Straining every nerve - American Accent Training

Heeey guys! :-)
I hope you're all doing well considering how many exams we're having this month. This is the very last week of this semester, guys, so let's keep up and get it over with.

Since the title of this blogpost is called "American Accent Training" you're probably expecting some of my strategies on how to improve my American pronunciation. If you want to know my general approach to a better pronunciation, feel free to read through my first blog post on pronunciation.

I must admit I am very late with this blogpost. The reason why is simply because I haven't found a third source on American Accent Training which I could recommend. I mean, there were many useful links which provided a handful of exercises and stuff, but none of them really got me hanging on. But after having tried out Rachel's and Amy Walker's English tutorials, I finally found a third source which I found worth sharing with you.

1. Rachel's English

Rachel clearly is a professional when it comes to (teaching) pronunciation. What I really like about her YouTube channel is that she has very specific topics, like "the TH Consonants" or "Contractions". She even has a few videos about Homophones.
As I mentioned in my first blog post about pronunciation, I really like doing Minimal Pairs, because it's not only a very effective but also a funny way to deal with pronunciation. And Rachel even has a playlist containing five videos about minimal pairs. I loooove these.
Another thing I like about her very professional videos is that the IPA sounds are displayed on the screen while she's pronouncing them. Also, the words she is talking about are displayed, so you can read them and repeat after her. The repeating is a very essential part of the pronunciation training. How are you going to improve your pronunciation without trying it out yourself? So that's why I like it a lot that she always pauses after a word so you can repeat it. Another advantage of such video tutorials is that you see how a native - in this case Rachel - moves her mouth. She (and Amy Walker as well) also explains which muscle movement is necessary for a certain sound. So far, I have benefited a loot from her tutorials.

2. Amy Walker

To be honest, I was a bit sceptical in the first place. Amy Walker seemed to me like a very friendly, but almost too friendly person. She smiles as if - well I don't know, but definitely too much, as it it was a fake smile. Anyways, I watched her tutorials since it is my goal to acquire an American accent. This is the link to her tutorials, by the way. Although I wasn't sure if she is the right person to teach me pronunciation (because of her exaggerated smile which I initally almost couldn't stand), I must say I really enjoyed it and I think she is doing a good job when explaining the differences between two siminar sounds. What I really like about her tutorials is that she provides a worksheet. I like having a sheet of paper right next to me so I can take notes if necessary. Her example words and sentences are really good, and there are many words which I use every day but have never really paid attention to their correct pronunciation.

She also has a video where she speaks 21 different accents. That's a really funny one, alhough I must say that the German accent is not 100% authentic. It's a good effort, though.

3. "Simple English Videos"

So the third source I want to share with you is different from the ones I was talking above. "Different" as in a bit unusual, but really funny. I like these kind of funny videos because if you find something amusing then it's more likely that you remember them.

 If I remember correctly, we watched one of the "Simple English Videos" in SUK I. I think it was this video we watched. But let me show you another one, of which you can see a screenshot on the right. He is American and the woman is British, and that's what makes their videos interesting. And yes, that's Rachel sitting inbetween the two.
What I like about their videos is that they provide a pronunciation, both an American and a British one. They do not explain the pronunciation in detail like Rachel or Amy would, but they tell you the meanings of a set of words which sound very similar or are even homophones. In the video you can see on the screenshot, they focus on the words fall, fell, fallen, feel and felt. They mention collocations and try to explain in a very humorous way what the words mean and how you use them. So, their videos are not telling you how to pronounce them according to the IPA - that's rather Rachel's and Amy's job - but they show you the differences between these similar words.
As I said, the videos are really amusing. And I think that's really important, because we as language learners study like crazy, and sometimes studying all day becomes really tedious. Am I right? But when watching the "Simple English Videos",  studying becomes definitely more funny, more interesting and more varied - at least for me. Give it a try, guys, it's brilliant!

- - -

That's it. I really hope you enjoyed the read. Two days to go and then we've finally mastered the 3rd semester. Since this is going to be the last post this semester, I'd like to say a few words about it.

I think we (English students) all agree that the 3rd semester was not exactly a walk in the park. We all struggled hard and did the best we could. And even though, our grades were not always the best. Teachers kept on telling us "you can do better" meaning that you should work harder. But what if I you simply can't do more because you have a second foreign laguage and you have seminaries and tutorials to attend. And yeah, there are about three papers to hand in by the end of semester; almost forgot to mention them. So sometimes a student just can't do more and simply needs a break. And here it is. So I think we can be proud of ourselves to have survived this constant struggle and we should enjoy the semester break to the fullest. So I wish everyone of you a relaxing and looong semester break. Have fun. Go crazy. Or do whatever you always do. And I'm looking forward already to seeing you next semester. ¡Adiós, amigos!