Can you point out what I need to improve in order to sound RP?

Question

https://vocaroo.com/hP93xrQcGLgHere is my recording, thanks in advance.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Bách T?t Phan Can you point out what I need to improve in order to sound RP?

First of all you need to improve your pronunciation generally so that it remains consistently good throughout everything you say. Your recording has some segments which are very good and easy to understand, but others where it's hard to know what is being said.

Particularly difficult are the place names. "London" and "America" were fine, but I never did understand that place name in Japan, and it took me several times through the excerpt to understand "Greensburg", which I kept hearing as "Greensboro". I did not understand the name of the university on Cyprus, which is pronounced /'sa?pr?s/, by the way.

The first thing I heard was "Steve. Was born in child care in Japan". I think "child care" is wrong and is actually the name of a city. I can't say for sure.

Anyway, your stress patterns, while usually pretty good, are not correct in some cases. You pronounce "Steve" at the beginnings of sentences as if they were the ends of sentences. That happens because you're using falling tone on the name "Steve", which tends to separate the word from those that follow, when you should be using a steady tone that blends into the next word.

I'm missing everything from "started school there" to the word "hospital". I have no idea what you're saying there.

"housewife" and similar expressions that consist of two nouns are nearly always stressed on the first noun, so you should be saying HOUSEwife, not houseWIFE.

Actually, once you get past "housewife" everything is understandable and sounds pretty good. You did better in the second half of your presentation.

You have a sort of English accent that is very nonspecific as to region. It sounds a little more British than American, so you're moving the the right direction, but you don't have anything so specific as an RP accent.

I think you must also ask yourself whether you really want that accent. I'm not British, but my understanding is that RP is being spoken less and less and by fewer and fewer people. You might do better to aim at an accent that is more widely spoken, perhaps the accent of middle-class people in London.

CJ

Note: In the future you should post this kind of question in our Speech and Pronunciation forum.

Can you point out what I need to improve in order to sound RP?

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