When learning a foreign language, it is very important to develop the correct pronunciation. In order to achieve this, they do different exercises to memorize individual special sounds. It also helps communication with native speakers, watching movies on it and much more.
Useful notion
Transcription is a recording of the sound of a word. There are several types of it:
1. Phonetic transcription. Its purpose is to convey the sound of a foreign expression as fully and accurately as possible. For this, many special icons are used. The art of phonetic transcription is taught by linguists in universities. It is not as easy as it seems. Indeed, in addition to studying unusual characters, you need to develop the ability to quickly and quickly write down for the speaker, understand and use the basic laws of phonetics. Most often, phonetic transcription is used in the study of rare languages and dialects by professional linguists.
2. Practical transcription is a system for recording the approximate sound of foreign words using only the letters of the target language. Each of us has known her since school. English transcription is a recording of the sound of words and expressions in Cyrillic letters. In this case, special icons are not used. Therefore, the record differs slightly depending on which language through which alphabet is transcribed. That is, for French, practical transcription is not at all the same as it is for German or Japanese. But it’s still quite simple, and anyone studying a foreign language can use it.
Some general principles
Despite the fact that practical transcription of words is very easy, there are some general rules:
- It is worth trying to preserve the approximate sound form of the transcribed word;
- it is permissible and even desirable to convey some features that are not heard during pronunciation, but are visible when writing; for example,
double consonants or dumb vowels;
- it is necessary to take into account analogies in the languages involved in transcription;
- transcription is a sound recording system that has been used for many years; Over the years, there have been some traditions of the transmission of certain sounds, it is worth considering them.
Practical transcription, of course, does not accurately convey the sound of foreign words as phonetic, and at first you will make mistakes. But all this is a matter of practice. Over time, you will get used to the fact that “j” is the sound of the letter g, “ah” - i.
Here are a few more rules to make learning a language easier:
- Keep your handwritten dictionary of learned words. Just divide the notebook into three columns: in the first you will write the word in a foreign language, in the second - translation, and in the third - transcription.
- Watch movies, cartoons and TV shows in the language you are learning. First with subtitles, then without them. If you still have a poor understanding of foreign language by ear and unfamiliar films it’s hard for you to watch, review your loved ones, in which you know in advance each remark and exclamation. Your brain will match and remember old phrases in a new language.
- Think in the language you are learning, dream in it or keep your diary. And you can not be afraid - for mistakes there no one will definitely put you a deuce!
- Go to the country of the language you are studying, preferably alone. You will find yourself in a situation where you will be forced to listen and understand foreign speech.