The rain in スペイン ...? pronunciation practice

[mikuji]

皆さん　

Those of you familiar with the musical My Fair Lady (for those who aren't see below) may remember how the hapless Elisa was made to repeat words into a phonograph connected to a wave chart so she could check that the vowel sounds had been perfectly rendered. It dawned on me we can do the same and for free!

All we need is:

1) Audacity (freeware) (see http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)
2) samples of vacabulary with the pronunciation we wish to imitate in MP3 or wav format - short files are enough, you do not need an entire podcast
3) a microphone connected to the computer - or internal microphone.

It goes like this:

a) import the sound file - this will show like a mixture of frequency waves, that is, a picture of the shape of the sound for the vocabulary you wish to learn.
b) listen the file then add you recording of the word
c) using the track sliding facility you make the start of your spoken track coincide with that of the original
d) listen to your version again and look at where the track differ
e) experiment by trying to change your rendition to match the original as much as possible.

Of course hearing and adjusting is mainly through listening but I think it does help to visualise the process as this can point one in the right direction.

Has anyone tried this before?

Thanks

mikuji

PS: My Fair Lady is a musical about a working class girl who is taken on by a Professor of English language and made to sound like an upper class lady for a bet. She manages to do this through practicing of the correct English pronunciation under his guidance.

[Psy]

I'm not familiar with the musical, but this is a good idea for those who can handle it. It can be very disheartening to have to listen and continually criticize one's own's voice, but at the same time it's important to recognize and try to repair your weaknesses, especially when you're dealing with a culture whose people will not normally correct you.

Inspired by your post-- since I have Audacity, a microphone, headphones and plenty of listening material-- I'm going to do as you suggest and put more effort into improving my (severely lacking) speaking voice. I encourage others to do the same, as the benefits have great potential and the cost is nil. However, as this can be very intimidating practice, don't do too much and don't be too hard on yourselves. Being a bit of a perfectionist myself, I can speak from experience: Believe me, it won't help.

Thanks for the idea mikuji, I feel inspired to open my mouth a bit more often now.

[mikuji]

Psy-さん

気に行ってくれてよかった！

宜しくお願いします　

ミクジ

[markystar]

did you guys know that in the learning center there is a voice recorder that you can use in conjunction with the line by line audio? saves a lot of time exporting WAV's and stuff.

[Psy]

did you guys know that in the learning center there is a voice recorder that you can use in conjunction with the line by line audio? saves a lot of time exporting WAV's and stuff.

Confessing my sins, for I am in fact a freeloader: Alas, I knew it not!

[mikuji]

Marky, Psy,

I apologise to Japanese pod for somehow appearing to propose a competing approach.

The method I suggest is quite time consuming - so do go and use the Jpod facility if you can get around restrictions on fire wall (such as I have at work)

Mikuji

[markystar]

apologise to Japanese pod for somehow appearing to propose a competing approach.

lol. no worries! we're not running a police state here.