I asked Chat GPT to write an inspirational quote about pronunciation and its answer was “your accent is beautiful” I was somewhat caught off guard with this statement. Thinking about my German accent as an English native speaker living in Switzerland, I don’t like the idea of myself having an accent. In fact when IContinue reading “Your accent is beautiful”
Author Archives: sallywelti
Five tips to speak English more naturally
One: Keep it simple Two: Enjoy your mistakes Three: Learn about word and sentence stress and intonation Four: Learn how English word sounds combine Five: Practice, practice, practice How I can help I can offer you an experienced ear, actually, two, to pick out which areas of pronunciation you need to work on to speakContinue reading “Five tips to speak English more naturally”
The dangers of pronunciation training
And how not to lose confidence in your speaking skills You need to improve your pronunciation, so you start pronunciation training. Of course, you want to improve but you must know there are dangers. It’s often true that the more you know you feel like the less you know. The problem is that the moreContinue reading “The dangers of pronunciation training”
Do I have to learn how to say the “th”?
The “th” or /ð/ and /θ/ sounds don’t exist in German or many other languages. Notoriously difficult to produce, to make them you have to find the right spot with your tongue on your front teeth. It takes a lot of practice and can take many months or even years to perfect. The question is:Continue reading “Do I have to learn how to say the “th”?”
Test your English pronunciation
Try my online test for German speakers for free Why should I work on my English pronunciation Chances are that pronunciation work wasn’t a large, or any, part of your English lessons at school. Learning grammar and vocabulary was probably the driving force behind the curriculum, but does this mean that work on how toContinue reading “Test your English pronunciation”
Pronunciation: Do you have a case of terminal devoicing?
When you say “peas” and “peace” do the words sound the same? What about “pick” and “pig”? or “dug” and “duck”? If they do you might be suffering from terminal devoicing. It sounds serious, but don’t worry, despite its name, there is a cure. We’ll get to that later. First, what is it, and whoContinue reading “Pronunciation: Do you have a case of terminal devoicing?”
Having a bad day
One thing I have noticed as a language learner and teacher is that on some days speaking a foreign language is much harder than on others. Sometimes I have days that I really find it difficult to express myself in German and some days students, who I know are pretty fluent in English seem toContinue reading “Having a bad day”
How good is your English really?
Zen master Thích Nhất Hạnh, who died in January this year, had some advice: You should write “Are you sure?” and tape it to your wall. This will remind you that, although you may believe something is true, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is. In order to make good progress in any area of life,Continue reading “How good is your English really?”
A New Start or Back to Work
Last week the schools started again after the summer holidays. Some kids are going back to what they know but others are starting in new classes or even new schools. There are new challenges, with maybe even a whole new location, new teachers, and classmates. For us adults, this time of year usually means gettingContinue reading “A New Start or Back to Work”
Idioms for Motivation
I’m [1] champing at the bit to get started on the new project. Don’t tell me to [2]dial it down. This time I’m going to [3]go the extra mile and [4]blow them away. Yes, I’m really [5]raring to go. I’m going to [6]eat, sleep and breathe this new product until we [7]hit the jackpot. I’mContinue reading “Idioms for Motivation”