Help speaking in a new language?

[Kasperian]

So I'm learning german and I can write, listen and translate basic words fairly well.
However, I'm struggling with speaking, I have braces and as a result, am struggling to pronounce the words correctly.

Is there any way that I can improve my speech?

[Aziraphale]

Hey there!
I'm a German native speaker. I think the best way to improve your pronunciation is by watching a lot of YouTube tutorials on German pronunciation. There are some very good videos out there that can teach you how to pronounce tricky sounds like r, ch and ü correctly. I also recommend talking to yourself in your target language. Even if you can’t speak very fast or pronounce everything like a native speaker, just do it. I do this quite a lot with English and it really helped me with both pronunciation and speech tempo. Also, repeat the words as often as you can. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to pronounce everything with no accent at all, but this is a problem all speakers of any second language face and it shouldn’t discourage you. In the end grammar is much more important than a flawless pronunciation. <: Also, what dictionary do you use? I use dict for translating words into English, but it’s also very helpful the other way around. The voice recordings can help you with the pronunciation Also, there’s a YouTube channel called Easy German. The teacher speaks very slowly and extremely clear, I think this could be a good source for learning German. Oh and do you like singing? Singing can help with pronunciation because the syllables are stretched out and the pace is slower than in normal speech. This is why a lot of singers seem to lose their accent when they’re singing. Try to sing along to some German Disney songs for example. This is all I could currently think of. I don’t know how long you’ve been learning German, but with some dedication you will get there eventually, even if it takes some time. <: If you need some help or anything feel free to PM me!

- Raphie

[Kasperian]

Hey there!
I'm a German native speaker. I think the best way to improve your pronunciation is by watching a lot of YouTube tutorials on German pronunciation. There are some very good videos out there that can teach you how to pronounce tricky sounds like r, ch and ü correctly. I also recommend talking to yourself in your target language. Even if you can’t speak very fast or pronounce everything like a native speaker, just do it. I do this quite a lot with English and it really helped me with both pronunciation and speech tempo. Also, repeat the words as often as you can. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to pronounce everything with no accent at all, but this is a problem all speakers of any second language face and it shouldn’t discourage you. In the end grammar is much more important than a flawless pronunciation. <: Also, what dictionary do you use? I use dict for translating words into English, but it’s also very helpful the other way around. The voice recordings can help you with the pronunciation Also, there’s a YouTube channel called Easy German. The teacher speaks very slowly and extremely clear, I think this could be a good source for learning German. Oh and do you like singing? Singing can help with pronunciation because the syllables are stretched out and the pace is slower than in normal speech. This is why a lot of singers seem to lose their accent when they’re singing. Try to sing along to some German Disney songs for example. This is all I could currently think of. I don’t know how long you’ve been learning German, but with some dedication you will get there eventually, even if it takes some time. <: If you need some help or anything feel free to PM me!

- Raphie

Thank you for your response!
I did german at GCSE so for roughly 5 years off and on, but at that age, if I'm completely honest, I wasn't really interested in learning it. So after two years of not doing any german other than saying Danke Schon instead of thank you to most of my friends, I haven't done much.

I've been talking to myself in german so a little over a week, but every time I attempt to say something, I either stutter on the word or can't physically say it due to my braces being in the way. I'm concerned about speaking at the moment mainly as I don't want to have incorrect speech when they remove my braces.

Currently, I'm just using my old GCSE books and Duolingo in order to help me learn.

I will be looking at the youtube channel you mentioned for certain! thnk you very much!

[Aziraphale]

You are very welcome! Something just popped into my mind that I wanted to add.
How long have you had your braces? If you got them recently I wouldn't worry too much, it usually takes some time to get used to them. I also faced the same problem when I had mine, I had some trouble pronouncing the s/ß sounds correctly, but after a few weeks everything went back to normal. Just like the rest of your language skills, your pronunciation will improve over time and - speaking from personal experience - it's still possible to fix pronunciation issues later. There's also the chance that native speakers wouldn't even notice that something is wrong with the way you speak. Just like the English language, German has a huge variety of different dialects/accents and only very few people speak flawless High German (which is somewhat the German version of Received Pronunciation). Some people from the southern parts thrill their r's like the Scottish do or even pronounce it like in American English (even though the latter only occurs in one single dialect). I really wouldn't worry about incorrect speech too much, I think you'll be just fine!

Also, Duolingo sounds like a good source for learning German! Memrise also looks somewhat promising, though I have no experience using that website.

Good luck with learning German! <: