It seems we are quite starchy when we sit here uptight and try to follow reading every single thing written in NCE book. We try to pronounce each word exactly as what phonetic syllables tell us to do. We are definitely not using the same tone we are using in daily conversation. We dare not to use “gonna”, “wanna” to replace “going to” or “want to” in our reading. To be frank, I tried to record my reading with a more relaxed tone, it just sounds weird.
I think all of these are just fine, because this is reading, not oral English. Correct pronunciation and intonation is the base of the language learning. Reading aloud is the basic training every serious foreign language learner must go through. Even if you turn to a native speaker for help, he/she will also pull out a phonetic book to let you start with. Once you have a very solid foundation, you will have a freedom, power and confidence to make your language more vivid and life-like. Like in Chinese, I can type “self同鞋” instead of “self同学” for fun. Because Chinese is my mother tongue, I already have a good control it, which I can make fun of instead of being made fun of. If I do the same thing in English, I may make myself a laughing stock many times.
Adding icing onto the cake is always a good thing. But we need to have had a tasty case first. I am still trying hard to make my cake base eatable. “self同鞋”, if your cake base is already yummy enough, you just go ahead to add that icing layer. :)