Final Reflection: If I compare my first recording with the last one, I can definitely see some progress in my speech and pronunciation. I prefered the AmE. pronunciation before this semester, but didn't realize that there are more differences than I thought there would be. Before that I only paid attention to the american and english “R” pronunciation. That is why the assignment 6 was very beneficial to me. It helped me to understand the differences between the british and american pronunciation. I have learned how to not sound stupid. The first recordings were awful. I didn’t connect words. In addition, the speed was not sufficient. I think that the assignment 4 and 5 opened my eyes, because after these two assignments I could see an improvement. I really tried to focus more on connecting words than before the assignment 4 and 5. I also think that I have improved the fluency of my reading since I started reading tongue twisters and imitating random news reports in my individual tasks. In my point of view, it is the best way to improve English skills. Furthermore, it made me move my mouth more, because when I listened to some news reporter, it was really fast and fluent. First tries of my imitating were bad. When I replayed my recording, it did not understand myself. However, after a few recordings, I could see some progress. I also gained a lot of vocabulary, especially form the news reports and the long texts in my individual tasks. So many new words were in the recording 6.5 about Vladimir Putin. For example glistening, masculinity, suave etc. On the other hand, I must say that I still have problems with names of people, like Ian Somerhalder or in the last recording Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice. It was really difficult to read because there were so many “R’s” and “L’s”. Another thing I have to improve is the “TH” sound. I always tried to focus on it, but sometimes I just simply forgot. When I listened to my recordings, I heard a few times “dat”, “dis”, “der.” Lastly, I would mention the description of the picture and the video. It is definitely one of my biggest weaknesses. All in all, I think I have done a solid work.

Reflection: In the individual task I tried to imitate the video report about the demonstration in Oakland. This was definitely the hardest individual task I have ever done. A lot of difficult words. Especially the names of victims. Another difficult words were: “protesters”, “demonstrators”, “headquarters”. I had problems with some parts, such as: “accessing necessary paperwork for vehicle impound releases and property releases”, “three of these doors are our main ingress and egress…” I am just really really tired right now.

Reflection: Finding a good video took me a little while. This was definitely the best video I have found. I tried to find a clip from movie that I never seen before but everytime I tried to start the recording, there was no action in the video. I had to delete maybe like 10 recordings because the videos were boring. But like I said, this was the first good video with a plenty of action. The worst parts were when they were talking and when the box was falling down. I should have say little bit more about it, e.g.: “Their bones might be broken“ or something like that. I could not remember the word “arrows.” I have made some mistakes. For example “The helicopter starts shooting at them” and “They smashed into the water”

Reflection: In the individual task I tried to imitate the video report about Kendrick’s new deal. The most difficult thing was to copy the speed of the reporter but I think I did a good job. There were some words that I had problems with. For example: endorsement, ventilator or frequently were quite difficult. I also had some problems with these sentences: Collaborating on limited edition styles of the brands 90s ventilator model. – However, Kendrick himself says that he’s been a fan of the brand as far back as a seven grade. Especially the “as far back as“ part.

Reflection: I must say that it was very difficult to speak about a picture that I have never seen before. I tried to find the words but the speech was not fluent. I know that we should correct just the sentences and phrases that could be expressed in a better way but the whole recording was horrible. I did not speak fluently, therefore I have decided to proofread almost the whole recording. I must definitely work on connecting the sentences.

 

Reflection:
Rogue Irish police officers colluded with the IRA throughout the Troubles, even helping to prevent its entire army council from being arrested during a critical temporary ceasefire, a former director of intelligence for the republican movement has claimed. 

Elite figures in Irish society even ferried IRA weapons around in top-of-the-range cars and hid wanted activists in houses in some of the most affluent areas of Dublin such as Killiney – now home to multi-millionaires and rock stars such as U2’s Bono and the Edge – according to Conway. 

In the individual task I tried to read two random paragraphs from the article about IRA. I chose it, because there are some words that are new to me and some words that are difficult to pronounce. I did not know how to pronounce "ceasefire." Also the "multi-millionaire" and "temporary" were quite difficult to pronounce. I had some problems with "in top-of-the-range cars". I alway separated some words from this phrase.The paragraphs were difficult to read, because the sentences are quite long.

Reflection: I chose the scene from The Equalizer. The most difficult thing was to copy the speed, especially in the Denzel's sentences. I was struggling with some phrases. For example "that decision" or "the opportunity." These are normally easy to say in standart speed, however in full speed, it is quite hard. I had to repeat "I would never go back to being that person" like hundred times to remember it.This scene was also interresting because there is the russian accent. I tried to imitate the russian A and R in "the answer", "other" and "bottle". It was not difficult, but the transition into the american english was sometimes hard.

Reflection: In the individual task I tried to read two tongue twisters. The first one was little bit easier. It was just warm up. I had to focus on pronunciation differences between very and wary. That was the biggest problem. The second tongue twister was much harder. I made a lot of mistakes there. Basically everything with TH was hard to pronounce. The most difficult part was "these three trees." I had problems with recognizing which one is which, because these words look similar.

Reflection: In my opinion, the words weren't anything difficult. There were only two problematic words – through and neither. The tempo in the first sentence was quite fast. I was always slower than the recording but I fixed it. I had no problems with the other two sentences. It was normal tempo. However I had to focus more on pauses. For example between ten and carefully or those and neither. I was usually slow in first sentence but than I wanted to catch the tempo and I skipped pauses between those words that I mentioned. Most of my attempts were under 20 seconds and finally the last attempt was the best one after comparing it to the original recording.

Reflection:

In the race for manliest world leader, Vladimir Putin has been leaving all others in the dust for years. Already famous for his iron-pumping, horse-riding, tiger-hunting ways and his affinity for being photographed sans shirt with buff pectorals prominently glistening, the Russian president proved at a world summit Monday night that his irrepressible masculinity also has a suave side.

In the individual task I tried to read short part of the article about Vladimir Putin’s politeness. There was a lot of new words to me and also some difficult words. I didn’t even know how to pronounce Vladimir Putin’s name. I had to search irrepressible and masculinity. Those were the hardest words. I was surprised by the word suave. I tought that it would be pronounced as the word suede. I also was curious about the word sans. The other hard words were pectorals and glistening.

Reflection:
My car is in the garage. – I want to visit New York city. – This package is fragile. – I can’t speak with british accent. - Thank you Lord Jesus for saving me with your precious blood. In Jesus name, Amen.

I really enjoyed this recording. I always wanted to know the differences between these two accents. The first accent is always american and the second is british. I have to say that speaking with british accent was very unnatural for me, because I am used to american accent more. Every sentence in american accent was much easier than the sentence in british accent. I had to repete the recording couple times, because I didn’t like how the british accent sounded. The hardest words were New York and Lord, both in british accent.

Reflection: In the individual task I tried to read short tongue twister, which I found on the internet. 

Something in a thirty-acre thermal thicket of thorns and thistles thumped and thundered threatening the three-D thoughts of Matthew the thug - although, theatrically, it was only the thirteen-thousand thistles and thorns through the underneath of his thigh that the thirty year old thug thought of that morning.

As you can see, it was focused on "TH" pronouncing and it was hell. After first attempt my tongue felt like I was lifting weights with it. Of course it wasn't just one attempt. I think there was six of them. I made a lot of mistakes in part "...thirteen-thousand thistles and thorns through the underneath of his thigh that the thirty..."

Reflection: The hardest sentences were no.8 and no.9. I had to repeat it very slow and it took me couple attempts to say it correctly. Those sentences with "umbrella" were like some tongue twister. To many R's for me. Also "their children" in the first sentence was quite difficult to say. I misspoked few times in sentence no.3 and no.10. There is ...to London OR from London... but I said ...to London "ALL" from London... or I said "FLOM" like 2 times. R's and L's together is something which I have trouble with. 

Reflection: In the individual task I tried to read a short section from Edgar Allan Poe's Fall of the House of Usher. I think it was a good challenge for me. Lot of difficult words, which I didn't even know. Tempestuous, impetuous, velocity, turrets... I can even remember how many times I tried to read it without mistake. First tries were somewhere arond 1 minute 5 seconds, but I got better and final version was around 45 seconds. 

Reflection: I think, I had no big problems with these words except United States of America and packed in ice. I just read those phrases 5 times to remember it and I recorded it. I also added up some of my phrases which I found. - Give me, Kind of, Forget it, Cruise up, Out of - All of them are from rap song by Notorious B.I.G- Gimme the loot. I think that the rappers speak fast and they really make the phrases sound shorter than in a normal talk. For example in the name of the song Gimme = Give me and then Kinda = Kind of, Outta = Out of...

Reflection: In this part, I focused on words that sound almost the same. I took the inspiration from youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rhL51ffI_c. That was the warm up and than I was ready to read those other 12 names from the list, which I also prepared. These words were much more difficult to pronounce than the other 10 from previous recording. Especially Assassin’s Creed, Avril Lavigne, Taylor Lautner and that bastard Ian Somerhalder. I have a serious problem with this guy. Oh, wait, not with this guy but with his name. I had to google him, because I wanted to see who am I dealing with.

Reflection: Now, this was fun. Most of the names I don't even know. I had to search almost everything, because I wasn't sure how to pronounce some of them. Then I wrote the pronunciation like Leonardo DiCaprio[Lionerdou DiKepriou]. Sorry for the Czenglish J but I’m not good enough in using phonetic symbols. The worst names were Leonardo DiCaprio and Hermione Granger. I started the second part with 3 names of NBA players. I think that the first two are difficult to pronounce, because there are to many R’s. Then of course I had to pick some of my favourite movie heroes like Jesus Shuttlesworth and Maximus Decimus Meridius (I love the scene). About a week ago I heard song and the hook was „Time for“ or something, but I was wrong. It was „Tom Ford“. It sounds almost the same.

Reflection 2.0: I had to look at some words to the dictionary, because I didn't know how to pronounce them. For example „analysis“, „laughter“, „sunbathing“, those are words, that I don’t use that often and I had to practise them for a while. Also the word „grapefruit“ was hard. Nine times out of ten I said it with mistake. It was little bit hard to catch my breath, because I have a cold. I tried to record these words only 2 times, because I felt like it would be waste of time, to record them again. I know, I can do it better, but not with stuffy nose. Reflection 2.5: thing threath thus smooth slither leather death brother although breath This was worse than the first recording because I had to find those words. I took some inspiration from youtube videos and like I said in the first Relation, it was hell to take a breath. It was like walk thirteen floors up. I recorded this 5 times and every time the voice was not clear as I wanted. Maybe I will try anything else. The voice recorder in my phone isn't that good so certain words may sound different, than I pronounced it. The hardest words were „threat“ and „thus“.

https://soundcloud.com/iam-oc/recording