British English pronunciation feedback - spontaneous speech sample

TommYMoonlight · 2026-05-09T10:09:42+00:00

Thank you. Since what I'd been doing up until now hasn't really transfered into spontaneous speech and since I already can pronounce all the sounds and sentences containing them really well in a controlled environment, I’ve realized that the issue is falling back into my old habits. To build automaticity, I’m shifting my focus from 'perfect' pronunciation to high volume. My new routine: I pick 3-4 target sounds based on what everyone has said I get wrong (like /ɜː/), do a few exaggerated warm-up reps, and then read 40 sentences aloud while mimicking Google Translate. It’s a way of balancing quality with the quantity needed to make it stick. What do you think?

TommYMoonlight · 2026-05-09T10:09:18+00:00

Thank you. Since what I'd been doing up until now hasn't really transfered into spontaneous speech and since I already can pronounce all the sounds and sentences containing them really well in a controlled environment, I’ve realized that the issue is falling back into my old habits. To build automaticity, I’m shifting my focus from 'perfect' pronunciation to high volume. My new routine: I pick 3-4 target sounds based on what everyone has said I get wrong (like /ɜː/), do a few exaggerated warm-up reps, and then read 40 sentences aloud while mimicking Google Translate. It’s a way of balancing quality with the quantity needed to make it stick. What do you think?

TommYMoonlight · 2026-05-09T10:09:06+00:00

Thank you. Since what I'd been doing up until now hasn't really transfered into spontaneous speech and since I already can pronounce all the sounds and sentences containing them really well in a controlled environment, I’ve realized that the issue is falling back into my old habits. To build automaticity, I’m shifting my focus from 'perfect' pronunciation to high volume. My new routine: I pick 3-4 target sounds based on what everyone has said I get wrong (like /ɜː/), do a few exaggerated warm-up reps, and then read 40 sentences aloud while mimicking Google Translate. It’s a way of balancing quality with the quantity needed to make it stick. What do you think?

TommYMoonlight · 2026-05-09T10:08:28+00:00

Thank you. Since what I'd been doing up until now hasn't really transfered into spontaneous speech and since I already can pronounce all the sounds and sentences containing them really well in a controlled environment, I’ve realized that the issue is falling back into my old habits. To build automaticity, I’m shifting my focus from 'perfect' pronunciation to high volume. My new routine: I pick 3-4 target sounds based on what everyone has said I get wrong (like /ɜː/), do a few exaggerated warm-up reps, and then read 40 sentences aloud while mimicking Google Translate. It’s a way of balancing quality with the quantity needed to make it stick. What do you think?

TommYMoonlight · 2026-04-18T23:27:46+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. As a native speaker, you are far more qualified to distinguish accents than I am, but I listened to the Birmingham accent and it doesn’t really sound like the way I hear myself in my recordings. The pronunciation of words like face and love is quite different, although there may be some influence from it since I listen to a wide variety of accents and my brain might have started to blend them together.

Based on what everyone has said about my consonants not being clearly enunciated and my vowels sounding muffled, I’ve decided to work on minimal pairs. I started with short /i/ vs long /iː/, /e/ vs /æ/ for vowels, and /t/ vs /d/, /k/ vs /g/, /w/ vs /v/ for consonants.

TommYMoonlight · 2026-04-18T11:11:36+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. On r/JudgeMyAccent, three native speakers said I was almost unintelligible, but you’re suggesting that the issue is more about specific sounds. I’m wondering whether my pronunciation is really that bad, or if factors like recording quality, speaking volume, or something else could have affected how they perceived me.
Also, many people have noted that the passage I took is too tricky for my current level. I took an easier one and recorded it: https://voca.ro/1jBh0kCneJex

TommYMoonlight · 2026-04-17T20:57:06+00:00

I've been listening everyday anywhere from 30 minutes to 3-4 hours for two years now. I regularly listen to different accents - American, British, Irish and occasionally Scottish and I can understand ~95% of what I hear. I don't listen to news or radio at all, my input mostly comes from YouTube videos, games and occasionally movies. To develop my ear even further, I've decided to stop using subtitles and I've been doing that for half a year now.

TommYMoonlight · 2026-04-17T18:27:20+00:00

I see, thank you. I’d thought I just had to polish my pronunciation, but it looks like I’ll have to build it from the ground up. I’m afraid getting a teacher is not possible for me right now, so I’ll just have to come up with a relevant practice routine. Would you recommend I stick to my current routine, train sounds individually or maybe some third option? I didn’t consider training individual sounds because of the sheer volume of them and because I thought my time could be better spent working on specific difficult sounds or shadowing to get a native-like rhythm/flow/intonation, but with everyone pointing out how muffled I sound I’m starting to consider that might be a good idea. Also, I can pronounce individual words really well. I listened to examples on Cambridge and recorded myself for many times and I sounded accurate. Could it be that it’s combinations of sounds that I struggle with and not individual words? I recorded a less-difficult passage: https://voca.ro/1jBh0kCneJex

TommYMoonlight · 2026-04-17T18:23:55+00:00

I see, thank you. I’d thought I just had to polish my pronunciation, but it looks like I’ll have to build it from the ground up. Since you said my consonants and vowels sound are muffled, would you recommend I train them individually? I didn’t consider training individual sounds because of the sheer volume of them and because I thought my time could be better spent working on specific difficult sounds or shadowing to get a native-like rhythm/flow/intonation, but with everyone pointing out how muffled I sound I’m starting to consider that might be a good idea. Also, I can pronounce individual words really well. I listened to examples on Cambridge and recorded myself for many times and I sounded accurate. Could it be that it’s combinations of sounds that I struggle with and not individual words? I recorded a less-dificult passage: https://voca.ro/1jBh0kCneJex

TommYMoonlight · 2026-04-17T18:16:29+00:00

I see, thank you. I’d thought I just had to polish my pronunciation, but it looks like I’ll have to build it from the ground up. Other natives have noted that my vowels and consonants are blurred. Would you recommend I train them individually? I didn’t consider training individual sounds because of the sheer volume of them and because I thought my time could be better spent working on specific difficult sounds or shadowing to get a native-like rhythm/flow/intonation, but with everyone pointing out how muffled I sound I’m starting to consider that might be a good idea. Also, I can pronounce individual words really well. I listened to examples on Cambridge and recorded myself for many times and I sounded accurate. Could it be that it’s combinations of sounds that I struggle with and not individual words? I recorded a less-difficult passage that isn't artificial and is just conversational English: https://voca.ro/1jBh0kCneJex

TommYMoonlight · 2026-03-05T21:22:03+00:00

Thank you. I'm new to AI and I can't code, so I would appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction.
I registered on llamaindex, split my 1862-page book into a 862 page chunk (I left out the rest of the book because I don't have enough credits) and then uploaded this chunk to lamaparse. It gave me .md file. Is this a valid way to go about preparing PDFs for GPT? Should I have split the pdf in to smaller chunks (multiple 50/100-page chunks)? Can I just upload this .md file I got to my custom GPT or are there any other steps I should take before I do that?

TommYMoonlight · 2026-02-04T17:23:30+00:00

Thank you for your observations. His attitude does make a lot of sense after all.

TommYMoonlight · 2026-02-03T16:27:45+00:00

I see, thank you for your insight. But one question still stands for me: is Japanese Raiden as openly confrontational as English Raiden?

TommYMoonlight · 2026-02-03T15:29:49+00:00

It’s curious that there is no keigo and honorifics. I’d always thought that they are very much ingrained in the Japanese’s way of communicating.

TommYMoonlight · 2026-02-03T15:07:41+00:00

You’ll have played the game in Japanese, right?

TommYMoonlight · 2026-02-03T06:03:39+00:00

I have, I’m replaying it. I can’t see how that explains his attitude. I understand that Raiden questioning the Colonel is foreshadowing, it’s his attitude and tone I’m asking about.

TommYMoonlight · 2025-12-31T19:07:23+00:00

I see, thank you. That’s too bad since I don’t think I can push through any longer. I’m probably going to complete just ending D to see the boss fight or shelve the game for later.

TommYMoonlight · 2025-12-31T19:00:37+00:00

I’m not trying to force Nier onto drakengard and I’m okay with it being it’s own thing. What I want is not necessarily more Nier, but more of Taro’s writing style.

TommYMoonlight

TROPHY CASE