Dear pronunciation diary...

...did you know that pronunciation in a foreign language is like the love at first sight? Let me explain this analogy.

Situation one: 
You are walking down the street with a friend, talking, holding waffles in your hands and suddenly your friend stops to greet someone. They small talk for a moment and then your friend turns to you and says: "This is my friend so-and-so, and this is my friend so-and-so from school". You put your waffle in your other hand, reach out to shake hands, smile politely and say "Hi, nice to meet you."... and BAM! There it was. The person you just shook hands with is now madly in love with you.

Situation two:
You are walking down the street with a friend, talking in German, holding waffles in your hands an suddenly your friend stops to greet someone. They talk about New Zealand, where this person is apparently from, and then your friend turns to you and says: "This is my friend so-and-so from New Zealand, and this is my friend so-and-so from school". You put your waffle in your other hand, reach out to shake hands, smiling politely and you say in the most perfect New Zealand accent: "Hi, nice to meet you."...and BAAMBAMBOO! There it was. The person you just talked to is now madly in love with your English. 

So you see, dear pronunciation diary, peoples' first impression about your English skills are not based on advanced grammar or vocabulary but on how good or bad your pronunciation is. 

As I am not a native speaker and as I am not perfect in English pronunciation, I am going to focus on a few problems that might cause difficulties for me. Before doing any intonation or rhythm exercises let's start with the basics. 

Pronunciation of individual sounds
may seem trivial but this is the point where a lot goes wrong without noticing. Before trying to make out the different sounds, it seems more apparent for me to have a look at homonyms. Homonyms are words that are spelled differently and have a different meaning but are pronounced the same. The most obvious ones are, for example,

• your/ you're   /jɔː, jʊə/
• male/ mail  /meɪl/
• deer/ dear   /dɪə/

there are also some that are not that obvious, such as,

• incite/ insight  /ɪnˈsʌɪt/ +  /ˈɪnsʌɪt/ (NOTE: stress not the same!) 
• boy/ buoy  /bɔɪ/
• ring/ wring  /rɪŋ/

HERE are a couple of more homonyms and some additional exercises.

Minimal pairs are the best way to differentiate individual sounds. Now, pronouncing minimal pairs as an exercise sounds relatively dull. And it is. An alternative and more fun way to practise this are tongue twisters.
It's time for Hank Green now.

Can I do this? No. Definitely not. But I am going to practise this because it's so much more fun than just pronouncing dull minimal pairs.


HERE is an application where you can write in the phonetic alphabet. It's genius, I like it!

Dear pronunciation diary, that's it for today, see you next time for more pronunciation adventures.
Best, N