Monday, August 31, 2009

Bought American Accent Textbook

Hi Everyone!

I have just uploaded my second video on YouTube. Please check out this video, which is about the American accent textbook that I've bought this afternoon at a local bookstore in Singapore:



As I have mentioned in the video, this is a learning kit specialized in accent reduction.

The reason why I've bought American Accent Training is that, after I had watched my first YouTube video, I felt that my English accent still leaves a lot to be desired, and I decided that I really should do something about it.

This learning kit cost me 72.48 Singapore dollars (approximately USD 50). If I can really master a correct American accent, I think it's well worth the price.

From today onwards, I plan to study this material bit by bit everyday, and get my accent gradually corrected. I hope by the time I complete this book, I will be able to speak English with a more natural accent.

In the course of learning to speak American English, I will be posting more videos on YouTube, so you can also monitor my progress as I go along. Hope you will check out those videos also.

As always, you are welcome to post your comments on my videos, as I would really like to improve myself.

Many thanks for watching this video.

Talk to you again soon!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

My First Video on YouTube!

Good afternoon from Singapore!

It's been quite a while since my last posting on this English blog. Please forgive me for not updating this blog often enough!

I am writing this today to let you know that I have just uploaded my first video on YouTube, to give you a brief self-introduction. I am wearing sunglasses in the video, so as not to entirely give away my identity.



I'd been meaning to do this for quite some time, but given that I'm not really technologically savvy, I didn't even know what kind of device I should get in order to shoot a video and upload it on YouTube, and as such I had put it off until today.

In order to put an end to my procrastination, I went to an electronics appliances store in town yesterday and finally purchased a web cam.

The installation of this device was surprisingly easy, and it took me only a few minutes to figure out how to shoot a video. Since it's so easy, I can do a lot of YouTube postings from now on!

As I have mentioned in my video, the purpose of this YouTube posting is mainly to record and measure my progress in language acquisition, be it in English, Chinese or French. As I am striving to improve my accent in these languages and my presentation skills, it will be fun to watch my videos again in the future and look back over the progress I've made.

After shooting this video and watching it myself, I have found to my astonishment that my English accent and intonation sound very stiff and awkward, and it's still very far from that of native speakers of English. Obviously, my English still has a long way to go.

All the same, it's really fun to shoot a video of myself and watch it on the Internet, as it gives me an opportunity to analyze more objectively what I look and sound like to the others. I think I can make use of my self-shot videos to pinpoint my problem areas and correct my accent, so that it can approach perfection bit by bit.

Of course you are always welcome to post your comments or suggestions on my videos, as I would love to know what you think!

Many thanks for watching this video today. I will come back with more videos in the near future.

See you again soon!