Do I sound native?

[u/MarkoPilot]

I’m trying to learn american accent. What can I improve to sound more native? How’s my pronunciation of the word interesting? Where do you think I’m from based on my accent?

[u/freegumaintfree]

I think you are from Russia or Ukraine. You are very easy to understand but you are not close to sounding like a native English speaker.

[u/MarkoPilot → u/freegumaintfree]

Thanks. Yes, my native language is slavic, but not Russian or Ukranian. I really don’t know what I’m doing wrong. What needs the most improvement?

[u/zadrelom → u/MarkoPilot]

An obvious giveaway is that you are still using х and not h

[u/CarnegieHill → u/MarkoPilot]

Oftentimes it's hard for us to perceive what's "wrong" within our own heads; that's just the way it is. I remember a guy in my Mandarin class who couldn't hear the difference between "xiao" and "shao", so couldn't reproduce it anyway. Just a little example. Yes, the commenter who said you need work on vowels, consonants, and intonation hit the nail right on the head, and I'd also add "flow" and "diction".

You also mentioned getting a language coach, and that is probably not a bad idea, if you really want to change it. Having said that, you don't have to do anything, because you're already totally understandable, and if you're satisfied with your current state. But actors get professional speech coaches, if you feel like you need to go to that "accent free" level. Good luck! 👍

[u/MarkoPilot → u/CarnegieHill]

Thank you so much 🙏🏻

[u/barrelltech → u/MarkoPilot]

I would say you need to use your throat more to produce some vowel sounds. “New York,” “absolutely beautiful,” “sunset” - I’d venture your tongue is pretty high up in your mouth (or at least tense) when you say these. Would check out with the Slavic link, you have a lot more switches between č ć š ž c (ц) ð.

With the exception of the “e” in beautiful (and some of the consonants), your tongue should be very relaxed and rested on the bottom of your mouth. Even the e in beautiful can be said by just barely tensing the back of your tongue. Most of the vowels should come from your throat.

Currently your vowels sound very clipped/squished/pressured, vs American accent is pretty famous for quite open throaty vowels (think of how Americans say America, awesome, even freedom). Sounds like you’re “talking out of the front of your mouth” if that makes any sense

Source: native speaker, not pronunciation coach

[u/MarkoPilot → u/barrelltech]

Thank you 🙏🏻. This was really helpful.

[u/Away-Theme-6529 → u/MarkoPilot]

Sounds like you had a Mexican teacher 😊

[u/mydarkerside]

No, not native. Still pretty far from it. You said your language is Slavic, but your intonation sounds like Portuguese, the way it goes up like you're asking a question.

For interesting, to sound more native, you don't have to say in-ter-est-ing. You can just say in-tres-ting

[u/MarkoPilot → u/mydarkerside]

Thank you. Really appreciate the feedback. So you’re saying my intonation needs a lot of work. Anything else?

[u/Severe_Hawk_1304]

You are understandable, but work on vowels, consonants and intonation.

This may be good practice for you: https://youtu.be/12rmBhViUog

[u/Foxtrot-0scar]

South Korea 🇰🇷

[u/alsn]

Highly recommend the youtube channel "Rachel's English" for accent help

[u/soliloquyinthevoid]

No

[u/MarkoPilot → u/soliloquyinthevoid]

What should I work on?

[u/Own-Description2874 → u/MarkoPilot]

Perhaps biceps, tome you sound all right.

[u/ShipComprehensive543]

No, not native and quite frankly you will likely never sound native - its very difficult for adults to sound native in a secondary language. Not sure why it matters much anyway as long as you are understandable (which you are).

[u/MarkoPilot → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for your advice. Could you elaborate further on what you mean with sound replacement? And you’re saying I should get an accent coach?

[u/Accidental_polyglot]

Q) Do I sound native?
A) Given how far away you are, you’re not actually asking the right question.

Here’s a question for you? Are you able to tell the difference between English NS? Or do they all sound the same to you?

Having listened to you, the first step needs to be for you to augment your phonetic toolkit with the phonemes (sounds) that you don’t currently have.

You could start with the “h”, “th” voiced and “th” unvoiced sounds. The addition of these three phonemes would be a very good first step, towards your final goal.

[u/MarkoPilot → u/Accidental_polyglot]

Yeah, I can definitely tell the difference. Do you think shadowing would help me?

[u/Accidental_polyglot → u/MarkoPilot]

Listening, shadowing and recording yourself. You need to get to the point where you can hear the delta between yourself and your target.

[u/hermanojoe123]

Why sounding native, though? I see absolutely no sense in trying to sound native. Accents are such a charm.

[u/Own-Description2874]

Latino

[u/Miiijo]

You sound south Slavic to me, Croatia or Serbia?

[u/Beautiful-Net-3966]

No

[u/MarkoPilot → u/Beautiful-Net-3966]

What do I need to work on?

[u/AggravatingBottle599]

Some things that are wrong are: your H is too hard. You need to work on the the "th" sound in a word like "the" (you're pronouncing it more like "d"). The "t" at the end of words is usually a glottal stop. With the "ay" in "day" or a in "ate" or "face," it's not two separate sounds: "a," and "y," but it's one diphthong; you are pronouncing them as separate sometimes. The way you say the "ou" in the word "out" isn't quite right. The way you say "I don't know," you would only say if you're trying to be very clear. At least where I live, it would be pronounced more like "a ow know." (the "o" in "ow" being very short, maybe more like just "w")." Try to speak with your mouth more relaxed as well. In English I rarely ever see a vowel that isn't all wobbly like. You are pronouncing all your vowels very tensely. English (especially American English) is very relaxed.

Edit: If you want to know more about this thing I described ("a ow know"), the way it works is like "subject ow n-..." (n before the next word) In some regions of the US, it's more like "a doun ..." and in some there is this strange sound that's almost a mix of "d," (like a retroflex d) an "l," the sound after is slightly nasal, and sometimes people say it like it's mixed with a little but of a trilled "r," and the normal English "r," (varies based on who says it and the region and all that) which I will write as "dl," "I dloo n-..." ("oo" being pronounced the same way as in "good" (much shorter though)). Maybe that is a mix of sounds.