Do I sound like British (45 sec. recording)?

[emsr2d2]

Hello.
I've made a new [STRIKE]recordings[/STRIKE] recording.
Are there any improvements?

See my corrections above.

 

[Dude2]

Slow down a bit and try to leave some boundaries between words. Post below.

There are no boundaries because of linking, elision, assimilation.
"The post below" was written 6 month ago.
I just asked to evaluate my current pronunciation.

 

[emsr2d2]

There are no boundaries because of linking, elision, assimilation.
"The post below" was written [STRIKE]6[/STRIKE] six months ago.
I just asked you to evaluate my current pronunciation.

Note my corrections above.

 

[GoesStation]

Thanks for your evaluation!
And one more recording from me
https://cloud.mail.ru/public/2d2B/6WAbdHZ3k

You have a strong accent but it's not a typical Russian one; native speakers might have trouble guessing your native language. You don't sound British and probably never will, but with some more work you'll be 100% comprehensible by most native speakers.

 

[teechar]

There are no boundaries because of linking, elision, assimilation.

No, that's not true. While those features of connected speech do sometimes mean words run into each other, there still need to be certain boundaries (breaks, pauses, emphasis, etc). Your recording makes it sound as if you're trying too hard, which can only end up making it sound unnatural, of course.

"The post below" was written 6 month ago.
I just asked to evaluate my current pronunciation.

Yes, I am asking you to slow down and post a new recording below.

 

[Dude2]

You have a strong accent but it's not a typical Russian one; native speakers might have trouble guessing your native language. You don't sound British and probably never will, but with some more work you'll be 100% comprehensible by most native speakers.

Are you sure?
To ensure you that I am not a beginner.
I've been having pronunciation lessons with a private tutors for almost 7 month. I had studied the position of organs of speech erlier, though, maybe 10 month ago from now.I know many feautures of British pronunciation, of course. I've recorded lots of texts. I've been bractising almost every day. I am studying linguistic (i.e. English) at the university, hence I have more knowledge than an average learner of English.
I would believe you if you said my voice is nasty and has more woman's features. But you didn't. I may add that, despite absense on non-Russian parents, I got claims that my Russian voice had traces of a dialect.
It sounds a bit funny because it seems now I sound like a person without nationality in English))

 

[GoesStation]

As I said, you have a strong — indeed, very strong — but not readily identifiable foreign accent. You have incorporated aspects of a British accent including non-rhoticity and pronunciations like /stjudənt/ which are distinct from an American accent. Many native speakers would have difficulty understanding you but I think you can correct this with relatively little work.

I can't begin to imagine why you would associate a "nasty" voice with "woman's features", whatever those might be. Please forget about that idea.

 

[emsr2d2]

You have a very strong but unidentifiable accent. It sounds to me like a mixture of Polish, Spanish, Portuguese and there were even a few sounds that would have made me think you were Japanese or Chinese. It was fairly clear to me that you were aiming for British pronunciation rather than American pronunciation but, seemingly contrary to your own belief, you do not sound remotely British nor remotely like a native speaker.

It would be interesting to hear you saying something not prepared in advance. Why don't you record another short clip of yourself just chatting about a random topic, as if you're talking to a friend, rather than reading from a text? For example, just tell us a few things you did last week, or describe what would constitute a perfect day, or tell us about your local town. The important thing is that you make it up as you record it - don't write anything down in advance.

 

[teechar]

It would be interesting to hear you saying something not prepared in advance. Why don't you record another short clip of yourself just chatting about a random topic, as if you're talking to a friend, rather than reading from a text? For example, just tell us a few things you did last week, or describe what would constitute a perfect day, or tell us about your local town. The important thing is that you make it up as you record it - don't write anything down in advance.

Good advice. And if you do record something like that, try to speak slowly. It makes it easier to identify problems/irregularities.

 

[Tdol]

Good advice. And if you do record something like that, try to speak slowly. It makes it easier to identify problems/irregularities.

And don't read- speak naturally.

 

[jutfrank]

I agree strongly with posts #24 and #28.

Listening to your recent recording, I can hear that you've improved greatly in the past seven months in terms of losing the rhotic /r/ sound.

In my opinion, most of your work now should be focused on prosody. My advice to you would be to find a suitable model audio clip spoken by a proficient and articulate native-British English-speaking man and spend time trying to imitate exactly his intonation, stressing, pacing and pausing.

 

[GoesStation]

My advice to you would be to find a suitable model audio clip spoken by a proficient and articulate native-British English-speaking man ….

Note jutfrank's advice, with my emphasis. Men and women typically have distinctive, but not radically different, speaking patterns in English. You'll sound a bit odd if you adopt typically female patterns, but you won't sound "nasty". The patterns overlap among native speakers; some males use more typically female patterns and vice versa.