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What English accent should I learn to speak with?
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There is no such thing as a better accent. It really depends on where you live, and who you speak English with. What accent would be easier for THEM to hear? We all want to be understood. We want to be accepted by the society or entourage we live in. Having said that, I know for…
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Train to speak faster English to speak fluent English
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Mind you, speed does not necessarily mean fluency. Speed training though leads to fluency. Now why am I saying this? It’s based on a simple premise (idea). Aim higher to achieve high aims. There’s more to it though. Speed speech training involves achieving a certain degree of control over your muscle movements as well as…
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What is a good movie to watch for English learning?
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If you happen to be learning English and you’re wondering what movie you can watch to improve your speaking and listening, it’s Groundhog Day! In my view, that is hands down the best movie especially for English learners. Here’s a short dialogue from the movie, it says a lot about what the movie’s all…
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Katakana should be outlawed!
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That is how you fix the English fluency problem in Japan. The Katakana characters were created in the 9th century by Japanese students of Buddhism as a solution to the complex Kanji writing during lectures. Times have changed people! Change with the times. Now, Katakana is only used to Japanize what can’t be Japanized!…
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Why young Japanese still can’t speak English!
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Oh well, we have the board of education to thank for that, and then of course the Japanese English teachers (not all as there are exceptions) who are truly a disgrace to this country. I’m still racking my brain trying to understand how someone dares to call himself/herself an English teacher when he or…
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Why IPA matters in English Learning?
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IPA sucks! No doubt about it. I admit it is a pain in the butt. No one likes those silly symbols. Teachers hate them. Students detest them and most native speakers (of English) have never even heard about them. What is IPA anyway? It’s International Phonetic Alphabet [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVr3AUPXbF0&w=300&h=200] Although I realize it is not…
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Can you understand my English?
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That is another brilliant question I get from English learners about their pronunciation. As if it would solve their problems to be just understood. I can understand handicaps too sometimes, does that make them good communicators? Any English speaker who knows about 300-500 words of English can somehow manage to make himself or herself…
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Should I Study Grammar?
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DUH! That is how I answer this extraordinarily clever question often asked by most English learners. Most English learners automatically assume and even presume that the fact that I am specialized in pronunciation, must imply that I am “anti grammar”. Well, allow me to say that is a bunch of baloney! I do not…
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Pronunciation Training: It’s About Listening For Heaven’s Sake
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Let us face it. Most ESL professionals are under the misperception that pronunciation is primarily and solely related to accent reduction work and/or to improving the learners’ intelligibility only after being deemed proficient in other areas such as grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, academic writing etc. Although pronunciation does indeed improve the learners’ speech clarity…
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Good pronunciation: Intelligibility or Impact?
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Most English teachers seem to consider good pronunciation as being intelligible. They view intelligibility as the ultimate goal of learning pronunciation. “If I can understand you, and you can understand me, then your pronunciation is good enough”. It has somehow been agreed upon in this industry that to be understood is just “good enough”…
