How do I get fluent pronunciation?

[Sultan]

While I'm lilely to be advised to go Japan or Japanese courses, I'll just say there are some things so I cannot do it or it's not very convenient / affordable for me. I wonder, if there's some program you think is quite good so I can use it with purpose of getting my pronunciation to be good.

 

[nice gaijin]

If you want to work on your pronunciation, I suggest learning more about Phonology, which is the study of how we make sounds in language. We've had some pretty in-depth discussions on the finer points of Japanese pronunciation here, and phonology is what gives us the common vocabulary to talk about those subjects

 

[mdchachi]

A quick and easy thing you can do for free which wasn't available to us years ago is put your Android or iPhone into Japanese mode and use the dictating function. If the speech recognizer recognizes what you are saying then your pronunciation is probably pretty good. I send text messages to my wife this way all the time. In general, if you say something clear & correctly the recognizer will get it.

 

[WonkoTheSane]

I provide accent modification services as part of my business in Japan, but only for working on developing an American English accent.

Here's what I can tell you about how it works for me:

If a client comes to me he or she needs to have functional English. If not, I refer them to a competent English teacher because I don't teach English.

I use a standardized and research based program with weekly sessions working on individual target phonemes determined initially by evaluation and culminating with reevaluation after 13 weeks. It is extremely structured and a serious commitment.

Between each session the client is responsible for daily practice and homework including listening and speaking practice. Listening practice includes auditory discrimination of minimal pairs, and speaking practice includes comparing past performance with current performance as well as me critiquing the recorded speech.

My clients who do well are the ones who put in a lot of time and effort. My clients who do poorly are the ones who show up weekly but don't follow through on the homework.

I firmly believe your best bet is to find a native speaker who is trained in accent modification. Then, follow the program rigorously.

 

[jborchardt]

I have read about the pimsleur method being focused on pronunciation, among others. However I have not used it so I cannot speak from my own experience.
Of course it is still an inflexible program that is not tailored towards your needs in the way a native speaker, trained in accent modification, would be.