Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Please listen to me

Hi, eveyone. I've been lurking for ages before making up my mind and
posting 
in this newsgroup, also because a subscription to newsland was needed. Now 
here I am, sharing the same passion for the English language as you do. I 
hope you don't mind me asking you already from my very first post to 
dedicate a couple of minutes to listening to a short extract read by
myself, 
possibly expressing a comment of yours about my English, as long as you
want 
to. After all, I can't think of a better way of introducing myself, could
I?
So here is the link, followed by a transcription of the text I'm reading. 
And one last thing, please, don't cut me any slack.
 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/94703620/SUD_0729_017.MP3
 
 
 
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects
of 
the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation
of 
the Earth.
Some shorelines experience two almost equal high tides and two low tides 
each day, called a semi-diurnal tide. Some locations experience only one 
high and one low tide each day, called a diurnal tide. Some locations 
experience two uneven tides a day, or sometimes one high and one low each 
day; this is called a mixed tide. The times and amplitude of the tides at
a 
locale are influenced by the alignment of the Sun and Moon, by the pattern 
of tides in the deep ocean, by the amphidromic systems of the oceans, and
by 
the shape of the coastline and near-shore bathymetry.
Tides vary on timescales ranging from hours to years due to numerous 
influences. To make accurate records, tide gauges at fixed stations
measure 
the water level over time. Gauges ignore variations caused by waves with 
periods shorter than minutes. These data are compared to the reference (or 
datum) level usually called mean sea level.[4]
While tides are usually the largest source of short-term sea-level 
fluctuations, sea levels are also subject to forces such as wind and 
barometric pressure changes, resulting in storm surges, especially in 
shallow seas and near coasts.
Tidal phenomena are not limited to the oceans, but can occur in other 
systems whenever a gravitational field that varies in time and space is 
present. For example, the solid part of the Earth is affected by tides, 
though this is not as easily seen as the water tidal movements.
 
-- 
 
 
questo articolo e` stato inviato via web dal servizio gratuito 
http://www.newsland.it/news
 segnala gli abusi ad 
ab...@newsland.it
 
 
 

 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/94703620/SUD_0729_017.MP3
 
 
It's very brave of you to jump into the lion's den, with a slab of raw 
meat wrapped around your neck.
 
I'll leave you for the hyenas.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Perdonammi, a volte l'immaginazione e l'apprezzamento della dramma mi 
afferrano. Hai fatto bene. Naturalmente parli con l'accento italiano ma 
non č fortissimo. Se lo senti del piů con le parole come 'caused' o 
'subject' che si scrive come la parola inglese ma si pronuncia nel modo 
diverso. Č ovvio anche che hai imparato inglese britannico. Č piů facile 
leggere che parlare al telefono, allora dovresti saltare nella fossa del 
leone piů spesso.
 

 
 
"vmax"  wrote in message news:jvtjdv$i2f$1...@news.newsland.it...
 
Hi, eveyone. I've been lurking for ages before making up my mind and
posting
in this newsgroup, also because a subscription to newsland was needed. Now
here I am, sharing the same passion for the English language as you do. I
hope you don't mind me asking you already from my very first post to
dedicate a couple of minutes to listening to a short extract read by
myself,
possibly expressing a comment of yours about my English, as long as you
want
to. After all, I can't think of a better way of introducing myself, could
I?
So here is the link, followed by a transcription of the text I'm reading.
And one last thing, please, don't cut me any slack.
 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/94703620/SUD_0729_017.MP3
 
 
The whole is less than the sum of the parts.  Though you're obviously not a 
native speaker , I wouldn't have been able to guess your nationality if you 
hadn't posted in Italian ; though several words (e.g. 'caused' , 'source') 
are quite wrong , I don't at first hearing notice any systematic 
mispronunciations (I'm not an expert) - in fact , if you isolate many of the 
words and phrases , your pronunciation is very convincing (British English, 
as Tony said, though I detected an occasional slight American twang). The 
text wasn't necessary to understand what you were saying. The main problem 
is the speed (and consequent loss of clarity) and intonation (though I can 
understand your wanting to get through it quickly , given the tedium of the 
content!) ; you swallow a lot of syllables - I know the pronounced 
difference in the weighting of syllables is a feature of spoken English 
compared to many European languages , but getting this right must be very 
difficult for a non-native speaker , and going so fast certainly doesn't 
help - I would not read aloud at that speed (my Italian would sound 
painfully lethargic if I had the courage to record it!)
Try again , speaking more deliberately and watching out for your tendency to 
gabble through words or phrases (and preferably choosing a paragraph from , 
say, a decent novel).
 
Mike (from the UK) 
 

vmax ha scritto:
 
First of all I'd like to thank lentulax and Tony for having listened to my 
tedious reading and even replied to me. I appreciate your precious advice
and 
will surely try to face the issues you raised; after all, although I like
to 
think of English as my second language, I consider myself a learner and
thus I 
'll always be. As to the recording, I didn't like it myself when I heard
it; 
not my best performance at all (actually my first one), but since I had to 
process it quite a bit, i.e. recording by my mobile phone, which has an 
incredibly low-volume mic, changing the format to mp3 and amplifying the 
volume digitally, I dared not try another recording until I get some more 
appropriate equipment. Maybe that's the reason of so much syllable
swallowing, 
as lentulax wrote. Anyway, luckily I did not run into any hyenas this
time. I 
'll count my blessings, then. Thank you again.


 'll count my blessings, then. Thank you again.
 
Hi there,
 
if you're working on your pronounciation, you may want to take a look at 
this (free) website: 
www.livemocha.com
 
 
It's a huge community of language learners. You can submit your audio 
files and have native speakers comment on them. You'll probably get a 
lot more feedback there than you would here.
 
I also like to use 
www.sharedtalk.com
 (also free) from time to time, but 
native English speakers there are in somewhat shorter supply.
 
I remember back when Skype had voice chatrooms. (What were they called? 
I forget.) That was an easy way to find native speakers, and by and 
large friendly ones. Sharedtalk may be the next best thing now. It 
doesn't have good sound quality but you can always meet people there and 
exchange Skype contacts.
 
Dario
 
-- 
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters
will eventually recreate the complete works of Shakespeare.
Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
~> 
http://www.wysinnwyg.com/
 

 exchange Skype contacts.
 
Didn't know I was so much off the grid. Thanks again.


 non � fortissimo
 
Tony, come on! He doesn't sound Italian at all!
 
 
-- 
Enrico il Pentolaio.


But I knew in advance that he was Italian. And listen to the way he 
pronounces "cause" and "subject." Do you detect Italian vowels?
 

 pronounces "cause" and "subject." Do you detect Italian vowels?
 
OK, in "subject" an Italian "a" slipped from his mouth. I'm not sure 
about "cause", though. I'm probably biased since I'm Italian too, but I 
perfectly understood the word. OK, the second time that I listened to 
it, I noticed that the vowel sound might not be a perfect one, but 
still... I would focus more on the slurred words that followed. ;)
 
-- 
Enrico il Pentolaio.


Vai, la nostra iena! vai!

Tony the Ice Man ha scritto:

Ouch!
 
Joking aside, I think my mistake about "cause" is that I tried to
pronounce 
"au" like the o in hope, while I should have kept closer to the o in
"cost". 
Nothing to do with Italian, possibly. All fixed anyway. So please don't 
think of me as the one who pronounces "cause" in that way forever. As to 
"subject", it may actually be one of words I learned early in my life when
I 
wasn't listening yet (I began by speaking, writing and reading, then came 
the listening to radio and TV programmes), but then again, not intending
to 
prove anything since, to me, the opinion of a native speaker who has 
listened to the same word one of two orders of magnitude more than me is 
invaluable, if you take a look at the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary 
English, the "u" in subject when used as an adjective seems to be
pronounced 
with a very open Italian "a" sound, as far as I could hear (and read). Not 
that far of a stretch is the pronunciation reported in 
www.dictionary.com
 
and 
www.thefreedictionary.com
. The latter I report here:
 
adj [&#712;s&#652;bd&#658;&#618;kt] (usually postpositive and foll by to)
1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) being under the power or sovereignty 
of a ruler, government, etc. subject peoples
2. showing a tendency (towards) a child subject to indiscipline
3. exposed or vulnerable subject to ribaldry
4. conditional upon the results are subject to correction
 
Unless, of course, I got it all wrong about the pronunciation of &#652;.
So I have to ask: how to pronounce subject (not as a verb, but as a noun
or 
adjective) correctly? Thank you for your time anyway.


 4. conditional upon the results are subject to correction
 
I'm sorry, I can't visualize the special phonetic characters, so if you
can't 
wither please go directly to the dictionary web site just in case you want
to 
see it yourself.


 either please go directly to the dictionary web site just in case you want


 and 
www.thefreedictionary.com
. The latter I report here:
 
Qui ti sbagli. Il suono ^ non � quello di una 'a' aperta. La schwa � 
pronunciata in cos� tanti modi, pur rimanendo un suono pi� o meno 
centrale, che ben pochi native speaker riescono a distinguere i due 
suoni. Non credo che nessuno ti corregger� mai se al posto di ^ fai 
finta di vederci una schwa.
 
Kiuhnm

 finta di vederci una schwa.
 
Credo proprio che far� cos�


 Qui ti sbagli. Il suono ^ non è quello di una 'a' aperta.
 
Gia'. Mi ricordo che tanto tempo fa un madrelingua inglese me l'aveva 
proprio fatto notare: per quanto aperta sia la "a", non e' mai tanto 
aperta quanto in italiano.
 
Sono comunque sottigliezze, eh.
 
-- 
Enrico il Pentolaio.

On 08/08/2012 01:45 PM, vmax wrote:
[...]
 
Caspita! Ora pero' voglio sapere come hai fatto a imparare. :D
Hai passato parecchio tempo in UK o hai fatto tutto da solo?
 
Te lo chiedo perche' piu' o meno parlo come te ed e' fastidiosissimo 
quando, incontrando gente nuova, mi chiedono sempre come mai ho imparato 
l'accento britannico, o nel caso che parlino maluccio proprio non 
capiscono la meta' di quello che dico, e allora devo ripetere 
alleggerendo di molto l'accento.
 
 
-- 
Enrico il Pentolaio.

 Sono comunque sottigliezze, eh.
 
Direi che la differenza tra 'a' e ^ � la stessa che c'� tra 'i' e /I/, 
quindi basta provare a pronunciare la 'a' italiana mantenendo per� 
labbra e lingua rilassate. E' cos� che ho imparato varie vocali inglesi: 
sono partito da quelle italiane e le ho "rilassate".
BTW, ho creato un account su LiveMocha e ho provato qualche corso 
'advanced'. La possibilit� di mandare le registrazioni � molto utile. 
Trattandosi di registrazioni brevi dove � possibile registrare le 
singole battute (di un dialogo) una alla volta quante volte si vuole, 
sono riuscito a farmi passare per un native speaker americano 2 volte su 
2 :)
 
Kiuhnm

 alleggerendo di molto l'accento.
 
Anch'io spesso mi sento solo ;)
