Chinese is spoken by billions of people in China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. The importance of speaking good English became vital for international communication with the increased role of China on the global stage. Many native Chinese speakers who enjoyed our elocution lessons had good grammar and vocabulary, but, at first, their speech was difficult to understand because of their bad pronunciation. The result is that they often had low-paid jobs despite their high intellectual level. They told us that they were not even invited into meetings as others could not understand their speech.
We help all of them to master their speech and in this blog post, I will outline the most important recommendations for the Chinese speakers of English.
Chinese speakers of English often have good grammar and vocabulary, but it is hard for others to communicate with them because of their bad pronunciation. People who are not tuned in or used to Chinese accents find it hard to understand Chinese people's speech. I had a colleague in my public speaking club and when I hear her speeches I can only understand 30% of what she said. Because their speech is difficult to understand they have low-paid jobs and are not even invited to meetings.
Six main challenges for Chinese speakers of English
1. English consonants, particularly at the end of words such as “and” in words “pound, sound, found” etc. I hear that instead of /nd/ sounds they pronounce the /ŋ/ as in “sing”.
2. /t, d/ at the end of the word in the past tense such as “learned, studied, hoped” etc.
3. The /l/ sound as in “London” and the /r/ sound as in “rat”
4. Fricative consonants /θ/ and /ð/ as in "think" and "that", /f/ and /v/ as in “fake”and “victory”.
5. Diphthong /au/ as in “cow, pound, sound”, particularly followed by /nd/ as in words "pound, found, sound".
6. Intonation, connected speech patterns and sentence stress
Our recommendations
Start working on consonants and then on vowels and diphthongs with the apps Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, and Business English Speech. The same apps are also available on Google Play. They are based on bestselling books in the series Get Rid of your Accent and have audio and recording buttons. Work with these apps together with the accompanying video course Get Rid of your Accent Part1.
When you practise the sound in words give enough time to every syllable, connect sounds together and pay attention to pronouncing final consonants. When you practise the sound in phrases and verses, pay attention to the intonation and English tune, do not separate words into syllables.
Once all the sounds are sorted, we suggest working on connected speech patterns, sentence stress and intonation with the Fluent English Speech app To get the best results book a few elocution lessons
A few elocution lessons would not be out of place to achieve the best results.
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