Mastering a foreign language is usually marked by an ability to utter words and sentences the way a normal speaker would. Even when you’re not a native speaker, you can learn to speak it in a way that comes close to it.
While books, lessons and language learning software offer the best platform for learning a new language, mastering its pronunciation is usually best accomplished by tuning in to those who speak it well. As such, listening to native speakers on a regular basis will be the best activity you can take part in.
If you have access to them, try to converse with native speakers regularly. While it’s fine to practice with your peers on the same level as you, you’ll just end up acquiring each other’s mistakes, most of the time. Native speakers, can easily correct any pronunciation mistakes that you make, apart from being a treasure trove to listen to.
Listening to media in the foreign language – songs, movies, audiobooks and TV shows – are a great way to learn proper pronunciation. However, they usually work best when you already understand what the context behind the material is, so that you can focus on pronunciation. As such, it is recommended that you choose those materials with which you already have context, such as foreign dubs of movies you’ve already seen or English songs translated into another language.
Does that sound hard? Well, it is. Nobody said mastering a new language is going to be easy, right?