How about reading?

Do you like reading? Have you ever read a book in English? Would you like to start reading one?
No matter if you are a beginner or an experienced reader in English. Here's a great site I can recommend you with lots of free e-books: http://english-e-books.net/about/
You can download the written version in different formats and you can also listen to many of the stories by downloading an audio file, too.
You can choose from Elementary to Advanced level. You can read a summary of the plot before you decide to download it and you can also see its length.
Why don't you pick one you like? You can read it and then leave me your comments here. I'll be glad to read your opinions about the book you read!

How can I get an English accent?

Have you ever been disqualified as a candidate for the job of your dreams because you speak English with a local accent? Personally, I find that as long as your local accent does not prevent you from being understood, this should not be a reason for your name to be crossed out in a prospect list. However, it is up to the employer to set the requirements and the more prepared you are, needless to say, the better your possibilites of succeeding.
So, what can you do to get an accent as close to a native's as possible? Improve your pronunciation of individual sounds, pay attention to stress of individual words and sentences and that will help you improve your rhythm and how you sound when speaking English.
'Yes, but how?', I can hear your thoughts... Here's a great easy strategy in three steps:

1. Listen to words, phrases, sentences, dialogues and try to copy and imitate the way English native speakers speak.
2. Record yourself.
3. Listen to yourself and compare with the original word, phrase, sentence or dialogue. This will help you check yourself and make corrections.

Let me give you some extra tips that will really make a difference when you are practising pronunciation:

• Start gradually, first pronouncing individual sounds and then words.
  • Become familiar with the phonetic symbols to help you recognize the pronunciation of words if you can't listen to the pronunciation. You can find the list of sounds and symbols in any good dictionary and on Internet, there is an excellent interactive phonemic chart, created by Adrian Underhill.
   
  
  •  Notice certain spellings have typical pronunciations: for example the spelling oo is usually pronounced with a short u sound, as in book /bʊk/, or with a long u sound, as in true /tru:/, but it can also be pronounced with a type of 'a' sound as in blood /blʌd/.
• After that practise with phrases trying to join the words. Then you can practise with sentences, move on to short dialogues and then longer pieces of texts.
• Pay attention to the sentence stress:
  • count the number of words in  the sentence and then when you listen for the first time, notice how many and which of them are stressed and underline them.
  • Listen for the second time and repeat, copying the sentence stress. In English we stress only the most important words, the words that carry the message, not all of them, as we do for example in Spanish.
• If you like singing, why not practising with songs? Imitating the sounds when you sing can help you enormously to improve your pronunciation.

Here are some tips for listening and making good use of technology:

• Listen to English as much as possible: on TV, on the radio, on Internet, you can listen to songs, films, trailers, TV ads, videos, news programmes, audiobooks, podcasts, audio recordings of a textbook, you can go news videos in digital newspapers, etc.
• Record yourself with the device you have at hand: a mobile phone or any kind of recorder you have at home will do. You can try the digital tool audacity, it's free and easy to use.