the EU - Corrected Version

Hey friends,

check out the corrected version of our paper for Melissa and Fiona on Tiana's blog. Our topic was "Serbia's requirements for joining the EU". Thank you :)


http://tiana-afterglow.blogspot.co.at/2014/01/serbias-requirements-for-eu-corrected.html


XOXO A.

"It is not about what you have done, it is about what you are doing!"

Pronunciation Diary #1

How do we pronounce words in a language? Pronouncing words comes naturally in our mother tongue. We learn to talk by imitating the communication of people around us. Sure, learning how to talk is not mere imitation, but is still a vital part of the process. The words and sentences we construct as children often do not make much sense and do not follow any grammatical pattern. As we are growing up our language skills are improving. We all speak our native languages fluently without being able to explain why that is so. The chances of speaking a foreign language at a fluency level are higher when we are children. It is a known fact that children learn by listening and jabbering, no declension tables or vocabulary lists. As we grow up and reach puberty, our ability to acquire a foreign language at fluency level gets lost. No one can really explain why that is so.

 A vital part of learning a foreign language is the pronunciation of words. As mentioned above when picking up a new language as a child, the pronunciation of words comes naturally, but if you start learning it as an adult, things become tricky. For instance, Croatians and people that start learning Croatian as children have no problems with pronouncing the letters č, ć, š, ž, đ and dž. However, others who start learning it later in life have troubles pronouncing words containing those letters. That is the same in English. Certain letters or letter pairs are hard to pronounce, such as “th”. German native speakers tend to pronounce “thousand” wrong because it is very similar to the German word “tausend”. I also have problems with pronouncing “th”. When I concentrate on what I am reading I pronounce it correctly, but when I am tired or do not concentrate on the text I make mistakes. Bathroom, throne, theory, thesis and thriller all contain “th”.  Essential to sounding like a native speaker is picking up the right pronunciation. Learning pronunciation cannot be left until later because it will be harder to re-learn the words we already know in the correct way. When talking to an English native speaker he might not notice your limited vocabulary or bad grammar at first, but he will notice your bad pronunciation.

So what can I do to improve my pronunciation? What can you do? One way is to watch YouTube videos that deal with that topic. Frank introduced us to Amy and Rachel, two women that have a series of videos where they are explaining how to pronounce words properly. It can be very helpful to look at those videos. I have my own method. Whenever I come across a word I do not know how to pronounce or an old one I am not sure if I am pronouncing correctly, I search for an online dictionary. Those usually have a sound button where you can hear how the word is pronounced. What also helps me and what is my favorite thing to do is skyping with my friends from the States. I usually have a list of words I want to ask them how to pronounce. First, I try to pronounce them and then they correct me if needed. I also love watching series and movies in English, as well as listening to music. Many times I realized, by watching a movie that I am pronouncing a word wrong by hearing the actor say it. What I find particularly fun while learning pronunciation is watching Ronnie's videos. Andrina, a very nice girl from my class, introduced Ronnie to us in class. I liked her videos so much that I looked them up at YouTube and started watching. Ronnie is so nice and makes learning proper pronunciation fun. I highly recommend watching her videos. This is her YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/EnglishLessons4U?feature=watch

Here is another link about 5 key areas in which non-native English speakers have problems

http://www.callearning.com/blog/2011/03/5-problem-areas-in-english-pronunciation/

“Dearest creature in creation,

Study English pronunciation.

I will teach you in my verse

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,

Make your head with heat grow dizzy.

Tear in eye, your dress will tear.

So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,

Dies and diet, lord and word,

Sword and sward, retain and Britain.

(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)

Now I surely will not plague you

With such words as plaque and ague.

But be careful how you speak:

Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;

Cloven, oven, how and low,

Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,

Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,

Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,

Exiles, similes, and reviles;

Scholar, vicar, and cigar,

Solar, mica, war and far;

One, anemone, Balmoral,

Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;

Gertrude, German, wind and mind,

Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,

Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.

Blood and flood are not like food,

Nor is mould like should and would.

Viscous, viscount, load and broad,

Toward, to forward, to reward.

And your pronunciation’s OK

When you correctly say croquet,

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,

Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour

And enamour rhyme with hammer.

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,

Doll and roll and some and home.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,

Neither does devour with clangour.

Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,

Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,

Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,

And then singer, ginger, linger,

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,

Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,

Nor does fury sound like bury.

Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.

Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.

Though the differences seem little,

We say actual but victual.

Refer does not rhyme with deafer.

Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.

Mint, pint, senate and sedate;

Dull, bull, and George ate late.

Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,

Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,

Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.

We say hallowed, but allowed,

People, leopard, towed, but vowed.

Mark the differences, moreover,

Between mover, cover, clover;

Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,

Chalice, but police and lice;

Camel, constable, unstable,

Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,

Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.

Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,

Senator, spectator, mayor.

Tour, but our and succour, four.

Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Sea, idea, Korea, area,

Psalm, Maria, but malaria.

Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.

Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,

Dandelion and battalion.

Sally with ally, yea, ye,

Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.

Say aver, but ever, fever,

Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.

Heron, granary, canary.

Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.

Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Large, but target, gin, give, verging,

Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.

Ear, but earn and wear and tear

Do not rhyme with here but ere.

Seven is right, but so is even,

Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,

Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,

Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)

Is a paling stout and spikey?

Won’t it make you lose your wits,

Writing groats and saying grits?

It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:

Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,

Islington and Isle of Wight,

Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough,

Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?

Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up!!!”

Gerard Nolst Trenité, Drop your Foreign Accent

XOXO A.

Vocabulary notebook #1

Learning new words can be hard and time-consuming. However, having a solid vocabulary is essential for learning a foreign language. Sitting at home, locked up in my room with a vocabulary list on my screen is not my favorite thing to do, but it is something I have to do in order to improve my English. In order to learn the vocabulary necessary for the progress check, Laura has been organizing a Google Spreadsheet. Laura is a friend of mine from class. We are a group of students who are working on the spreadsheet regularly. Laura assigns each of us a unit and a grammar chapter. We then have to work on it. We fill in the words we need to know, the definitions, synonyms, antonyms, translations and example sentences. Sometimes we also fill in the “further info” box when attention needs to be drawn at something in particular, such as the pronunciation. As soon as we are done with it we can start studying.

These are the links to our documents from SUK1 and SUK2:

SUK1: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai-faUvNNlKPdDctTWxXWUVMVnA3UFVSZTFiY2lBV3c#gid=26

SUK2: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai-faUvNNlKPdE1vTWRiQjVBZTJCWTUtdHZSeDhobmc#gid=26

SUK3: I cannot give you the link to the SUK3 document because we put a lot of work and effort in it and it we want to keep it private.

So how do I learn vocabulary? I read through the list a couple of times. The first time I read the words and the definitions. The second time I look at which words I already know and which still need working on. Knowing a word does not mean knowing only its translation. It also means knowing how to use the word, its synonym and antonyms, as well as knowing how to use it in a sentence. After I know how many words I have to learn, I start re-reading the list. Repeat, repeat, repeat. There is no other way. Since I prefer to hold a piece of paper in my hands I also write certain words on sticky notes. Usually those words are the ones I have problems with, in terms of pronunciation, knowing their meaning or using them in a sentence. What also helps me is making connections to my mother tongue, Croatian. Some words sound similar and have the same meaning so that helps me a lot too. Another way to remember new words is to use them in a sentence. Make the sentences as fun as possible. You are likely to remember a fun sentence with a new word than a sentence that is a mere definition of the word. I hope you can apply some of my study techniques yourself. Studying vocabulary is not the most fun way to spend you weekend, but believe me, in the end it will be worth it.

XOXO A.

 “As vocabulary is reduced, so are the number of feelings you can express, the number of events you can describe, the number of the things you can identify! Not only understanding is limited, but also experience. Man grows by language. Whenever he limits language he retrogresses!”

Sheri S. Tepper, A Plague of Angels