There's a lot to grasp when you're learning a new language. If you're a native English speaker there aren't just the words but also new verb forms, different grammatical construction and, as if that wasn't enough, you've got to learn French pronunciation - and your mouth shape isn't used to that at all!
Now that might sound a bit odd to you, but the truth is that you've always pronounced words in a certain way, and it's affected the way your mouth and tongue works. Pronouncing French words - especially those with certain vowel combinations and the famous 'rolled r' - is quite different. Believe me, once you start you'll soon discover exactly what 'tongue tied' means. Sometimes it seems you just can't make that sound, and the harder you try, the worse it gets!
The answer of course is not just practice but the right kind of practice. It's no good, for example, getting a French book and just reading the words out - how will you know if your pronunciation is correct? Fortunately you've got the perfect tool right in front of you - your computer.
For a start, a quick search of the internet will find quite a few free French audio files. It's a good place to start because you can listen and repeat the sounds yourself. The drawback is that what you sound like to yourself may not be what you really sound like. If you've ever listed to a recording of your own voice you'll know exactly what I mean.
Your pc can come to the rescue again here. If it hasn't already got a microphone built in you can buy one for a few dollars and record yourself, that way you'll know exactly what you sound like. Listen to the example, record yourself, listen to yourself. How do you sound? Now to be honest you'll probably feel a little foolish at first, most of us do, but you do want to learn French pronunciation don't you? Can you think of a better way?
A good place to start is the French alphabet. There are several places online that offer free MP3s. Another way to learn is to download these to a player or a CD so you can listen to them while you're on the move. You can't do the 'record and playback' thing, but hearing French over and over again will help it sink in. Once you've got the alphabet learned you can move on to useful phrases. Again you should find quite a few online.
As you progress you'll soon get beyond what's available for free. I would then suggest you go for one of the downloadable courses or perhaps a CD. Good ones can definitely help accelerate your learning and will offer interactive lessons you can play on your PC and text files in addition to the all-important sound files you can use while you're at home or on your MP3 or CD player (before you buy, make sure you'll be able to do this).
I wouldn't be being fair if I said that learning French pronunciation was easy. Sometimes it's very frustrating. I still get it wrong sometimes, much to the amusement of my French friends. It really doesn't matter, the benefits of being able to speak to the French in their own language is far more rewarding than the occasional faux pas that you'll make!
