Language /
learning Polish using American phonics [24]
Marek is right - pronunciation is sth that people usually ignore while learning a language. We tend to misspronounce words. But there's an explenation for it: we can only hear these sounds which are natural for us, which exist in our native language. Thus, we need
TO LEARN TO LISTEN TO new sounds because we simply cannot hear them. For example, in Polish we have only one way of pronuncig 'i' and it's LONG 'i', just like in English word "feel" or "see". In English, however, there are two ways od pronuncing this sound: long 'i' and short 'i' (like in 'it') which sounds much like Polish 'y'. During my first 'phonetics' class at University I got shocked - I thought I was pretty good and fluent in English... and then my teacher made me aware that my pronunciation was faaaaar from English!! However, he also mede me HEAR these sounds. Once I learned to hear them, I started producing them :) It took a year of practice and I got a very nice 'American' accent (that's what my native-teachers said) :)
I don't want to say that I sound '100% American', of course I don't. I am Polish and I will always be. What I want to say it that people who have never studied a language or have never been told how to teach others are not even aware that pronunciation of vowels and consonants may differ and that pronunciation is a critical element in the whole process of learning a foreign language.
Tomorrow I start Yoruba lessons :P Well aaa...
Possible takes a day, impossible takes a week (or 10 months :P) - when u know WHAT to learn.
