Welcome! Scott!
I am honor to have you in my Monday Euphony Presentation Class. May the blue ram bring you peace, prosperity, happiness, and a good command of English!
Ahead of reading my comments, I would like to explain the purpose of this class. It is expressly designed for checking each person’s presentation manner on the stage. On Mondays, presenters would convey what they had memorized during a week. Keeping gestures, pronunciation, stress and chunk between words in check will come to a quantum leap of your English Presentation Skill. Let me allow check out these matters.
<Pronunciation>
Ahead of checking your problematic pronunciation, I want to make sure that only a few mispronounces are unnoticeably found. Scott~! Well done!
Disco[v]er - phonetic alphabet ‘dis-ˈkə-vər’
‘V’ sound was about to be missed. In my euphonic point of view, you would better know how to pronounce ‘V’ sound from very scretch!
The way to pronounce ‘V’ is much similar to ‘F’. For pronouncing Alphabet ‘V’, your jaw is in need of opening nearly closed. The upper side of your bottom lip is pressed a bit strong by the bottom of the top teeth. And then you need to push air out of your mouth between the top teeth and your lips bitten by the top teeth, voicing ‘v’.
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discover]
Won[j]ong
As an English leaner, I strongly recommend you to follow each pronunciation in any audio file though the word was driven by Korean Language. When you read Korean Language in English way, you might come to know how to pronounce Each Alphabet. I hope you to keep this in mind.
The /j/ sound is made with the exact same mouth positioning as the /ch/ sound, but the /j/ sound is voiced. A following video clip would let you know how to pronounce ‘J’
[http://www.engvid.com/english-pronunciation-j-y/]
After two minutes and a half, a lecturer will show you a shape of mouth for pronouncing ‘J’.
[Th]ere - phonetic alphabet ‘ˈther’
The way to pronounce ‘TH’ is to put your tongue between your teeth and you voicing ‘ㄷ’ sound. It would be forgotten easily while delivering presentations. I personally believe that this shade of differences is drawing a line between advanced students and non advanceds. As a English learner, you should keep it in mind, speaking not only the word ‘These’, but also ‘This’, ‘Them’, ‘That’, ‘Those’, and so on and so forth.
[W]here - phonetic alphabet ‘ ˈhwer ’
While astutely observe your movement of mouth, I came to realize that you did not close your mouth round for ready to pronounce ‘W’ Please check on this matter!
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/where]
[W]alk - phonetic alphabet ‘ ˈwȯk ’
Pronouncing ‘Walk’ is also required to make your mouth O-shaped.
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/walk]
Please make sure that pronouncing Alphabet ‘W’ need the following steps. Please make the lips narrow as like O-shape. Close to each other without the lips touching. Then move the lips and mouth further apart when you voice ‘W’ sound.
St[r]an[g]e - phonetic alphabet ‘ ˈstrānj ’
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strange]
G[r]ain - phonetic alphabet ‘ˈgrān’
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grain]
Your ‘R’ sound and ‘G’ sound were missed. Sometimes you were good at moving the lips and mouth further apart like a ‘one of antagonist of ‘Bat Man’, Joker. But mouth positioning as the /ch/ sound and making your lips round were barely happened.
For the better pronunciation of Aphabet ‘G’, please attempt to follow my instruction. First of all, try to make a round shape of your mouth. Second, having the pouty mouth, voice the sound of Alphabet ‘G’. Please pronounce this word listening to the sound on M-W website
Especially ‘R’ sound is so challenging both to speak and teach. Particularly, the sound of R is achieved by bringing your tongue up and to the back of the mouth. When the bulk of your tongue placed on the roof of the mouth between the hard palate and the soft palate, voice the sound. ‘R!’ If my explanation is hard to understand, please watch the following seven-minute-ling video clip.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu-X_9nVTxE]
Conf[e]ss - phonetic alphabet ‘kən-ˈfes’
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/confess]
St[u]ck - phonetic alphabet ‘stʌk’
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stuck]
F[e]nce - phonetic alphabet ‘fens’
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fens]
En[co]unter - phonetic alphabet ‘ɪn|kaʊntə(r)’
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/encounter]
All these words voiced by you would have same problems to anything. It sounded like English at the first trial of watching your presentation. But this sound was based on your own way to voice. Especially, the pronunciation of ‘Fence’ was noticeable. The sound of ‘e’ was voiced like a ‘ʌ ‘. I would like you to listen to the audio files in M-W dictionary first, and then remedy this matter. I highly recommended you to imitate the audio file in the dictionary.
<Long Vowel Sound>
Plea[s]e - phonetic alphabet [ˈplēz]
Please voice a long vowel sound.
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/please]
<Ending Sound>
No ending sound was missed. Good job!
<Intonation>
Your overall intonation was quiet similar to the audio file. Excellent!
<Manner>
You have a tender and low-toned voice. Moreover you look so calm and stable while delivering your presentation. Even what with stunning smile on your face came audience’s full attention. I want to praise those things, however shaking only your right hand and putting chunks between words loosened audience’s concentration.
<Mission>
Chunks that you frequently made in each sentence made audience hard to zero in on your presentation. Please be fluent and try to cope with it by following the rhythm of audio file on your next stage.
What better way is there to enhance your English in a short time than to attend Euphony Classes, especially Monday Class? Please be on the stage on upcoming Monday. Thank you so much, Scott.