Discussions
Back to Discussions

How understandable is my English accent? How fluent am I to you?

taiwanboy10
My background: I was born and raised in Taiwan, and I didn't attend any international schools or any English camps. I have been learning English for more than 10 years and I also went to a college (in Hong Kong) that primarily used English. I believe my accent is for the most part American because I watched a lot of American media growing up. But that's just my self-assessment, so here are some of the questions I am very curious about: \- How understandable am I to native speakers? \- Would you say you can easily understand my English? \- Are there any mispronunciations or mistakes in the clip? \- What stood out to you that shows I am a non-native? \- What does my accent sound like? It would be fantastic if you could satisfy my curiosity by answering some of the questions. Thank you! \---------------- Audio: [https://voca.ro/1dXh6BmGTjlk](https://voca.ro/1dXh6BmGTjlk) Transcript: “So, this is the first time I've been to this sub, and I came here because I wanted to get an accurate judgment on my accent. So, I'm not really looking to sound like a native speaker from any specific countries, I just want to be as understandable as possible. Like, if I go to the US, I hope people there are able to understand me easily. Oh, and one key problem with my accent that I have identified is that I notice I tend to rush my speech when I get a bit nervous, like right now. So, well, let me know what you think about that. So, now I'm going to read the rainbow passage. Rainbow Passage: When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long, rough arch, with its path high above, its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

6 comments

yuelaiyuehao•
You are completely understandable and I didn't notice any errors in your speech. You sounded really good. Although you speak very fluently, you're clearly a Chinese speaker. I think your self-assessment is correct, and you've sacrificed a more native sounding accent for speed and fluency.
Hungry_Mouse737•
One possible way to improve your English is to pay attention to the stress in words. Each word has, and only has one stress, and its position is usually fixed. For example, "country." 0：14 speaker from any specific coun**trie**s ( it should be **coun**tries [How to pronounce country | British English and American English pronunciation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpYWmggaZQc)
Far_Management6617•
You're very easy to understand and speak very clearly :) I would say however that "rainbow" sounded more like "ren-bow", the first syllable should be more "rayn" (drawn out a bit)
SpanishLearnerUSA•
You don't sound native, but you speak the language and could be understood by most people. I'm learning Spanish, and I notice that Spanish speakers speak with a different part of their mouth, and their tongue has different placement. There's also a different rhythm to the language. Even though I don't speak Chinese, it's clear that native Chinese speakers also seem to be using different muscles in the mouth. When they speak English, it sounds like the words are coming out of a machine gun: pop, pop, pop, pop. They struggle with the natural rhythm and cadence of the English language. It is still comprehensible, but my guess is that it takes a lot of work to train yourself to adopt that natural rhythm and cadence.
Perfect_Homework790•
Pretty good. You have a clear accent but you have a decent grasp of English phonetics and generally know what phoneme you're trying to produce. Your intonation isn't bad. Your prosody varies wildly and when it's on point you sound quite good. Perhaps what's happening here is that you interpret normal English stress-timing as 'rushing your speech' and are consciously trying to suppress it while your subconscious is trying to do the right thing. English is meant to sound like you're slurring half the syllables, don't fight it!
DancesWithDawgz•
100% understandable. I can understand you easily but the accent is clearly Asian. You could work on making TH as a lingua-dental fricative, not as a T/D. Also, you could work more on certain vowels such as in accurate.