Transcription is easy!

When studying a foreign language it is very important to work out the correct pronunciation. In order to achieve this, do different exercises for memorizing individual special sounds. Also helps communicate with native speakers, watching movies on it and much more.

Useful notion

Transcription - a recording of the sound of a word. There are several types:

1. Phonetic transcription. Its goal is to convey the sound of a foreign expression as fully and as accurately as possible. To do this, use a lot of special icons. The art of phonetic transcription is taught by linguists in universities. It's not as easy as it sounds. After all, in addition to studying unusual characters, you need to develop the skill to quickly record for the speaker, understand and use the basic laws of phonetics. Most often phonetic transcription is used in the study of rare languages and dialects by professional linguists.

2. Practical transcription is a system for recording the approximate sound of foreign words using only the letters of the target language. With her, each of us is familiar with the school. English transcription is a recording of the sounding of words and expressions in Cyrillic letters. In this case, no special icons are used. Therefore, the recording slightly differs depending on which language through which alphabet is transcribed. That is, for the French, practical transcription is not the same as it is for German or Japanese. But it's still quite simple, and anyone who learns a foreign language can use it.

Some general principles

Despite the fact that practical transcription of words is very easy, there are certain general rules:
- it is worth trying to approximate the sound form of the transcribed word;
- it is permissible and even desirable to transmit some features that are not audible when pronounced, but are visible when writing; This is, for example, doubled consonants or mute vowels;
- it is necessary to take into account analogies in the languages involved in transcription;
- transcription is a sound recording system used for many years; For many years there were some traditions of the transmission of certain sounds, it is worth considering them.

Practical transcription, of course, does not accurately convey the sound of foreign words, as phonetic, and at first you will make mistakes. But all this is a matter of practice. In time you will get used to the fact that "j" is the sound of the letter g, "ai" - i.

And here are a few rules that make learning a language easier:

- Keep your handwritten dictionary of learned words. Simply spill the notebook into three columns: in the first you will write a word in a foreign language, in the second - a translation, and in the third - a transcription.

- Watch movies, cartoons and serials in the language you are learning. First with subtitles, then without them. If you still do not understand foreign speech by ear, and unfamiliar films are hard to watch, review your favorite, in which you know in advance every remark and exclamation. Your brain will compare and remember old phrases in a new language.

- Think in the language you are studying, dream on it or keep a diary. And you can not be afraid - for the mistakes there will not be exactly one for you!

- Go to the country of the studied language, better alone. You will find yourself in a situation where, willy-nilly, you will have to listen and understand a foreign speech.