0Let us discuss today about Pronunciation. A lot of people find it difficult to make an impact when communicating in English due to Pronunciation issues. We all have what is called Mother Tongue Influence or First Language Influence. We can most of the times make out where a person hails from when he speaks in English. Each spoken language has its own inflection, vowel sounds, consonant sounds which encroach upon the usage of English as well.
In order to fix this we need accent neutralization. This is not speaking like an American or a Brit. This is just speaking in a manner where we dont sound like we are speaking in an extended mother tongue. We should be fairly understandable globally. Let us look at the first step to achieving this :
Slow Down:
We as Indians speak very fast. Each language has its own music. When we slow down we succeed in eliminating a lot of this undesirable intonation. When you slow down you sound neutral to a great extent.
Say Each Word Carefully:
In our hurry to speak we tend to quicken longer words - a lot of times because we are not confident about the pronunciation of the word. This is evident. It is better to make an attempt. Someone will be nice enough to correct you. Every word is made up of tiny pieces called syllables. Saying each syllable separately and clearly will help you sound neutral to a great extent.
You will find that these simple steps help a lot. Use them. Happy talking.
We will talk about syllables in the next Tip. Watch this space for more.
Regards,
Pooja Gupte
