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The First Review Written by Wen Qu
on April 30th, 2005
I have been using Pronunciation Patterns for a while. I
would like to write several reviews on Pronunciation Patterns this month.
1. What I did in improving pronunciation before I used
Pronunciation Patterns.
I want to start with sharing my story.
I had not realized the importance of having excellent
pronunciation until one day my boss pointed out that, to some extent, my salary
was proportional to my pronunciation.
As ironical it may sound, it really alarmed me and I took
action immediately to improve my pronunciation.
Firstly, I watched TV and DVD intently everyday. Several
months later, I noticed that, although my listening had greatly improved, my
pronunciation was still stagnating.
I was frustrated by my progress on pronunciation. Then, I
decided to find something, such as pronunciation books, CDs, or software on
Amazon.com, to help me improve my pronunciation. I didn’t find any software
there. Instead, I found several books with/without CDs on how to improve
pronunciation. After reading all those reviews @ Amazon, I realized that the
authors emphasized more on rhythm and intonation rather than on pronunciation,
but what I really need was a pronunciation solution which can help me correct my
pronunciation.
Therefore, I decided to correct my pronunciation one word
at a time myself. What I did were:
1)
Ordered the CD audio version of the Merriam-Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary (11th);
2)
Downloaded the list of the most-often used 2000 or 5000
English words online;
3)
Listened to the pronunciation of each word played by the
CD.
However, the CD audio version of the Merriam-Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary let me down and almost drove me crazy. One of the
frustrations was that I couldn’t just make a list of the words for me to
practice with again and again.
After all the unsuccessful tries, I almost gave up. One
day, I happened to find Pronunciation Patterns via google. After studied
Xin’s story and tried the Demo, I loved Pronunciation Patterns (I would
explain why I like Pronunciation Patterns later). However, I didn’t
believe software designed by a Carnegie Mellon MBA graduate student without
teaching English experience could really help me out.
What pushed me forward was one sentence on Xin’s website -
“If you are determined to improve your pronunciation in 1 year, for less than
30 cents a day, you can take advantage of this new method to help you
perfect your pronunciation”. Great Deal! That was my last straw.
Click here to continue to
read Wen's next review on May 1st, 2005.
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