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Improving your Pronunciation of English When Living in a Non-English Country
By: Julee Mitchelsin
When you take a look around the world, there are a number of places
that still do not speak English. This is likely to continue for some
time as well over half of the world's population lives within areas
that do not have heavy English-speaking populations. For that reason,
it can sometimes be difficult to learn how to speak fluent English
simply because there is no one around you that speaks the language.
Textbooks and seminars can only take you so far in your knowledge of
English, but at some point you actually have to start speaking the
language on a regular basis in order to attain mastery in the language.
This can be a problem in areas of the world that do not have that many English-speaking people and for that reason you need to come up with innovative ways to improve your pronunciation of the English language in spite of the lack of English people with which to chat. This does require some critical thinking and unorthodox ways of doing things, but there are a few ways in which you can still get it done. Some suggestions are listed below.
Media
The first place that you should go is the English-speaking media, starting with agencies that are specifically broadcasting news. Major international news agencies such as CNN and BBC broadcast themselves into all of the different corners of the world and these agencies only employ people with a completely fluent grasp of the English language. For this reason, watching such news agencies will allow you to slowly grasp the pronunciation of specific words in English and that in turn will allow you to truly grasp the language. You do not have to chat back and forth with someone to learn how to pronounce English words properly, you just need to have them pronounced properly for you to hear.
If news agencies aren't your cup of tea, then the next step would be to take a look at sources of entertainment that come out of the English-speaking world and circulate around the globe. Movies from Hollywood are an excellent example as they tend to be very popular around the world and they often come with English that is spoken very well. You just have to be careful to avoid movies in which the actors are purposely speaking in rough accents with poor language and you should still be able to get a lot of help towards improving your English pronunciation despite living in a country without many native English speakers.
The Internet
The internet tends to be the answer to a number of different questions nowadays and it is definitely the answer to learning a language when nobody around you speaks that language. The internet allows you to download pronunciation guides that were uploaded at the other end of the world and it also allows you to conference with other people and learn English by talking to them. You can learn how to speak English through telephone conversations with the other side of the world and you can also learn how to read and write English by having instant message or e-mail conversations with those same people.
If you are looking for an easy way to perfect your English pronunciation, it is most definitely online learning. Online learning will give you access to methods of learning the language you would never in a million years have thought possible in a non-English area of the world. It will speed up the learning process and ensure that you learn the language and its pronunciation within a reasonable amount of time.
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