Accent-a troublesome nuisance! :-(

Question

Hello everyone, i'm new to this forum and would like some help with reducing accents.
Actually, i immigrated to Canada 3 years ago from China and has tried hard to adapt to the western society ever since. I'm not very concerned with my writing skills or my grammar because i know that they can be fixed and corrected. My accent, however, may not be so easy of a problem to solve. I always have trouble to pronounce words with the "l" ending, such as: bell, feel, purple, coal,etc. As you can see, there's a very broad range of volcabulary comprising the "l" pronounciation!
I suffer a lot from having a Chinese accent because of the negative racial stereotype that peers exert. It would be ok for me to endure if i have a bashful personality, but i don't. I'm anything but quiet! I'm right now at a dilemma: to speak freely and risk being mocked at or to stay quiet against my true nature.
I just wish that i will get rid off this accent because i know i won't be able to change the way people think and the prejudices that everyone have.
Sorry if my message seems misleading and confusing. The point is that i want to know how to pronounce to "l" sound...and if anyone feels or had felt the same way as i do now!?

Abbie1948 · Accepted Answer

Hello Faintest,

I'm sorry to hear that ignorant people are giving you trouble about your accent. 'L' can be very difficult for Chinese and Japanese people to pronounce, but I wonder how many of those who mock you can speak your language!

I'm afraid that the only way to pronounce this correctly is to practise. There are books and tapes you can buy whci have pictures showing the shape of the mouth, position of the tonge etc. I know of one called "Ship or Sheep" which is used a lot in England, and you could probably find it on Amazon.

Just keep working on it, and please don't let these ignorant people bully you!

CalifJim · Answer

0 Get yourself some audio materials which have drills on the various sounds of English. I'm sure they are available at your local bookstores. 02br
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00In the meantime, a few suggestions for final 'l': 02br
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00Don't round your lips like you do for "O". 02br
00Make sure the tip of your tongue is in firm contact with the inside of the upper teeth or just slightly above there. 02br
00Make sure the back of your tongue is drawn back and down as if you were trying to block your throat from accidentally swallowing something. 02br
00As a preparatory exercise, practice one-syllable words as if they had two syllables. 02br
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00feel: Practice as: FEE-uL. Note that in the transition from EE to uL your tongue should change position quite suddenly in two places -- the front reaches for the teeth -- the back withdraws way back to block the throat - or nearly so. 02br
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00fail: Practice as: FAY-uL. Same movements. 02br
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00With "fool" and "foal" the feeling will be different. Your tongue is already fairly far back to make the "oo" and "oa" sounds so you should experience more the feeling of UN-rounding your lips and reaching the tip of the tongue to the upper teeth. 02br
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00With "fall" even less movement is required because the lips are fairly unrounded already and the tongue is fairly back in the throat. About the only significant movement you'll feel is the tongue moving up to touch behind the upper teeth. 02br
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00After you can do FEE-uL, FAY-ul, FOO-ul, etc., speed up and smooth out the transition so the effect is more like a single syllable. 02br
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00Remember: The front of the tongue MUST be in contact with the upper teeth -- just as it is when you say the N sound. 02br
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00That in mind you can also practice: N - L - N - L - N - L. Your lips and the front of the tongue should stay in the same place for these. Only the back of the tongue moves: For N it's close up to the top of the mouth and blocks off a lot of sound. For L it move away from the top of the mouth and down to produce a larger cavity for the sound to resonate in. 02br
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00Hope that helps. But get some audio materials! 0-

Julielai · Answer

0 Hi Faintest Scent, 02br
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00I'm from HK, so I think I understand where you're coming from. 02br
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00Until 1997, a British accent was deemed highly desirable in HK (Pygmalion syndrome). 02br
00My parents made me listen to a bunch of British audio tapes. (The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. 05000 ) That helped my pronunciation somewhat, and when I went to college I took phonetic classes. (That was when I switched over to American English.) I still have an accent, but people have no trouble understanding me.02br
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00So I suggest audio tapes + phonetic classes. Or maybe just a pronunciation course? 02br
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00Just my two cents. 010id1

Anonymous · Answer

Wow, I really hope they pin this!

I have a very strange problem of having words in my mind and not being able to say them out correctly, or at least pronounce them correctly at the moment of wanting to deliver it - even though I feel confident or at least fake confidence in doing it.

Your advice of pulling the throat back down really HELPED solve the problem at this moment! Thank you, thank you thank you.

We need more advices on lips and tongue controlling, I believe that'd help a LOT more people.

Cheers for a wonderful forum,

Seth

Accent-a troublesome nuisance! :-(

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