Castanet

"six thick thristle sticks".

Ok .... Help me out here ..

What on EARTH is a thristle stick ??

MAPearce wrote:

"six thick thristle sticks".

Ok .... Help me out here ..

What on EARTH is a thristle stick ??

It's meant to be "six thick thistles stick".

LANDM wrote:Good luck on finding something. I am ignorant on what a Portuguese accent sounds like, although I have had significant contact with Portuguese in the south Okanagan thirty years ago.....I just forget.
Do Portuguese do the same "th" sound for an "s" like some of the Spanish do for certain words?

No, we don't have anything similar. Also we don't have short and long vowels, r sound is different, we don't have k, w or y. Brazilian Portuguese is already hard to understand throughout the country as we have a variety of accents ourselves.

There are 20 tongue twisters I need to practice. I'll try 2 per week ;)

My teenager daughter is certainly no help. She laughs and mocks me too much

Having known a few people in a similar boat, I would suggest you ask any strong English speakers with whom you feel comfortable to correct you on pronunciation, usage, idioms, etc. In particular, if you have a native English speaker in your family get them to help you and ask them to stick to it, even if it slows things down for a while. Unfortunately, this can be problematic as not everyone knows the multiple pronunciations of words, and I tend to find that most don't enunciate adequately, while stronger enunciation is a good way for you to make yourself understood. Still it's the long term strategy I would adopt were I in your shoes, and certainly one I have seen help others.

Quest , I still think people around you will "adjust" and get used to your accent , but if it makes you happier I suggest taking Verums advice and ask any native English speaker to correct you and help when you need it .

I'm sure the people around you , even your daughter , would be more than happy to help you improve ...

All the best !

Oh, everybody understands me just fine. It's mainly me. I want to have a subtle accident rather than a thick one.
My son and daughter are native speakers. My son is 2e and lives in Vancouver so that leaves my daughter to help and correct me. Only problem she is 14, not a good age to offer any help without laughing her head off.
I hired an English tutor. Less expensive than the voice lab.

I spent a while helping a nice fella from China. He was really smart. Just had problems with forming natural sounding sentences. He helped me with math and i helped him with grammar . I really appreciated how hard he worked . He was way smarter than i am. Helped me with all sorts of stuff