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Deepak Chopra, MD
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Using EFT to learn foreign language pronunciation
Hi Everyone,
We all have "comfort zones" in various areas of our lives. Thus it is no wonder that Ragnar-Hagen Speicher, a native German speaker, had difficulty in pronouncing English words. She shows us in this article how she used EFT to overcome this problem.
Hugs, Gary
This might be interesting for everyone who is into learning a foreign language.
Having an English partner and being German I am always looking for ways to improve my English. One day my girlfriend corrected my pronunciation of the word “recognise”. Phonetically it came out like “rC$ck’nice”.
After some repeating I could say it the right way, no problem here. However, this success didn’t last very long. Whenever I came across “recognise” again I would “germanise” it. So, one day while twisting my tongue it appeared to me that what’s keeping me from saying the word right is not the lacking ability of moving my tongue the right way. It was rather feeling uncomfortable with the proper pronunciation. I was germanising the English, because that’s what felt natural and “right” to me. When I said it the English way I got the feeling that I am only imitating the sound while not actually feeling like myself.
At this point you probably expect what happened: I realised that I am stuck in a language comfort zone and that EFT might help.
So I tapped on:
“Although saying ‘reckonise’ the proper way does not feel natural to me, ...”
“Although ‘reckonise’ (proper pronunciation) does not feel natural whereas ‘reckonise’ (with accent) feels natural...”
In addition I just tapped the shortcut points while repeating the word with the proper English accent. And it worked like a charm. After only one or two minutes or so I felt absolutely fine saying it the proper way. And I have ever since. Now it’s rather the other way around – I have to force myself to say it with an accent.
Let me be honest with you - I still don’t sound quite like the British Queen but using tapping for getting comfortable and in tune with the unique characteristics of a language is an exciting outlook for anyone who wants to improve his or her speaking abilities.
Also the generalisation effect comes into play. As specific sound patterns that are present in a single word or a phrase are likely to appear in different words and phrases as well. Hence you gradually improve your general speaking abilities by focusing on the specifics.
Here are some suggestions how to take this a little further:
1) Listen to a radio channel in the particular language (you can receive radio programmes in any language over the internet). Now just repeat what the presenter is saying and support this by some tapping. Over time this should make you feel much more comfortable with the particular language.
2) Increase your general readiness and openness to adopt correct language patterns. Some suggested EFT setup phrases:
“Although speaking (French, German, English etc.) does not feel as comfortable as speaking .... (mother tongue),....”
“Although I will never be able to speak perfect (French, German, English etc.) I accept myself and choose to try it anyway.”
“Although I feel like giving up my identity when speaking without an accent,...”
“Although it’s easier to just keep my (French, German English etc.) as it is and I feel this resistance, I accept myself and choose to surprise myself with rapid learning processes.”
Viele Grusse from Germany!
Ragnar
