accent trouble???
Hello, I would probably move to the UK this summer and wil be attending a college there. However, I have a couple of concerns.&d@4bhf ur
What do u think will happan if a chinese guy comes up to an Englishman and talks to him in English with a very heavy american accent? do u think he would look down on him? I am deeply concerned about this as I personaly speak English with a bit north american accent (i was taught to speak English in american terms), and I assume this could be a problem for me, because British people seem to have problems with americans and I also heard that they would get very upset if they see a [font=Trebuchet MS][size=2]foreigner speaking English with a different accent instead of their accent. Any advise on this? thanks a lot![/size][/font]\ Xt/|"O9Sw~(?)D
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[font=Trebuchet MS][size=2]Another thing is that, how am I supposed to deal with their accent when I get there? because I once had this lecture given by a British professor and I only understood like 40% of what he was saying. Anyway, I would love to hear ur personal experience of how u managed to adapt to their accent.[/size][/font] think about these Indian. I bet they've got much heavier accent then you do.
as long as your grammar is roughly right, accent does no matter.
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how to deal with accent in different districts? Get used to it::11 lol..I see, actually I consider my English as standard american with no accent, the same stuff u hear on american news, well,,, I have to admit that its my personal opinion but nobody seems to disagree, and my spoken grammar is pretty decent as well, not to mention that my vocabulary is a bit limited.::z8
回复 #3 lebowski 的帖子
Your writing reads like that of an American English speaker's. It has the same style of expression and a similar style of errors. In terms of expressing yourself, vocabulary might not be that big of an issue since it looks like you could talk around words you don't know. You'll pick up words as you run into them.I don't know about dealing with Brits, but I would suspect that the prejudices run more against white Americans (i.e. Americans of British descent who expatriated) and those who act like the stereotype. If you adapt to their English you should be fine. Maybe you could listen to the BBC for a bit to get used to their broadcast accent and for the various other ones you'd probably have to bear it for a few weeks until you're accustomed to it. I had a professor (from India) once with nearly unintelligible spoken English and handwriting and I managed to get through that class. He was hard to understand the first few days but that's more or less all it took to understand his accent. it's always better than a fob accent, trust meY\?(F8E q
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but judging on the way you think, i'd be surprised if you could talk like an american we been watch such more movie of eng code
why u guy still had stuff like this ?::11 lol my so called american accent is getting to be a disadvantage for me, its really irritating as i often start a conversation with native speakers, and they assume that my english is pretty good simply because i sound somewhat like an american and they start using a wide range of vocabulary and then i end up asking them to repeat it and whatnot latter on, its quite embarrassing lol::z8
well, i dont think id be having too much of a problem understanding the news on BBC. my main concern, however is that, wouldnt it be a bit tricky for me to understand their different dialects? i heard some folks saying that the accents in the UK vary tremendously from place to place, for example, english people can hardly understand scottish because their accent sounds virtually like a different language to them.
in regards to armyofskanks's respond, im an ethnic minority not native Han, so im a 2 languages speaking bilingual as chinese was taught as a compulsory subject of the curriculum in my secondary education, and therefore i just have this god-given natural ability where i can speak english quite similiar to native speakrs, but kind of want to get rid off it::13 u awesomev|)g"tw&\0q
i am good for nothing on this situation
回复 #7 lebowski 的帖子
Well, if you explain where you're from and why your accent sounds like it does it will peak the other's interest and they probably won't mind repeating.`vXd H0V[
Yes, there is a great deal of difference in UK accents. So much so that they resort to subtitling often. It's much like the great variance of Mandarin accents in China. One gets used to it once one is exposed to it for long enough. Without being able to really hear them without going there, there's not much you can do nor not much you can be expected to do.
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What degree of bilingualism do you have? If you have two distinct accents you could try practicing English with your other one. It may seem a bit silly, but if you really want to mask your accent it would work. It's possible, though. Just mimic the unilinguals speaking English, if there are any. i sound like a complete retard when i combine my mongolian accent with english, it doesnt come natural and people seem to have allergic reactions to it::13 hence, i better off stick to my own accent Well, it's a trade-off. If you can practice it to get it sounding any better it may serve your purpose but sometimes one can't get rid of that "sounding like a retard" bit to it. I know, for example, if I were to speak French with my English accent it I would sound like a complete retard who doesn't know the language, mainly because I've never tried speaking like that before. However, if I were to speak English with my French accent (Acadian) I would only sound like a retard that knows the language well enough, mainly because I've heard plenty of English like that and the accent sounds retarded in French to begin with. nuff said, i wonder where u live? I'm living in Halifax, NS now, but I come from a village at the southwest end of the province. To condense its history, the French settled first 400 years ago, then the English came, then about 250 years ago the English deported the French and took their land, then some of the French returned (or came out of hiding) a few years later once it was safe and settled the remaining territory. Despite that whole deportation thing, the French and the English get along quite well there. Both languages survive in the region, although the French is a bit archaic and diluted with English loan words and expressions. i can see ur anxious for me to get back to the point lol anyway, thats quite interesting, oh, is it true that theres a number of extremely vocal, anti-english french canadian protesters that want quibec to become an independant state? are ya in fact a native canadian? i mean ethnically? oh, and that reminds me of my hometwon, im an inner mongolian and we dont get along with outer mongolians(which is another independant nation that doesnt belong to china) ive been there once and i was really offended by the people in that part of the world as they were trying to look down on me and make fun of my inner mongolian accent, and i get this feeling that their entire country (government, news, media and education) is completely corrupted to shed outer monglia in a good light and make it seem as its the best place (or the most beautiful place) and inner mongolia, on the other hand, is stupid, a third world country full of stupid people who have sheltered from their tradition or something (thats how they make assumptions about us) its completely irrational and disrespectful, and its quite embarrasing at the same time, thus i would never go bcak to outer mongolia, my ultimate goal, however, is that if u have an interest in the mongolian culture and would love to visit there, i wouldnt recommend outer mongolia ::18 There are plenty of anti-English separatists in Québec, and there are plenty of nationalists there too. They're divided about evenly on the issue. Essentially, they have their own culture distinct from that of English Canada and despite English Canada. They have a similar history with the English as the Acadians, although they had it easy, and there's still a lot of hard feelings over that. Also, the fact that most of English Canada is very American doesn't help either.P0eJ]uX
I don't know if there is such a thing as an ethnic Canadian, given that many ethnicities have fairly recently settled the country. But, the earliest any of my ancestors would have immigrated would be a bit after confederation. So, I've got a few generations of ancestors born in Canada, and even some born here back when Canada was a part of what is now the province of Québec.]4Qh!?(]3fQh
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Humans are silly creatures. They discriminate on silly things. It sounds like politics in your case, and the more propaganda an establishment needs for people to support its cause the weaker it probably is. I'm not really a fan of establishments that see the need to assert themselves superior.
Over there, it sounds like one culture divided. In Canada, it's multiple cultures with two of them divided. As much as I think Québec is unreasonable at times they do have some reasonable requests for English Canada that aren't being met that would bridge the gap, such as teaching both languages to fluency in schools. (Of course, what to do in the case of us Acadians isn't clear since we want to preserve our language and can't understand a word of spoken Québécois, but that's another discussion.) yeah, u're right, canada is racially pretty diverse. I think i am a little bit confused right now, can u try to give me a brief explanation of ur backround and i wonder how did u get involved in this chinese forum?
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from what ive heard, it seems to me like the french canadians are being treated unfairly and i heard that they're forced not to speak french outside of quebec. hmmm, i think its like the rest of the world, we say how much better we are than our neigbours and bla bla bla, the whole world says that along with us, and i met some really nice outer mongolians as well, sh1t i shouldnt criticize others My two grandmothers are Acadian, my grandfathers are either both Irish or one Irish and one English. I'm not really sure about them and it's hard to tell from names and appearance. Because some Irish had assimilated into Acadian culture I'm genetically about 40% Acadian and 60% Irish(/English?). The place I come from isn't really diverse; pretty much anyone who lived there was born there and was English or Acadian. That means everyone was white or a white/native mix. So, it's a pretty safe assumption that Mandarin is a second language to me. This site is for learning, right? I'm just doing it in the reverse direction::11 6x#]e[.m8CmN1J-st
The problem once out of Québec is that nobody except for people in a small surrounding area speaks Canadian French. English kids aren't forced to learn Canadian French so intercommunication becomes difficult. It also keeps Québécois culture closed to English Canadians. If even a small percentage of English were to learn to speak Canadian French to fluency there wouldn't be so much resentment. As is, the English don't quite understand the French, both figuratively and literally."[ y'Qg(V*H6s#V
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Within any sizeable group you find a majority of decent but possibly ill informed people, a few good ones and a few vocal bad ones. Unfortunately, it's the bad ones who tend to get noticed. If one looks at one's own group and sees the good and compares it to the bad of another group then that's where these discriminations start. WOW u're simply just inspiring, where apart from every single comment u wrote is well written but u're also being a huge contribution on this sidd. besides, what uve said in ur 'above' comment is absolutely right, i mean u totally inspired me and i am determined not to be one of those ignorant and narrow minded people (this refers to the bad ones in ur case) on any given day. %w(I~ S1f[#M\Gs
i looked back at my posts, i read it over and i found that its compltely incoherent and not consistant and somewhat irrelevant which i figure ist a pure of nonsense, i think im kind of slow lately::z8 , hmmm this makes me think of the days when i was a mere young senior in high school, bold and motivated to become a doctor, now im an OLD A$$ soon-to-be freshman with weak A$$ GRADES AND ENGLISH QUESTIONG MY GOALS IN LIFE, (im already 19 and im not even a freashman yet, i mean who goes to college at the age of 20 as a freshman) JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!::21 &k:aiob;E O
are ya a college teacher? what college do u work for? im planning to exchange to north america in my 2nd or 3rd year and i would love to go to ur college and develop interpersonal relationship with ya, plus i could u with ur madarin lessons (but im guessing ur mandarin is better than mine)::z8 -----plus i could 'help' u with ur mandarin-----sp.H"W sm u W'A1W6v
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lol there was no reason for me to miss the word 'help' out of nowhere but i missed it ,`(E'U%Z z!Y D.];[|
and btw, as for the discrimination, growing up in china as a minority, i have to deal with stereotypes and disicriminations all the time, and i absolutely hate it, i wish i was born in canada take it easy.
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the key it to communicate Well, I'm not all that great. There's no way I won't stick out on this site so I figured I should try to make good use of it.
You didn't sound like one of the "bad ones" to begin with, so not being like them should come easily. It sounds more like you've just had bad experiences with those type.;Vw vL!Z we
Your posts seem to reflect your level of experience with writing. It's nothing to worry about. With experience comes articulation and concision. After a university degree your writing should solidify. What degree are you planning on, by the way?QAZ:j"P cPO
There's some age variance in western universities. One of my best friends started school right out of high school but had to drop her classes for medical reasons. She went back for her second first year about 10 years later. I also took a class with someone who was older than the professor, and the professor had been teaching there for 38 years at the time. One or two years isn't a great difference.I6` `/f&Y O!\
I'm a master's student, in math of all things. My research area is essentially in semantics, which is more or less all about the interpretation of language, although I'm only working with artificial languages (programming languages).
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Well, you're welcome to come meet me if we ever get the chance. It's hard to say where I will be in two or three years, still being a student and all, but in North America, I would likely stick to Canada. I find the US political climate a bit too scary. I guess it's still a ways away so there's still time to figure it out. It would be nice to meet you, though. pQ lc&BV P&}z
Hehe, I'd guess your Mandarin is better. I've only been learning it for about two and a half years, so whenever I read something my nose is always in the dictionary looking up words. I'm sure my spoken Mandarin sounds funny, too. It's Acadian (and not English) accented, after all. I definitely could use some improvement in that regard.
Canada isn't some magic place without discrimination. It usually takes a lighter, more subtle form of adhering to the familiarity of one's own culture. For example, if I were to move to Québec I would expect some discrimination for being "English" (my name is from the Irish side and is probably originally from England. Also, Acadian French pronunciation sounds like English to some of the unilinguals there. I'm not sure how, but it does). It's not that they would refuse me work or a place to live or anything like that, but rather some, maybe even many, wouldn't treat me as a francophone unless I go through all the motions of explaining why I am an Acadian with an Irish name speaking a French that doesn't sound like the Acadian they hear on TV. I guess it still seems better than what you're describing, though. ::z1 its nice to hear from u, hehe, hmmmmm,,,,,,, i dont know, i suppose im not tooo bad but sometimes i am a bit biased towards places and accents ::z8 9\KBy5{3a[@u9c
i wish i could be articulate hehe, but it takes a lot of efforts off course. im not quite sure on what i want to study, law or psychology or maybe business related degrees. however ill be attending SOAS, University of London, and will be involved in their undergraduate foundation programme, because i was thingking that i was accadamically not ready yet, for my degree on an university undergraduate level. and i thought i could easily get into other top schools that belong to the Univ of London Union (like LSE) by getting a band score of 7 or highter on the IETLS and their foundation diploma, but NO WAYYY ,, things are not gonna work that way, i have to take their entrace exam which is compulsory, to get into that school (and its quite hard and competitive i heard) and there were 7 SOAS students taking that exam last year and they were all FAILED::13 and the worst thing is, i have to pay 10 per cent of the tuition first which is approximately 1000 british pounds, i MUST pay it otherwise they wont send me the official admission letter, and ITS NOT REFOUNDABLE, that means in case if i get rejected by the british council, that money is GONE!!!! :funk: im in a dilemma............ my career seems totally messed up! r fuz'Y`;F6u
i wouldnt know hehe, ive never been there so i dont have any basis of experience and comparison, but canada seems WAY better than the US from the standpoind of safety::z1 "L;m r5P:N `Hli N/G
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the chinese language is really difficult to learn, especially the pronounciation part, take my parants for an example, they ve spoken chinese all their lives but they still cant handle the 4 tones of chinese speech properly, and the chinese character writting is really hard as well, but there isnt that much grammar complexity in comparision to english and other european languages, since u seem to me like a very intelligent guy, i doubt that u would have too much of a problem figuring it out!:loveliness: -s*Z3g Fx9m ]
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ur last 2 sentences of the last paragraph MADE MY DAY hahaHAHAHHAHAHAHHahhah
sorry my geography sort of sucks, but wheres aracadia exactly, is it a part of britan?I3B(K)B!H?
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[[i] 本帖最后由 lebowski 于 2007-6-9 13:56 编辑 [/i]] Sorry for taking a really long time to reply to you again. I kinda haven't been feeling up to coming out to play for a while. Something happened in my personal life and I've been upset, worried, not sleeping and all that. At least the last couple days I've managed to get full nights sleep...
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Anyway, I think everyone is naturally biased to their own accent, places, foods, etc. It's one thing to prefer what one is familiar with and another thing to avoid becoming familiar with something unfamiliar. I guess the idea was taught to me in terms of Acadian culture. The original settlers left France because they were very religious, with one of the teachings they took to heart being to love fellow humans as siblings, including the natives they settled in between and even the English who deported them. That idea hasn't quite faded away. For example, after the deportation there were pockets of Acadians all over the word who mingled with other groups of French and became unfamiliar. Even though they can be unfamiliar beyond even being able to understand each other's language we still treat them as members of our communities because we're bonded by being Acadian. The same idea extends to people from other settlements of New France, or as far out as one wants to take it. It's something along the lines of acknowledging what's in common and appreciating what is different.C [ v:LwvSp
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If you study something with lots of writing then you'll quickly become more articulate, although it may hurt your grades. University is a time for learning, though. In general, the marks from the last couple years of a degree are given more weight by employers anyway. The foundations program may be good for your English, too. I'd assume you haven't taken any non-language classes in English before, right? Well, £1000 is a lot to risk but it doesn't stop you from being accepted in another university, does it? I don't know about Britain but I know it works that way here. I'm not all that familiar with what is different between the universities in Britain and those here..e {7pO#Y0NZ)wF.ZT(h8G
I don't really think there is a difference in safety between Canada and the US. Sure, the US has made more enemies and is loud about it, but that is their culture. They are not satisfied until they have a war to fight. Most of the time, it's a war on an abstract concept like drugs or communism or terrorisms which can by no means be won. I don't know why, but they just need something to feel threatened by. It's a culture of fear. A lot of what one hears from the US news media is nothing but fear mongering. There's a higher rate of gun violence in the US, but I would say the only realistic safety concern to be had in either country is traffic accidents.] q_ x8Q%\
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Well, in learning Chinese I guess it depends on what language one starts from. I find that a mix of both of my Acadian accents (the standard one taught in school and the ancestral one spoken in the community) covers pretty much all of the pronunciation. I heard some Mongolian Mandarin recently so I know what you mean. It's a different sounding language so it would make speaking Mandarin that much harder. English speakers too report having trouble with the pronunciation. Of course, English isn't quite tonal nor does it have all of the sounds. I guess I got lucky with Acadian; it's tonal enough to have a few words distinguished only by tone, something like each of the tones in Mandarin and something close to all of the sounds. The only caveats are tonal differences are usually taken to be variants of the same word instead of different words and our nasals carry more importance so are easier to confuse, oh, and we mix our tonality differently as well so I guess that makes it a bit hard for use to use the right tones in the right place sometimes as well.
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Chinese has the simplest grammar of any language I've ever seen. Coming from someone who learnt French in school, that's a good thing. I don't think there's a single person in the world who knows the entirety of French grammar, or even English for that matter. I spent 8 years of schooling learning basic French grammar and I could still use some tutoring on that. There are finer points of English grammar I have yet to come across, as well.!Ix_} Mw ?q
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Hehe, I'll admit Acadie, probably Acadia in English, may be a bit obscure of a location. It was a French colony founded at the beginning of the 17th century and grew to cover a region of what is now mainland Nova Scotia and a part of New Brunswick in Canada and a part of Maine in the US when it was ceded to the English in the early 19th century. It's no longer a country of its own (if it ever was) but we sometimes refer to the location still as if it were. It's a cultural thing, I guess. Hehe, I think we Acadians are stuck in the past. used to it
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