TP2-Joa

  It's "thhhhhhheee apple, not dddee apple," my mother would try to correct me to no avail; I still pronounce 'the' as 'de'.  But the times she's corrected me to say "three" instead of "tree" and "beach" instead of "b-tch" and "a sheet of paper" instead of "a s--t of paper" were successful.  Getting these little details right makes me feel less inadequate and more like everyone else.  And while I still have an accent, as long as it doesn't interfere with me getting a message across, I'm ok with having it.

My tutee is from China and wants to learn about pronunciation. I'm not sure if it's for communication purposes or for purposes of blending in, but  I think I recall her saying that sometimes people don't understand her.   I feel that her accent is fine and her speech is understandable, but that might be because also I'm used to Asian accents.  There are just a few sounds that need to be polished, like the
W vs V sound.  To clarify the difference to her, not only did I open my mouth and exaggerate tongue and mouth movements, but also I got close to her ear so that she could hear the difference.

Of course, first I told her I would tell it in her ear so that she could hear clearly herself.  It was ok to do, perhaps because of culture.  I wonder whether that would be OK to do if my student was from the US and if I was tutoring them in Spanish. Would it be weird?  I know there's this different concept of personal space and if my hypothetical US tutee would be uncomfortable with the situation.  What about US tutors?  Would you, as an US born/raised, feel uncomfortable about whispering in your tutee's ear?

I found it helped her clarify and assimilate faster the sound differences and correct pronunciation.  Once I got closer to her ear, she really began getting the pronunciation closer.  As we tried repeating We, then Vee sounds, clarity of sound differences became more apparent to her, and this was reflected in her attempts to pronounce.

So perhaps you should try it, too. Even if it makes you feel weird.  Just explain what you're about to do and if they would mind, and use your gut (if you're a guy and your tutee is female, the girl might be intimidated or feel that you're about to hit on her).  But if you do try and it works, please let us know how it goes!