Hi ,terston … what a job do you have in your net of teaching English language? say that you are a face of government or others! please here I came only for intersting and spending the wasts of time , yes in the previos year my goal is to learn English or any scine in American universites, but I was attached in the yahoo page costumers that I cant gate the success in united state, and the American lady whome she reply to me the message said that your figurative language or your figure of speech is a weak , from that date I applied my application to an evening collage of translation English for arabic in my country , that is the whole story … thank you Toeston … I hope to get the advantage here by presenting every day in the english-test.net.
Hi, Torsten
Yes, you certainly have a point there. 
To tell the truth I’m more inclined to learn American pronunciation, and I have already listened to quite a lot of audio material narrated by American narrators. My acquaintance with the British accent on the other hand is scanty, although sometimes I’m having a hard time making out American speech either, especially when they use slang unknown to me.
Yes, there’s a lot in what you say. Based on the movies I’ve watched, her pace is very close to how most people speak.
It’s just when people use slang words/expressions I haven’t heard of, and use them “fast”, I can’t comprehend what they’re saying and I find their speech hard, but Brandee, on the contrary, did not use any slang I would not understand, that is why I pegged her speech as “unrealistic”.
Hi Alex,
The interesting thing is that so many ESL learners use the term “British accent” in the singular form. There actually is no such thing as just one “British accent”. People in Great Britain and Ireland use a variety of accents and I think that’s the reason why so many learners have difficulty understanding “British English”.
As you mentioned, to understand a spoken English basically means two things:
- You understand speech phonetically. That’s what you mean by “make out American speech”.
- You understand the meaning of what’s being said.
Many learners of English are not aware of this distinction. They just say that they don’t understand native speakers without making the effort to analyze what exactly it is that they don’t “understand”.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEFL listening lectures: A university lecture on Modern World History[YSaerTTEW443543]
It’s “unrealistic” for more reasons than that, IMO. It’s very EFLese, stilted, plastic, etc.
If they are not aware of the distinction, it’s not a case of being lazy, of not “making the effort”, is it, T?
Hi Molly, I think you are saying this because you will never be able to speak like Brandee.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEFL listening lectures: What makes ‘The Canterbury Tales’ easier to understand?[YSaerTTEW443543]
That’s a rather odd thought, T, if I may say so. You asked for opinions and now you want only those which suit you and your goals, right? Do you agree with Lost Soul regarding Brandee sounding “unrealistic”?
And why would I want to speak like Brandee anyway?
Actually, I’m afraid I have to take back my words. After I made that statement, I have discovered lots of Brandee’s recordings on this site and in most of them she’s quite fast and uses lots of phrasal verbs and slang, so now I cannot say she sounds “unrealistic”.
I was referring to your original comment and that particular recording. That’s the one Torsten, seemed, to want feedback on.
We would like to collect feedback on all the recordings we have on our site.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEFL listening lectures: What happened at the Potsdam Conference?[YSaerTTEW443543]
Great. I’ll give a few more a listen.
Let’s hope you haven’t got more insults up your sleeve, eh?
???
hi Torsten
As I have a busy schedule I could only get back to you now on your point concerning me taking over from the Okie.
I think the problem is two fold, in that trainers often have a version bias, and therefore do not think to include various listening exercises in their lessons from different sources.
Also the learners take for granted the challenge of a rounded learning process, that goes hand in hand with reliance on the trainer for the audio material, and thus listening exercises.
If you combine both of the above the result is a learner who really has a very thin self learning system, and not very effective input. The result is a one dimensional learner who is confident in the safe, familiar environment of the classroom but outside of this box has little diversity.
Guys,
It’s important to consider the speaker’s level. Brandee surely speaks to fast for A2 learners (except when she introduces the piece of writing), and the exercise here is clearly addressed to A2 learners. If you feel like learning Spanish or Russian or Chinese, you don’t want to listen to someone who reads at a speed of 60 pagers per hour; the natural speed of someone who has read an easy script many times before recording it.
Read it as if you had to make sense of it yourself while reading it, then your intonation will improve and your speed decrease in a natural way.
I thought the three voices (Brandee, Martin, Stew) worked well in combination.
I wonder whether it would be useful for ESL students to have three versions of each text.
MrP
Hello All! 
Thank you for your feedback. I am not an English teacher. I own a marketing company and am a world traveler. I came across this site while seeking “speaking” jobs. This is not my written material, so any “slang” or “phrasal verb” usage is not my own. I am reading text. This is the first time I have done anything like this. I have never read text for anyone at anytime. I am a public speaker. I tend to talk far too fast for most people. When I looked at this website and the goal of teaching english, I intentionally slowed my speech down for the purpose of helping people learn english. I read the criticism for sounding slow and boring. I was then told to pick up the pace. I picked up the pace and then was described as “lifeless”. There is issue of typos, that I stumble across. I initially took it upon myself to repair that myself. However if you read the text…some of the time it does not make sense. As I am not an english teacher, I do not think I should take it upon myself to correct someone else’s writing. Additionally it helps to show where the typos are, by hearing it read as it is written. Of course we have the challenge of British English and American English.
Ideally, “constructive” criticism would be best. This is the first time I have ever tried to read text for people. There are a lot of different opinions out there. We have a saying where I live…“you cannot please all of the people all of the time and only some of the people some of the time.” Anything that you can say that can help me to do a better job and that in fact helps you to do a better job would help us all. I will read slower, faster, more emotion, less emotion, like text, not like text…??? It is very confusing. If you read the text, most of the time the stories do not “flow” as they are strictly being used to make a point and not be a real story.
Whew…with all of that said. I welcome constructive criticism and anything that can help me to do my job better. Anything that I can do to help you accomplish your goals, please let me know!? Please remember. I am not a teacher, have never been a teacher, do not know who my audience is and I am relying on you to guide me in this.
Thank you all!
Brandee
I think that’s a good idea. Allow 'em to get used to listening to different people with different speaking styles.
I think the problem here is not with you, Brandee. Speaking written text is a skill, and let no one say it isn’t. The problem here also lies with the register or style of the texts that are presented, they are written-written texts, IMO, and not really texts that leasily lend themselves to spoken communication. As an experiment, do try taking one of the texts and changing it so it “becomes your own”, re-record it and let Torsten and Alan see where they should be going with all this.
Keep your chin up.
.
I agree. I personally think the texts on this site are not that well-written. They need work.
Well roared, lion 
You’re right, you can’t please everybody. There are 10 cooks and 10 recipes, and at the end of the day the broth is spoilt. The broth - material for learners of the English language - should be presented in a way that it invites guests/learners to stay. The restaurant owners - Alan and Torsten - provide you with recipes, material and money. You can make amendments to obvious mistakes and give your feedback to the hands that feed you, but you should stay on track as far as the cuisine goes (coz it ain’t your restaurant).
Brandee, you have a very good voice, accent and intonation. Familiarise yourself with the text prior to recording it, and then read it emphatically. The rest will follow 