A good way to learn

Discussion in 'Grammar & Pronunciation' started by dzurisova, May 5, 2006.

  1. dzurisova

    dzurisova Well-Known Member

    I've found a good way to learn to pronounce certain words or consonants is to download the word to your computer and assign the sound to an action you do often on your computer. For instance, I had difficulty learning to say tři and ctyři.

    So I downloaded them from a website and then went to control panel in sounds and assigned them to a function. For example, I assigned tři to the start function. Every time I clicked on the start, I would hear the word tři. I did this at work so I clicked on it several times a day. I assigned ctyři to another function such as opening an email. So every time I opened an email, I heard the word ctyři. It's amazing how hearing the word over and over can help you say it. Before I knew it, I could say it right. I guess that's how we learn as children right?

    Now I have to assign the word středa. For some reason, I can't say that one. Too many consonants in a row.
     
  2. Zeisig

    Zeisig Well-Known Member

    The word středa has not more consonants than the English word street. :wink:
     
  3. mravenec

    mravenec Well-Known Member

    But one more vowel. :wink: :wink:
     
  4. dzurisova

    dzurisova Well-Known Member


    Very true. It must be the ř that makes it so difficult. I don't know why I have so much trouble with it but I do.

    My 23 year old step daughter was making fun of me that I couldn't say it, yet she wasn't saying it correctly either. She argued that she was saying it correctly so we had her dad and some other Czech people listen to her say it. They all said to her "You are cheating" She wasn't clearly pronouncing all the consonants.

    From that time on, I figured I would cheat as well. She got away with it for the 15 years she lived in CR, I figure I can too.
     
  5. Zeisig

    Zeisig Well-Known Member

    I had some troubles with spelling of the English equivalent - Wednesday.

    The next day of the week is čtvrtek - it is difficult as well.
     
  6. mravenec

    mravenec Well-Known Member

    To be fair, it is a lot harder to pronounce than street. I used to find it hard to pronounce too. You'll just have to practice, practice and practice... :wink:
     
  7. milton

    milton Well-Known Member

    Yeah.. I would say for those of you lucky enough to have Czech parents, then you got a BIG ONE UP, on the rest of us. For the rest of us though, even before we can even BEGIN to speak Czech, we need to be able to HEAR Czech. When I first decided to learn Czech, I started going to sites like LocalLingo.com and started listening to the sound bytes, however I knew right away... I wasn't going to be able to mimick the sounds right if I didn't HEAR the sounds.

    Anyways, It has been determined that when a child goes through the "normal" process of learning a language, this said child goes through on average "300,000" hours of pure listening, or programming of the mind, if you will. During this 300,000 hours a child learns and determines what NOISE is and learns to filter it out.

    Well--- now that I'm in my thirties, I don't learn languages NEARLY as fast as I use to, however I refuse to give up and Czech is no exception. I decided to FIGHT BACK. I don't have the luxury of putting in 300,000 hours of just sitting on my hands

    One of the things I do to HEAR Czech daily is that I go to http://www.rozhlas.cz/portal/portal/ or http://www.radio.cz and I download whatever spoken radio news blurbs I can get (usually in mp3 format). The more the better- Top Stories news, sports, culture, cooking --- WHATEVER!!!!!

    I then upload these mp3s to my mp3 player and I go to bed w/ some headphones on and listen to spoken czech subconsciencously while I sleep. Does it work?? I'm convinced that it does. I'm convinced you can "NICKEL and DIME" your way into speaking and understanding GREAT Czech.
     
  8. Kikko

    Kikko Well-Known Member

    when i cant pronunce a word with ř, i start by pronuncing it like it's divided in two.

    ex. kuře... i start pronuncing ku then ře

    Thats cause i think its prettz easz to pronunce ř at the beginnin of the word. Then i just keep doing that faster and faster and voila... the word.

    The same with čc (ex. v ledničce)
     
  9. Jana

    Jana Well-Known Member

    Well, I wonder who determined it, as 300,000 hours represent more than 34 years of life (supposing the "child" is "listening or programming the mind" 24 hours a day)!!!
     
  10. Sova

    Sova Well-Known Member

    :lol: I wonder if an extra zero got thrown in there by mistake!
     

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