http://www.hablamejoringles.com/
This is Zac Tobias and this is his blog: http://www.hablamejoringles.com/
He is a teacher in Madrid and, obviously, he teaches English there.
This is his BIO:
Me llamo Zac Tobias y soy un profesor y traductor norteamericano con más de 6 años de experiencia trabajando en Madrid. Esta página web es fruto de mis experiencias viviendo en España, enseñando inglés a hispanohablantes y reflexionando sobre las diferencias entre los dos idiomas y los problemas que suelen surgir.
You can read more about him if you visit his blog and make the most of his posts and the visitors' questions.
You can listen to some interesting points on pronunciation and even watch some videos and check how some Spanish celebrities speak English: Nadal, Barden, Pe and others. If they did it you can do it too!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-ubO1SgJRs&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53a2aJnqYlg&feature=player_embedded#at=26
I don't know what the problem is with Spanish people speaking in English, but generally we have a terrible accent... even people who have been living abroad for a long time have a really bad accent. I think we don't really focus on pronunciation and we don't realize how different it is, compared to the Spanish one. I once met a girl who had just obtained a university diploma ("licenciatura") on "Traducción e Interpretación", being English her main foreign language. She had spent a whole course studying in Northern Ireland as an "Erasmus" and a month in Malta studying English. When I met her, we were both working in Ireland and whenever we had to talk to our boss (a native Irish woman) about anything, I was the one who had to do the talking, because our boss couldn't understand her... I couldn't understand how she had got her diploma and how she had spent such a long time in English-speaking countries without improving her pronunciation!!
ReplyDeleteWith this, I don't mean to say that my own pronunciation is perfect. But at least I make an effort to improve it, I pay a lot of attention to the native speakers when I see movies or TV shows in English, and I am understood by everybody!!
Hi Marta,
ReplyDeleteProbably our teaching system has been focusing too much on Grammar and Writing over the past decades. Now it's time to start listening and speaking, writing, wacthing films in English, etc. and, as you say, trying to realize, as Spaniards, we must improve our pronuciation and be less shy when it comes to talking for a while.