>>If you speak like a native, you will continue to speak like a native; if you don't, then it's unlikely you ever will.
It also happens to my linguistics prof. who sounded like... excuse me, really, like a duck and Mr. Bean. I think he's kind of joking, but he seems to have got stuck at the intermediate level and, despite having a native wife, he did admit his accent was kind of fossilized. (so, actually, he was joking with the same intonation... it sounds like a laowai trying to try Cantonese on us with an intended funny accent...)
and during discussions, he hinted that one of the things he used was Teach Yourself and Colloquial Cantonese. It's been somewhat unfortunate for me to "have" this language. British and American books alike tend to butcher Chinese into some weird romanizations... now that we have pinyin, the worst butchered is Cantonese. If I do it, I'd probably rely on older r's too, but ultimately you should go without r ... or use Jyutping/offical romanization from time to time.
Unlike Mandarin, Cantonese is a rather WFC language (yeah, I say), no exams for quali. whatsoever, so the two r's I recommend above are also pretty much limited to academic use. This is just like learning, for example, Sichuan-style Mandarin. You'd have no pinyin and, if you want to sound native, you should only listen.... since all these are largely oral only.
>>I recommend doing an accent reduction course and shadowing if accent is the problem area.
If you've read the above, then you know why our African American friend is right. What did he say? "People keep on making lame excuses".
Apart from the various accents I've written about, I personally find it true that, as some linguists put it, "parents don't teach children their language. They only correct them when they say things wrongly." If you see a horse, which has a long neck and four legs, your parents say "horse" (with their native accent, in English, I suppose). But when you see a deer as well, which has a long neck and four legs as well, you just can't say "horse" because your parents know it must be a "deer", so you say deer from now on.
And thru the years, in your country, you learn from natives who correct you for information, rather than accent or grammar. Even if I meet you and we are good adult friends, and even if you and I are patient and rather long-winded (imagine I'm talking like in this written form), chances are I find it troublesome to dissect a single phrase .... natives aren't usually expected to (long-winded) teachers.
>>All of this shadowing, accent reduction techniques don't cut at an adult level. I have done all of this and I improved a little.
How?
On one hand, I suspect that I have good AS WELL as patient ears for shadowing. But on the other, I, too, find it difficult to sound native enough - I'm either under- or over-doing it.
In my best "foreign" language, I still sound like a southerner, though not the stereotyped southerner. I should be picking up multiple accents and aim for the CCTV accent, but the latter is "too" standard for me. I don't speak as "standard" as my relatives too...
haha, I think I wouldn't like RP as I'm me and even if I were a Brit. There are certain accents to be imitated, if you like them, and some others only to be understood.
|
