Improving your pronunciation

One year in Kunming I had a one-on-one pronunciation tutor who came to my apartment three times a week to help me sound "more native." I already knew the basics, had been studying several years. She was an out-of-work opera singer, who usually toured small towns with a family troupe. Chinese opera mainly, with a few Western hits (not full roles) as well. The troupe had hit some sort of financial obstacle, which she hoped would be temporary. She said she didn't want to look for "a real job," so she responded to my ad. She didn't speak English, which was fine with me. 

I cannot sing at all, in any language, never could, but we did drills in which I would mimic the diction of famous orators. She would find them on-line at home. Some even had videos, and I would then mimic the gestures as well. Would have felt silly doing that in a class, but at home with only the two of us, I could let myself go. She wanted me to memorize these speeches and say them over and over when I was on my own as "homework." I did it. She would help me with the rough spots. We spent a lot of time on emphasis and phrasing. Not just making the right sounds, but how the sounds hung together into a proper sentence with proper rhythm, how it all "flowed." Eventually, we started using some speeches that had even been set to music. We also branched out into a few poems. It was impossible to sound like a boring, monotone American when reciting this stuff. (That had been my baseline.) 

All in all, it was an unconventional learning experience.  It helped my pronunciation, but I'm sure my neighbors thought I was nuts. She insisted I use full voice, not a whisper. My local Chinese friends found the assignments amusing when I "showed off" for them. I didn't do it often. My favorite was a flowery oration by Mao Zedong.