Als ich fünfzehn war, hatte ich Gelbsucht. Die Krankheit begann im Herbst und endete im Frühjahr. Je kälter und dunkler das alte Jahr wurde, desto schwächer wurde ich. Erst mit dem neuen Jahr ging es aufwärts. Der Januar war warm, und meine Mutter richtete mir das Bett auf dem Balkon. Ich sah den Himmel, die Sonne die Wolken und hörte die Kinder im Hof spielen. Eines frühen Abends im Februar hörte ich eine Amsel singen.

Your pronunciation is very clear and very easy to understand.

I would not worry that much about the "R" because the pronunciation of the "R" is different in different parts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The pronunciation of your "Umlauts" is excellent!

The pronunciation of the "CH" is a little bit too hard.

The pronunciation of the vowels, especially the "U" is not quite right, it sounds more like an "Ü" and also a few times your vowels are too short.

I have marked it all -  but, as I said before, it is very good. I just wanted to give you a thorough "correction"

Here is my version. I live in Vienna - therefore it is standard Austrian German

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1zpk17Z3oND

Het spijt mij voor de laat antwoord. Mijn ouders en mijn zussen zijn hier voor Kerst, want is er oft iemand hier, wann ik spreek wil.

"You are currently switching between what Dutch people call "harde" and "zachte""

I didn't even know there were two Gs! I guess I've been accidentally switching between them while thinking they were the same thing this entire time :-D

It does sound like "foi" in the recording... I have no idea why I said that.

I'm surprised you didn't mentioned my pronunciation of "ij". I've always struggled to say it, and I tend to subconsiously switch between "ei" and "ee" when I try to say it, but I've been trying to get it right.

"For the German version; the vowels should be even longer, in some parts. "Sie holte weit aus" is still the most obvious example."

And I thought I made them uncomfortably long in my last recording. Apparently I still need to do a lot more practice :-D

I'll try to upload more recordings when I have the house free.

You really are ambitious, learning that many languages at the same time.

For the German version; the vowels should be even longer, in some parts. "Sie holte weit aus" is still the most obvious example. The ie, o, ei and au are all full sounds. Sieie hooolte weieit aus :-)

Then the Dutch part. I can easily understand you, so you're doing great.

Some pronunciation points to work on are "Z" (you used a German Z, which we don't have) and "U". The "Hoi" at the beginning sounds like phoi, but that might be the recording. Visum should be fully pronounced.

"G" - you are currently switching between what Dutch people call "harde" and "zachte" G, so a hard (uvular) and soft (front-velar) G. Both are fine, except that mixing them in your speech quickly gives you away as a non-native. Standard Netherlandic Dutch uses the uvular G, like you used to say ''gewoond" in your recording. The soft version is the standard in Belgium and in the south of the Netherlands.

There are many audio recordings of the Dutch alphabet, so I'm sure you'll find good examples (if not, let me know).

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Hoi, hoe gaat het met jou? Ik heet Josh en ik kom uit Australië. Ik ben eenentwintig (jaar oud). Mijn ouders hebben twee jaar in Nederland gewoond en ik heb hen in de vakantie vele keren bezocht. (Better: Ik heb hen vaak bezocht in de vakantie / ik ben vaak bij hen op vakantie geweest.) Ik vraag een visum aan, zodat ik langer kan blijven, om te werken en te studeren.

Good luck!

" The exception is Swiss German, where you will encounter rhotic e-r's at the end of words.

 Ah I didn't realise that. For some reason I thought it was pretty common in Germany as well. Okay, from now on I'll use the non-rhotic r (which should be easer for me, since it's the same in my accent in English).

Out of curiosity, how do you recommend I pronounce "r" in Dutch? I've been on holidays in the Netherlands for about two weeks and am in the process of applying for a visa so I can stay here for a few more years; so I've been studying Dutch a lot more seriously recently. I know there are three "r"s, and it's my understanding that the gutteral "r" is the most standard (and I think it's the same one I've been pronouncing at the beginning of words in German?). What is the situation with rhoticity in Dutch?

Hier sind zwei mehr Aufzeichnungen eines anderen Absatzes. Das erste ist rhotic, und das zweite ist nicht.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0jDbxT8OO6L

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1rusQATArzW

Es scheint mir, dass mein australischer Akzent ofensichtlicher in die zweite ist, und das erste klingt "deutschlicher", oder? Welche klingt besser für euch?

Gibt es andere Probleme mit ihnen?

Dankeschön.

"Neben dem Wasserhahn standen zwei Eimer, sie griff einen und füllte ihn. Ich nahm und füllte den anderen und folgte ihr durch den Gang. Sie holte weit aus, dass Wasser platschte auf den Gehweg und schwemmte das Erbrochene in den Rinnstein. Sie nahm mir den Eimer aus der Hand und schickte einen weiteren Wasserschwall über den Gehweg."