Why pronunciation

If we can control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air correctly, then our pronunciation is clearer and other people understand us more easily. Speakers of different languages tend to develop different muscles of the mouth for pronunciation. When we speak a foreign language, our muscles may not be well developed for that language, and we will find pronunciation more difficult. By practising the foreign language pronunciation, our muscles develop and pronunciation improves.

As well as creating correct vowel and consonant sounds using the muscles of our mouth, tongue and lips, there are other important aspects of pronunciation, including:. How good your pronunciation is in general can be judged very quickly and an opinion is formed automatically by anyone who hears you. I guess this is similar to writing and handwriting at least back in the days before computers were used.

I think people in general tend to underestimate people who have bad pronunciation and overestimate people who have good pronunciation according to the argument above.

For instance, take a few moments to think about immigrants in your have met in your own country who speak a broken version of your native language. After publishing this article, Scott Burgan pointed out to me on Facebook that there is another advantage of having good pronunciation, namely that it helps you win the language struggle.

A single sentence pronounced well and at a natural pace will convince most people that they can converse with you only in Chinese instead of insisting on English. So, pronunciation does matter and that it matters regardless if you care or not.

Since this can be very important both in a private, social situation and in a professional or business situation, focusing more on pronunciation is usually a good idea. Simply put, people stop caring about pronunciation too early rather than too late.

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I would also love to test these! Are you referring to some other language than Chinese? This happens with vocabulary all the time. You hear a word for the first time you think , learn it and suddenly hear it everywhere! Returning to review of pronunciation for some period on an annual basis is a very good thing.

I found a lot of new learners of Chinese in Taiwan like to talk fast when in doubt about their pronunciation and hope that the listen will pick up the meaning from the context. This is a rather negligent habit of loading the other person with more than their fair share of the communication burden.

Often they presume your level is higher than it is. It is very remarkable how just asking them to slow down often results in them using less presumptive idiom and the whole conversation becomes coherent. This is a very natural part of negotiation of communication.

Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Hacking Chinese A better way of learning Mandarin. Why bother? Bonus: Winning the language struggle After publishing this article, Scott Burgan pointed out to me on Facebook that there is another advantage of having good pronunciation, namely that it helps you win the language struggle. Pronunciation matters more than you think So, pronunciation does matter and that it matters regardless if you care or not.

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