So I am looking into the "echo method" for improving pronunciation in Chinese.
It is similar to shadowing. Shadowing is when you listen to a word/phrase/sentence, and then either try to say it at the same time, or say it right after the audio finishes. So you try to speak during the audio, or right after the audio. You can record yourself saying what an audio file said, then compare the recording of yourself with the audio file, and notice if you made any mistakes or variations from the audio file. Then try again. I had to do this in one of my college classes and it did help pronunciation.
Echo method, from what I'm finding, is slightly different in that: you listen to the example audio file word/phrase/sentence. Then you pause and mentally "echo" what you heard inside your mind. Then you speak it aloud, attempting to emulate what you heard. You can record yourself and compare with the example audio file, if you want, just like Shadowing. So the main difference is pausing for a moment and mentally "echoing" the sounds you heard, attempting to create a specific mental memory of the sound.
I've seen the echo method mentioned as a possible way to correct fossilized pronunciation mistakes - if you spoke right after audio 你好 the same phrase, without pausing like with shadowing, and you'd picked up a bad pronunciation from saying that phrase incoreectly frequently as a beginner in the first weeks of Chinese classes, then you'll keep pronouncing it wrong. But if you pause after hearing 你好 pronounced correctly, then mentally "replay" the sound, then try to say 你好 you may fix the mistake you kept making. At least thats the use for echo method I keep seeing.
I bet anything I fucking pronounce 很 weird. I said 很 so many times as a total beginner in my high school Chinese class, and then when I learned about tones and tone sandhi? Oh man. I was so thrown off ni-hao 你好 was both 3rd tone 3rd tone, AND should be pronounced 2nd tone 3rd tone. I was so thrown off 很好 was literally 3rd tone 3rd tone, but should be pronunced 2nd tone 3rd tone because of tone sandhi. And when I learned about tones... oh man. First i said ni3 hao3 and hen3 hao3. Then I learned LATER about tone sandhi and said ni2 hao3 and hen2 hao3. And even now my brain still sees 很 and my first instinct is to say hen3. Then if I realize its in a tone sandhi situation I rationally KNOW to say hen2 but my mouth doesnt want to say hen2, it wants to keep saying hen3. So any time hen comes up in speaking I either avoid it, which is unnatural as fuck, or I suspect i'm saying it weird because both hen3 and hen2 want to come out at once and i just pick instantly then regret and feel like the wrong one came out.
