Pronunciation

So I realize that no one who is beginning a new language, or even many people who are years along in learning a language, is going to magically be able to pronounce things perfectly.  So please don't take this particular lesson as something to worry a LOT about.  That being said, there are a few languages where pronunciation can make a world of difference.  For instance in the Chinese language you can make complete sentences using a word that is pronounced the exact same and changing just the inflection of the word.  This is an extreme example of why being able to pronounce things is important, but there are less extreme cases that have much the same possibility of being both a great success in what you are trying to say as well as a huge catastrophe and might make you look like a big idiot/jerk/%$@#...etc

   In the German language for instance the incorrect pronunciation of schiessen can turn you from a gunslinger into something slightly more smelly as one of my fellow students learned back when I first started learning the language.  That being said I am not telling you that you have to focus really hard on pronunciation, but just be open to people correcting your pronunciation.  It doesn't at all mean that you are bad at the language, or anything of that nature.  They truly are trying to help you both master the language, and prevent yourself from an embarrassing mistake.  Of course as with most all of my posts the easiest way to work on these things is by once again immersing yourself in the language.  Watch videos, listen to music, and most importantly! Speak up in class! Be excited about making mistakes! It's a much better way to learn especially cause if you aren't making mistakes then you probably aren't actually learning the language anyway... >_>

So, moral of the lesson!: practice repeating words as you hear them lest you make a fool of yourself! (or if you're trying to make a fool of yourself then don't worry about it ^^)