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The importance of a good accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes  Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 113 of 255 14 December 2010 at 3:46am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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If a person is engaging, clear, eloquent in their language, who cares if they have an accent or not?
Consider this (well, for those familiar with US television with a political edge): Regardless of political persuasion, have you listened to Arianna Huffington speak? Do you find her difficult to listen to? Do you think that she is able to either get past her her accent, or use it to her advantage? And speaking of nuances, do you think with her accent she is able to convey subtle nuances despite it? She seems to have a rather large fan base, in the US at least, so her accent (somewhat heavy, IMO) doesn't seem to bother a lot of people. And I actually think she uses her accent to her advantage. I'm using her as an example, but it could be any well-educated immigrant that has retained an accent. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 114 of 255 14 December 2010 at 4:01am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Oh come on now, we're just having fun sharing ideas and opinions, here. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 115 of 255 14 December 2010 at 4:06am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Rather than being misunderstood, I was refering to not having access to certain nuances. Also, unusual or unexpected subtle expressions might be assumed to be a mistake coming from a person with a foreign sounding accent. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 116 of 255 14 December 2010 at 4:12am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
My foreign-born and raised grandmother tried to do that with her children, speaking to them in Norwegian. Guess what happened? They don't speak Norwegian, aside from the occasional "Uff Da" and "Fi" (and the "Fi" is most likely a mocking imitation of her.) Once kids get into school, they're going to favor what their peers are speaking. And if you're not native, your kids will reject your attempt to teach them another language at home, seeing it as something fake. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Aineko Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 5449 days ago 238 posts - 442 votes Speaks: Serbian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 117 of 255 14 December 2010 at 4:19am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
well, you said "I'm referring to expressing...", so I assumed you are talking about inability to express these nuances. Although I am allowing for the theoretical possibility of the situations you are describing, I still can't think of any particular example. Maybe it is more likely to happen to people with a really thick accent, the one that borders with unintelligible. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 118 of 255 14 December 2010 at 4:52am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Yes, not having access to expressing certain nuances orally. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5353 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 119 of 255 14 December 2010 at 4:59am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
The fact of the matter is though, that having a native accent is still not enough to understand all of the nuances of a language. Language is tied so closely with culture, that without growing up in country x, there are going to be points that a non-native speaker misses. Sure, some of this can be established via cultural books and history lessons, but even then, I feel that there would still be instances in which only a native would really know. With that being said, I am of the opinion that the whole discussion has gotten a bit ridiculous. As someone else had mentioned earlier, I feel that those who have allegedly claimed to obtain native accents are trying to bask in their glory, whereas those who do not have such perfect accents want to denounce the importance of a native accent. Time to make a music analogy here. Let’s suggest that having a perfect accent is like being able to change the strings on a guitar. One can certainly play a guitar without ever knowing how to replace the strings, though being able to replace the strings is certainly a useful task in itself. Or perhaps a better analogy would be with musical style. Jazz and blues guitarists are all guitarists, and for the purpose of this discussion, let’s say that to be considered a guitarist, the person has to have some skill at the guitar (so that I am not called on a technicality or something). I would suggest that neither guitarist is superior or necessarily better than the other, and both would certainly meet the goals of entertaining others, getting gigs, etc. However, the jazz guitarist would have learned 14+ guitar scales, whereas the blues guitarist would have learned maybe two or three. Accent isn’t everything, hell grammar isn’t even everything (and I say this listening to my grandmother’s grammar at times). I have only heard one or two non-native English speakers in my life who spoke English with a native-sounding accent, and this was after working at a tourist center, traveling around the world, etc. some people may have the ability, will, dedication, and time to achieve a native accent, but the majority of language learners do not seem to do so, and if these people are clearly understood, then I am not sure what the big deal is. Even within different languages, people have various accents. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Aineko Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 5449 days ago 238 posts - 442 votes Speaks: Serbian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 120 of 255 14 December 2010 at 5:05am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Can you give any example, what exactly do you mean? Again, from personal experience: I live with my native English partner for more than 2 years. I'm sure any misunderstanding regarding these nuances that require native accent would have occurred so far :). Otherwise, we are talking about some situations that are so rare that again, in my book, are not worth the effort. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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