A Cost-Effective Way to Improve Your English: The Benefits of Learning Pronunciation from Books Based on Personal Experience
My highest TOEIC score is 675.
These days, that is by no means a high score. Many people achieve high scores on the TOEIC.
However, during my time working as an expatriate in Thailand, I did not struggle much with English, whether in business or my personal life.
That is not all.
I was told many times by Japanese colleagues, Thai people, native English speakers, and other foreigners,
"Your English is good."
Of course, this likely includes the implication of "compared to other Japanese people."
Even so, why was I, with a TOEIC score of 675, told that my English was good?
I believe one of the reasons is
pronunciation.
"How did you improve your English?"
When people tell me my English is good, I am sometimes asked,
"How did you improve your English?"
To that, I answer,
"Through books."I am a theoretical, studious type.
Commonly heard methods for studying English include:
"School studies are useless."
"Just listen to a lot of English and let the rhythm soak in."
"The shortest path is to make foreign friends or a partner."
"Practice makes perfect."
Of course, I do not mean to say these are meaningless.
In fact, I think they are effective ways to acquire English.
However, at the very least, the major factor that allowed me to use English and be told by both Japanese colleagues and foreigners that my English is good was not those.
In my case, it was pronunciation.
I logically understood and corrected the English sounds that Japanese people struggle with, rather than relying on intuition.And I did not learn that pronunciation through conversations with foreigners or at an English conversation school.
It was through books.
My first overseas assignment in my 30s. Even then, I was studying only pronunciation.
Until I was assigned to Thailand in my 30s, I had almost no opportunities to converse with foreigners.
As for English, I had only studied it to the extent of standard junior high and high school curriculum.
However, during my university days, I decided to take the TOEIC before job hunting.
At that time, I happened to come across a book about pronunciation.
That was "Eigo Mimi" (English Ear).
I think many people know it.
This book introduces the concept that
"You cannot hear sounds that you cannot pronounce yourself."
At the time, I wanted to strengthen my listening skills for TOEIC preparation.
Normally, one would buy a TOEIC workbook and listen to the CD repeatedly.
However, instead of just listening to English endlessly on the workbook's CD, I thought,
"First, I should study the sounds of English themselves."And so, I used "Eigo Mimi" to learn pronunciation.
What I learned from "Eigo Mimi"
I will not write in detail about the specific content or lesson methods of the book here.
I highly recommend you read the book yourself.
Nowadays, there is plenty of information about English pronunciation on the internet and YouTube.
What I learned from "Eigo Mimi" and still keep in mind when using English today is mainly the following:
How to pronounce English consonants and vowels
Pronunciation that Japanese people often get wrong
English phonetic symbols and how to produce each sound
I believe that understanding these points was a big deal.
Of course, this alone will not make you fluent in English.
You also need vocabulary and grammar.
You also need experience in actually using English.
Even so,knowing pronunciation is a huge advantage when speaking English.
At the very least, for me, it was a very cost-effective way to learn English.
"Your English is good. Very clear English."
A Thai colleague once said that to me.
And then they continued, saying this:
"Japanese English is sometimes hard to understand. For example, why do Japanese people say 'pinku' for pink and 'chokoreeto' for chocolate? And how do you pronounce Twitter?"
I laughed and explained,
"English sounds are difficult for Japanese people. For example, the /tw/ in Twitter doesn't exist in Japanese, and the /t/ in the middle of a word is a different sound in English than the Japanese 'ta'."
"But you can say Twitter. Why?"
"Because I studied English pronunciation from a book."
I answered.
Having had such a fun conversation, I believe that "there is meaning in learning pronunciation from a book."
I have also been told by an Australian, "You speak with an American accent."
I have never been to America. I suppose American English has become my foundation through teaching materials and movies.
The reason I struggled with English pronunciation
Actually, I have bitter memories regarding English pronunciation from when I was a junior high school student.
In the 1990s, the environment for learning English was not as well-equipped as it is now.
There was no YouTube.
There was no internet.
There was no environment where you could listen to English audio at any time.
English classes started at school, we read textbooks, and looked up word meanings in a dictionary.
That was the basic study method.
However, I wasnot good at 'learning by sound'.
Even when I saw English words in the textbook, they were not read phonetically like Romaji.
Then, how should I pronounce them?
I look at the dictionary.
There, unfamiliar symbols are lined up.
I ask my parents or teachers, "How do you pronounce this?"
Then, they would say,
"Isn't the pronunciation written right there?"
and point to the phonetic symbols.
However, as a student who had just entered junior high, I did not know how to read those phonetic symbols.
Some look similar to the alphabet.
But there are also symbols that are different from the regular alphabet.
How do you pronounce each symbol?
I wanted to know that.
However, the answer that came back was,
"That is not something you are taught by someone. You listen to a lot of English and naturally come to understand it."This is the so-called "practice makes perfect."
At the time, I had no choice but to think,
"Is that how it is?"
"Is my studying not enough?"
and accept it.
If I were my current self, I would teach my younger self something different.
“There are proper rules for pronunciation. So, you should just get someone to teach you them at the start.”
That is what I would say.
Phonetic symbols also have their own meanings.
There are things you can understand, such as mouth shape, tongue position, and how to release your breath.
If you try to 'listen a lot and pick it up naturally' without knowing those things, it takes time through trial and error.
In some cases, you might even learn the wrong pronunciation.
Of course, you ultimately need to listen to and speak a lot of English.
However, that doesn't mean you have to rely entirely on 'getting used to it' from the beginning.
Rather, I believe it is better to understand the parts that can be explained by logic right from the start.
That is what I think.
Why Japanese people's English tends to become 'Katakana English'
When Japanese people speak English, it tends to become Katakana English.
This is something often said.
I believe one of the reasons for this is that we are not taught phonetic symbols. I was the same way.
I would memorize the meanings of English words.
I would study grammar, too.
However,
I wasn't taught enough about 'what kind of sounds to use to pronounce those words.'
At least, that was the case when I was in junior high and high school.
That is precisely why, when I learned pronunciation through 'Eigo Mimi' (English Ear),
I had a feeling of, 'I see. So that's what it was.'
I was finally able to resolve the bitter memory of 'not understanding pronunciation' that I had felt back in junior high school, many years later.
The fact that I became able to look up and repeatedly confirm the pronunciation of English words on my own was a big deal.
Until then, I had no choice but to rely on my memory from the moment I heard the audio.
Because of that, my memory would change, I would make mistakes based on the spelling, or I would often be dragged along by my friends' Katakana English.
I am very grateful for 'Eigo Mimi'.
Of course, I am not fluent in English
Despite writing all this, I am not fluent in English.
When talking to a native speaker, if they don't speak slowly one-on-one, I can't understand much of it.
Even if I watch a foreign movie without subtitles, I hardly understand what they are saying.
My highest TOEIC score is also 675.
Even so, I don't have much resistance to communicating with foreigners.
That is because I feel, 'I can convey what I am thinking,' and 'The other person will adjust to my English level and speak in simple English.'
And I think part of that confidence is supported by the feeling that **'my English pronunciation is not that bad.'**
Thinking about the 'cost-effectiveness' of English learning
To master English, you ultimately have to memorize words.
Grammar is also necessary.
Listening a lot and speaking a lot are also necessary.
The experience of actually talking to foreigners is also important.
I have no intention of denying those things.
However, I would like you to add one option to that:
'learning pronunciation systematically.'
Can you read phonetic symbols? Do you know that there are multiple 'a' sounds in English?
I believe that just by learning that, you can enter the category of people who are good at English among Japanese people.
In my case, it started with one book.
Even though I had hardly spoken to any foreigners until I was in my 30s, I became able to be told that my 'English is good' while on an overseas assignment.
I made foreign friends, spent the day hanging out with them, and had natural conversations in English.
I had the experience of coming to my senses and feeling, 'I've been conversing in English the whole time, but in my heart, I don't distinguish it from when I'm talking to a Japanese person.'
I don't think the reason for all of that is just pronunciation.
However,
there is no doubt that learning pronunciation gave my English a huge advantage. I think people who received a very ordinary English education in junior high and high school like me will surely feel the effect.
Even if you listen carefully to your school teacher's English,
or listen to Western music for hours and hours, it is difficult to produce native-level English pronunciation on your own.
I think it is also important to learn English pronunciation systematically through books.
I myself would like to continue learning English from here on out.
I would be happy if this article could be of some reference to those who are studying English.
