Pronunciation is the sister who sometimes gets ignored because the new twins in the family, grammar and vocabulary, are just so cute.
Saying things the right way is an essential part of communication, and should be given more priority, yet what we mean by ‘pronunciation’ may not be the most important aspect of it.
Many teachers and students alike seem to believe that pronunciation is ‘saying the individual sounds of words correctly.’ A lot of people seem to look at it from a technical angle, but if you just want to focus on this part of it, you can just look at these 2 questions:
- Are you speaking clearly?
- Is the listener able to follow what you’re trying to say with ease?
That’s pretty much it. If you’re speaking clearly, then you needn’t worry about pronunciation, at least as it’s typically thought of.
Note here I didn’t say ‘correctly’, I said ‘clearly.’ This is because native English speakers can say basic, everyday words a little differently. For example, ask an American, New Zealander, Brit and Australian to say ‘cat’ and you’ll slightly different responses.
And then within each country there are regional differences, and so on.
So saying the words clearly is more than enough here.
If you want to go a little deeper, and be more effective in your speech, it might be better to focus on what we call ‘stress‘ – how strongly or how much we emphasis one syllable in a word, or indeed how strongly we may say one word in a sentence compared to the others.
Stress relates to the first point in that the words which are most important for you to say need to be said more clearly and with better impact than the other words in the sentence.
Then there’s intonation – how your voice rises or falls, the ‘song’ of your speech.
In short, saying the words clearly, using stress to highlight the most important words in your sentence, and using intonation and other pronunciation devices (like pausing just before you say the most important word, to add impact to your speech) all help you speak clearly.
If you’re speaking clearly, then, again, you have nothing to worry about.
And you needn’t worry about picking up an Australian, British or American accent!
More on accents another time. But one thing which seems to get overlooked is that pronunciation is something which helps you convey meaning.
How you speak will communicate a message in itself, and it’s something native speakers use to deliver the message they’re trying to say.
Just like how the tone of what you write in a letter can affect how the reader responds, the tone of your speech will affect the interaction.
The biggest thing to remember
I was in a restaurant on Saturday with a friend. After the meal, the waitress asked us if everything was alright.
“Did you like it?” she asked.
But, actually, while the words she choose made her sentence a question, her flat intonation, with no emotion in her voice, and a look on her face which said “I don’t like my job” communicated to us both that it was just a line she was probably told to say by her boss.
A question became a statement to us just because of how she said it.
This leads to the main point: how you come across and use pronunciation to communicate your message is a lot more important than worrying about ‘British English’ or ‘American English’ or any other kind of English.
The café story
I remember another case earlier this year when a waitress at a café in the Palladium shopping centre spoke to a group of tourists from India. The Indians were taking a little longer to order, and as we’ve all experienced at some time in Prague, the waitress got annoyed. Very annoyed.
For example, they asked about the size of the cup or the kind of milk. A normal question in Melbourne and other cities where I’ve lived, but this is not the Prague way.
The Prague way is that you go up to the counter after you know what you want. You then say what you want and that’s it – no questions, no interaction with the staff.
Regrettably, the Indians didn’t know this, and the woman spoke to them in an increasingly impatient and rude tone.
“They’re such racists,” my British friend opined.
I then defended the Czech staff, to some degree by saying: “it’s not racism, it’s just that the Indians don’t know how Czech society works – in our countries society functions well when people interact and communicate, but here the bare minimum is the done thing.”
From just a short interaction in a Prague café, which we’ve all seen a hundred times in this city, you can make the following conclusions about pronunciation and communication:
- As they say, when in Rome…wherever you are, you should try to learn how things are done in the country you’re visiting. The Indian tourists, for example, made no gesture to the Czech staff that they were asking for more than what is the norm. Something like “I don’t mean to keep you, but can I just ask a few things about your coffee..?” might have helped the situation.
- A pronunciation mistake is usually far worse than a grammatical mistake. Not only did the people involved in the interaction probably walk away with the feeling she was very rude, but bystanders such as my friend went as far as to say she was racist.
- In your average shop or business that deals with tourists, customers don’t walk away talking about someone’s pronunciation or their level of English. Instead, you get “she seemed friendly” or “she was a real pain” or “boy, there’s someone who hates their job.” So how you come across is important.
- While ‘we’re in Rome’ and need to try to do things the Czech way, if you want to attract foreign customers in Prague it will help to learn more about how your foreign customers do business and interact in their cultures.
On a more positive note
There are two cafés right near the office and I’ve seen both owners chat with their customers, in both Czech and in English.
“Welcome to Café Colore,” Martin says to new customers, with a welcoming and glowing voice.
“Hi how’s it going, David,” asks the owner of Friends Coffee House, Tomáš, in a friendly upbeat way.
In both cafés Martin and Tomáš don’t just say the words, they also show they mean what they say by speaking in a positive, welcoming manner.
How they speak to their customers is probably a big part of why they seem to be doing well, and attracting not just locals, but also tourists and expats from all over the world. Recently I brought a potential student from Venezuela to one of the cafés, and she walked away really impressed with how welcome she felt.
It’s a question of focus
When it comes to pronunciation, it’s more than enough to:
- Speak clearly
- Pay attention to what kind of message you want to communicate, how you come across to others.
You don’t have to worry about getting a perfect accent from Britain, Australia, or wherever.
Instead, think about:
If you’re at a party chatting to someone, are you showing that you’re interested in what they have to say?
If you’re in business, are you showing that you appreciate someone’s custom?
If you’re in a job interview, are you showing that you’re competent and keen to do the job?
This is something that we all have to consider, not just students, but native speakers too.
Photo credits
Image Mark Shallcross
Licence CC by 2.0
Hana Kadlecová says
Hi David!
This is one of my favourite articles from you. I totally share your point of view about being clear and showing your interest – who cares about a slip in grammar if you are a genuinely nice person… Thanks for sharing 🙂
David Sweetnam says
Hi Hanka
Welcome back to Prague, and thanks for popping in. Out of interest, what have you been taught from your teachers at school or university about pronunciation?
See you soon
David
Francisco Javier says
You said it!