"James Miller" <ja...@aatch.net> wrote in message news:mailman.235.1331210469.4860.digitalmar...@puremagic.com... >On 9 March 2012 01:23, Stewart Gordon <smjg_1...@yahoo.com> wrote: >> >> I'm finding it hard to figure how someone would pronounce the "o" and "u" >> in >> "colour" separately. >>
I would imagine it'd be like "kuh-lore". >Being British means that I do notice the differences in pronunciation, >I've pretty much done the opposite to Reagan, gone from England to NZ. >I tend to get frustrated when I can't even correct pronunciation >because nobody can hear the difference! I have a little extra insight into this as my mom is a speech/language pathologist: As you've noticed, trying to get a person to hear the difference often doesn't work (And even if they can hear it, that doesn't necessarily give them enough info to actually pronounce it). I think the right thing to do, at least in cases where it actually matters, is to instruct them on the actual mouth movements involved. Then they can "feel" the difference, and start to hear themselves making the different sound. "Hearing" it can naturally follow from that. When I started (trying to) learn Japanese, I had trouble hearing the Japanese "R" sound. But the instructor explained how to pronounce it: Pay attention to how your tongue is positioned when saying the English "R" and "L". For the Japanese "R", do the same thing, but put your tongue about half-way in-between: just in front of what's called the "boney ridge" instead of just behind it (English "R") or on the back of the teeth (English "L"). After learning that, I was able to not only pronounce it (more or less) but also hear the difference much better since I actually knew what to expect (interestingly, the Japanese "R" frequently sounds more like a "D" than an English "L" or "R"). A similar thing is the "tsu" sound in Japanese. The "TS" combination is very intimidating for most English speakers, and I doubt many English speakers can easily hear it. But as my class's instructor pointed out: It's exactly like the "ts" at the end of "boots". So just say that and folow up with a "u". Now I can say and hear it just fine (At least, I *think* I can - a native Japanese speaker would have to be the real judge).
