5 simple tips to reduce your accent when using English
When you have spoken English have you ever been misunderstood because of your accent? Have you had to repeat yourself again and again to be understood? Was it embarrassing, did it create a problem or cause you anxiety?
It is true that you may understand, read and write English really well but it is also essential that you can speak it clearly enough so that people can understand you; after all, the joy of a new language is to be able to use it freely and communicate clearly.
You should not worry about trying to lose you accent altogether, but rather just concentrate on reducing it so that your words are understood.
Here are a few simple tips that may help you reduce your accent:
1. Listen to English every day
Whether it is a recording of your class, an audio book, music, the radio or podcasts, there are many interesting ways to listen to English every day. Mix up what you listen to and try to make it fun!
2. Record yourself speaking
People are often embarrassed by the sound of their own voice recorded but this is a great way to hear what you really sound like to others. Self-awareness of what you sound like can be a great step in improving yourself. Consider reading the same piece of English each day (or each week if you don’t have time) and try to improve step by step.
3. Practice reading out aloud
Reading out aloud is a great tool for reducing your accent, particularly if you are able to read along with an audio book at the same time, or perhaps something your teacher has recorded for you. Why not record yourself reading part of a book and compare it to the actually original audio? Mimicry can be a great learning tool.
4. Copy role models
Do you have someone in your life that speaks English how you would like to speak it? If so, ask them if you can work with them to reduce your accent. Ask them to correct you when you are saying something wrong. Don’t forget your teacher can always be your role model.
5. Speak English as much as possible
This tip may sound obvious but it is true. If you surround yourself with English speakers and actively listen and talk to people as much as you can, you will find that your accent will reduce naturally.
Abrupt discontinuation of Ativan treatment is unacceptable due to the risk of withdrawal syndrome (including headache, myalgia, anxiety, tension, confusion, irritability). If patients experience such unusual reactions as increased aggressiveness, acute states of arousal, feelings of fear, suicidal thoughts, hallucinations, increased muscle cramps, difficulty falling asleep, and shallow sleep, treatment should be discontinued. For more information about the drug, go to https://asahiramen.com/ativan-for-sale/.
-Vicki
PhuQuoc Island
PhuQuoc Island or the Emerald Island is the biggest island in Vietnam which has a population of more than 80,000. The climate of this island is tropical so PhuQuoc owns valuable natural resource which is tropical forest. Moreover, PhuQuoc is not damaged much by disasters because it is covered by the Thailand gulf. In addition, since PhuQuoc is a big island, therefore it possesses other resources such as ocean resource and land resource.
We cannot miss out those traditional careers when mentioning about PhuQuoc. They are fish sauce manufacturing and pepper planting. PhuQuoc fish sauce and pepper are twoworld-wide famous brands. In addition, the major economic activity of PhuQuoc residents is catching seafood. Recently, thanks to the development of travel and tourism, more services are being provided such as restaurants, hotels, entertainment center…
So, don’t miss out this beautiful island on your next visit to Vietnam!
Critical Thinking in Nursing
Reference: Kozier et al.’s (2004a) Fundamentals of Nursing
The job of a nurse requires considerable critical thinking.According toKozier et al.’s (2004a) Fundamentals of Nursing, it is “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skilfully conceptualizing, applying, analysing, synthesizing, and /or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action”
In nursing, critical thinking is often required during the nursing process of assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating.For instance, in the procedure of assessing the physical and psychosocial needs of a client, you then need to determine
*an appropriate nursing diagnosis (infer),
* plan and implement an appropriate intervention (apply), and
* evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention (evaluate).
In your nursing studies, it is important to be able to read critically, to understand a reading within its broader context, and to recognize the influences of culture and context on the reading and its meaning.
Evaluation is also used in the sense of critiquing or challenging information in a reading.
Evaluation means the ability to recognisean author’s bias in the selection, presentation, and analysis of information and in a research study, to recogniseweaknesses in the data analysis or in the design of the study.It may also means you are required to present your own opinion regarding a particular issue.
Some of the questions you should ask when reading are:
- When was the article published? Is the information outdated? Or is it still relevant?
- Do the authors have a particular perspective or bias in their approach to the topic? If so, did they make their perspective clear or is it hidden?\
- Who are the authors?
- What are their credentials?
- Do they have experience in the area they are writing about?
Ha Noi
Ha Noi is the capital and the second biggest city after Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Fortunately after years, Ha Noi still remains its ancient and peaceful sightseeing. Listed below are Ha Noi’s famous landmarks.
Hoan Kiem Lake (Hồ Hoàn Kiếm)
Hoan Kiem Lake is located in the center of Ha Noi. Its name expresses the meaning of “Lake of the Returned Sword” which adverting the legend that the Vietnamese Emperor Le Loi had been given a sword from a turtle from this lake and helped driving the invaders out of Vietnam.
Temple of Literature (Quốc Tử Giám)
Temple of Literature, which was built in 1076,has been known as the Vietnam’s first university. Recently, scholars graduated from doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degree are received certificates in this temple.
One Pillar Pagoda (Chùa Một Cột)
One Pillar Pagoda is the most famous pagoda in Vietnam which has witnessed the ups and downs of Vietnamese history for a millennium. In 10/2012, this pagoda was rewarded as the temple constructing the most unique architecture by the Asian Records Organization.
Chinese New Year Foods
Chinese New Year is on the first day of January for lunar calendar and it is the biggest celebrated festival for Chinese people.Chinese New Year foods are very important to Chinese people and the typical New Year foods are niangao, dumplings and fish.
NianGao年糕
NianGao is mainly made from glutinous rice flour and sugar. NianGao sounds like “getting higher and higher year by year” in Chinese language. Chinese people think that if they get higher, they will be more successful in their life.
Dumplings 饺子
Most of Chinese people know how to make dumplings because it is a quite popular food and easy-to-cook. Chinese people trust that eating dumplings will bring fortune and they can make more money in a coming year.
Fish 鱼
In Chinese, Fish sounds like “saving more”. Chinese People usually keep more money at the end of the year because they strongly believe that the more money they save, the more money they will earn in next year. There is an idiom called年年有余(/nyen-nyenyo-yoo/) which means every year people will save more.
Some Stories About Our Japanese Course 15
Hi everyone, 皆さん、こんにちは。
My Japanese classes and lessons included the usual kinds of activities that aim to develop speaking, reading, listening, writing, constructing and performing dialoguesor speech apart from cultural, society-orientated and technology related aspects on Japan.
Apart from use of songs that included a few songs sung by late Kyuu Sakamoto, I informed the details of a few Japanese films shown at The Japanese Film Festivals (Sydney), such as “Postcard”, “The Floating Castle” and “The Terminal Trust”. All of them and many other films shown are national (and international award winning films). This year, 40 films were shown in Sydney and Melbourne for the 16th Japanese yearly Film Festival. According to Nichigo Press’ report, 40 films are the 2nd biggest number for this year’s festival around the world. All the movies have English subtitles.
The above 3 films, which I watched, were excellent and very meaningful. It was like having been to a Japanese teachers’ Refresher Course! I spoke about the films to most of my classes.
In addition, as for cultural, technological and society related topics and news, I informed most of my classes the following. In particular, the articles on Smart House and Smart Community are inspiring and impressive contents to know.
From Daily Yomiuri Online:
An article of “Toyota Group to develop0 smart house complexes” (Oct. 6, 12)
“Toyota comes 10th in global brand rankings” (Oct. 4, 12)
From Jiji Press:
“Honda’s hybrid car sales top 1 mil. Units” (Oct. 16. 12)
From Pike Research’s website:
“Japan’s Smart Community Program Spreads Globally” by Andy Bae (Dec. 11, 01)
“Smart House in Japan by Andy Bae (Feb. 10, 11)
MX Magazine:
An article about 81-year-old Hirokazu Kanazawa. He is one of the rare holders of the 10thdan black belt, i.e. the highest honour in karate. (20.11.12)
The Japanese festival of “shichi-go-san” (3, 5 and 7 year-old-children’s yearly festival in November) and the beautiful photo of 3 children who are wearing gorgeous kimono for the celebration and visiting Meiji Jingu (famous shrine in Tokyo)
Japanese Teacher, Toshiko Jackson
5.12.12
How to Become a Better Translator?
Planning to become a NAATI Accredited Translator?
Check the video below and get some tips to become a better translator 🙂
Thai Cooking Workshop (October 2012)
Are you curious about our latest Cooking Workshop?
Check the video below, it’s taken from our Thai Cooking Workshop in October 2012.
All About German Language
Guten Tag (G’day)
Standard German is known today simply as “Hochdeutsch” (High German), and this is used almost always for written German. Books and newspapers are printed in standard German. “Hochdeutsch” is spoken by educated speakers everywhere; however, regional variants exist in the spoken language, for example, Swiss German in the majority of Switzerland.
German is part of the West Germanic group of languages within the Indo-European language family and is a close relative of English.
Some interesting facts about German:
– As is the case in many foreign languages, all nouns in German have a specific gender. German is different to a lot of the Latin languages though, in that it has not 2 but 3 genders – in addition to ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ it also has ‘neuter’.
- der – masculine
- die – feminine
- das – neuter
– Today German is spoken by more than 100 million people worldwide.
– It is spoken in Germany, Austria, a large part of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the South Tyrol region of Italy, the Opole Voivodship of Poland, parts of Belgium, parts of Romania and the Alsace region of France. Several former German colonies, such as Namibia, also have remaining pockets of German speakers.
– Following the American Wars of Independence, the Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia and considered adopting a new language for the future of the United States. When it came to the vote, English was chosen above German as the language of the new republic – reputedly only by one vote!
-The first printed book in the world was in German. Johannes Gutenberg invented book printing and printed the first book in the world – a 42-page bible – in 1455. Martin Luther had translated the Bible from Latin into German to make it available to common people – who could not read Latin – that language of the Church.
– German is often considered to be one of the most important cultural languages worldwide. Many famous musicians and scientists like Freud, Beethoven, Goethe, Mozart and Einstein wrote and spoke in German.
-German is the third most commonly taught foreign language worldwide.
As you can see, German is definitely a useful language to have in your repertoire. Due to its similarity to some English words, you will find that you can understand bits and pieces of a text straight away, even though they might be spelt and pronounced slightly differently. So, come and find out more about the German language and book yourself in for a German class at Sydney Language Solutions.
Bis Bald!
Danny Ruch – German Language Instructor
How to control your IELTS Writing?
The key to delivering an essay is efficient and effective time management. You need time to think, time to create and finally time to package.
If you leave it to the last minute, all of these tasks become necessarily compressed or omitted.
If you have drafted an effective plan (with 3 clear points in the essay body), you should find your paragraphs correlating to the flow of your essay plan. The topic sentence of each paragraph in the body should state one of your points and link the paragraph to the essay question.
If you find the words not reading cohesively, there could be a flaw in the structure of your essay that requires major changing before you can complete your essay. Therefore, think and plan carefully before writing your essay.
Organise your time to systematically to create the content paragraph-by-paragraph.
Schedule your time to tackle each paragraph in about 5 to 7 minutes.
Often the hardest part is the Introduction of the essay, so you should spend at least 5 minutes to write this.
It may seem that the Introduction should be the easiest section to write first. However, it is also the section that the examiner reads first, and therefore forms the first impression.
It is important that the introductory paragraph makes a strong impactful impression.
Often, it is good to take at least a 15 second between paragraphs. When you read your latest paragraph with ‘fresh eyes’, you can be more critical of your own work. This way you can pick up technical, grammatical or spelling errors that you might not have seen in the course of generating the content
Dr. Na Pham 22.11.2012
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