Even though I have been in US for 10 years I still have accent. My bad. I am no chatter. My "calendar" still sounds like "colander" to my manager's musically-trained ears.
I am not too worry about it because the message is what I usually concentrate more on (though mixing calendar and colander could present a potential problem ha ha). But when there is a chance for me to practice the pronunciation, I definitely take it.
So I skipped my lunch today to join a one-and-a-half-hour ESL (English as a Second Language) Pronunciation Group at the local library. I wasn't so surprised to see only female students there. :) I think most of them are a housewife and has time during the day. They are from all over the world. I admire their effort to learn and improve themselves. They took notes. They repeated the words. Many tried to share their thought, ask questions and give answers even with much struggle on the grammar and the pronunciation. And the teacher did her best to work with them.
It is very hard to live in a different environment where you can't express your thought and feeling the way you want to or used to. You helplessly lose levels your confidence, capability and personality all at the same time.
But I am sure that with determination, hardworking and a proper guidance the outcome will be rewarding.
So I am going to practice my HOLDup, hold UP, SETup, set UP, OBject, obJECT, HIStory, his STOry and the rest of the words and sentences I learnt today with the people in my office. Actually I already did all afternoon. We found it very funny because I need to overly exaggerate the accent on every word in order to get it right when it comes out naturally from the native speakers.
Have a LOVEly week