Week 7: Review of Vowels & /r/

This week, I decided to review the individual parts I've been practicing over the past month. I reviewed all the vowel videos I had practiced and videos covering the French /r/. I listened very closely to the archetype video and segmented it, trying to imitate each part of the clip I chose. I would say that this week has probably been the most frustrating, as I feel that, even though I've practiced, I can't seem to get the sounds right. When I practice the sounds in isolation using the LRC Michigan videos, I am able to do them but when I have to use them in context I often can't seem to make the right sounds. Also, I still am confused sometimes about the exact sounds (specifically, vowels) that are being pronounced in my archetype. I practice the different types of vowels but I still have a hard time distinguishing their sounds when I hear them. This is maybe what I need to practice next, which might require me to listen to more French pronunciation instead of just practicing on my own.

Therefore, I recorded for this week but I'm not very excited about my progress. I feel like I'm at a plateau or that perhaps I've slid down the plateau a little bit. I'll keep marching forward but, to be honest, this week was a little discouraging. However, I know that to progress in anything, sometimes it feels like going backwards.

Regardless, here's my recording for the week.

Week 6: That Dreaded /r/

As I've been practicing, I've been focusing on French vowels. I thought that those were where I needed to focus most, as accent is in the vowels and I want to speak as native-like as possible. I was planning on saving /r/ for later, as I determined it was too difficult for me to conquer yet. However, as I was pondering why my speech sometimes sounds so American, I decided that maybe it had to do with my /r/ pronunciation and that if I could work on that, some of the vowels would fall more naturally into place.

Well, I was certainly right when I thought it was difficult but I was able to begin, and maybe that's what counts. These two videos (1 & 2) were most helpful to me. I will definitely need more practice, as this pronunciation to me as an American English speaker is quite unnatural. Nonetheless, I practiced and practiced, and then I recorded numerous times.

Here is the recording for this week, where I think I yell-talked the least.

Week 5: /y/

I'm so excited about this week! I feel that I really made a small but significant improvement in French vowel pronunication. I found some amazing YouTube videos that helped me so much in being able to pronounce sounds that we don't have in American English. In particular, I watched and followed along with this video many times in order to practice the French vowel /y/. I also watched and practiced along with this video to practice the vowel /œ/, but then as I practiced my audio clip I began getting very confused about which vowel was which. Therefore, I just focused on practicing /y/. I realize this is such a specific aspect to work on (just one vowel!) but I felt pretty accomplished to be able to create a sound I was never able to before! Making the sound by itself was pretty easy for me but having to use it throughout speech proved more difficult. However, I realized that French people don't enunciate it so strongly, and so that might have been some of my difficulty. Regardless, I tried to do so within my practice, just because it was helpful for me. I also found that by really rounding and fronting this vowel as I used it among speech, it made it easier for me to pronounce other words in a more correct way. This was encouraging to discover!

Here is this week's audio clip.