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A poetry reading
"London" by William Blake
http://www.houndbite.com/?houndbite=15959 Comments on my English will be appreciated! I think it would also be a cool idea for others to record their readings of a poem they like. English has some really nice ones!
London
William Blake I wander through each chartered street, Near where the chartered Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every man, In every infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear: How the chimney-sweeper's cry Every blackening church appals, And the hapless soldier's sigh Runs in blood down palace-walls. But most, through midnight streets I hear How the youthful harlot's curse Blasts the new-born infant's tear, And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse. .
London is pronounced Lundon and Thames is pronounced Tems.
You seem to have a hard time pronouncing the letters V an W, and dealing with consonant clusters ("chartered streets", "blasts"...). Where are you from?
I think that people should be positive in their criticisms. There is no need to be negative.
I noticed some problems with your pronunciation. Thames wander - not wandered voice How the chimney-sweeper's cry - more emphasis on 'How' There are four verses. They can be kept seperate, rather than allowing the verses to merge into each other. I would give more emphasis to 'Runs' - Runs in blood down palace walls.
In Livemocha.com there are various 'Speaking' exercises. One woman whose work I used to mark, used to depart from the given text and read out poems.
I feel that Livemocha.com is a better place to do this type of exercise. You can pick the people who you invite to mark your submissions. You can develop a 'learning relationship'. As you will have no doubt noticed there are a lot of prats who use the antimoon forum.
Is it really that terrible? How can I improve if I'm having difficulty with these sounds? Have somebody always correct me? Listen to some CDs and repeat after them?
I've learned written English before the spoken one, so that must be why my accent is so bad...
Your accent sounds cool. I had to listen closely and for a few seconds to detect you had one.
It is ever so slight. Are you a native slavonic speaker. I want to say Polish. ?
I was very wary of listening to anyone who calls themselves FCUK. However I did listen to your reading of the 'fuck' passage and I did notice your accent. So you are forgiven, you are not a native speaker trying to take the piss but a bona fide speaker of a foreign language who is struggling with English.
Your pronunciation in the 'fuck' passage was much better than when reading this poem. I think that is probably one of the strengths of asking people to do things that they find difficult like poetry readings. It presents them with a difficult task and words they would normally avoid. Try saying 'pears'!
But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse Blasts the new-born infant's tear, And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse. It really makes you want to visit London. MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE I'M A LONDONER (Hubert Gregg) Bud Flanagan - 1947 Davy Jones - 1965 Also recorded by: Billy Cottton & His Band; Chas & Dave; Tessie O'Shea; Tony O'Malley; John Williams; Max Bygraves; Celia Lipton; Alan Mullery: ........ and others. Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner That I love London so Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner That I think of her wherever I go I get a funny feeling inside of me When walking up and down Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner That I love London Town http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c9D1EXtOt4
Ok, so I'm abandoning my offensive name "fcuk" that raises unwanted allusions in everyone's mind to adopt the name of my IKEA desk.
* * * Pears! Or did you want me to record it?
Maybe its because I'm a Londoner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_yFeGSVjUk London Irish (Maybe its because i'm a Irish Londoner) bible code sundays http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duA9wxRfZmw
I appreciate a lot the helpful comments (especially regarding the proper pronunciation of London and Thames).
"You seem to have a hard time pronouncing the letters V an W" I do always mix them up when I'm not paying attention to my pronunciation. How can I go about fixing that?
Why not call yourself 'Pears'?
http://www.tate.org.uk/shop/img/Greeting-Cards/Pears-Soap-Bubbles-Greeting-Card/P39553-4355_4.jpg or even 'Piers Morgan'. |