Recodring yourself

I recently downloaded Audacity, an open-source audio mixing and editing program, to play with recording my self. I discovered listening to recordings of myself made me far more aware of my accent problems while trying to speak Spanish and Japanese than when I try listening to myself while talking.

Listening to yourself on a recording speaking a foreign language in addition to your practicing with native speakers and audio tapes/cds, seems to be a good way to fine tune your ear and your accent for your new language.