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Should I avoid American English | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Perdita Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 4976 days ago 10 posts - 15 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: German, Spanish | Message 1 of 4 02 January 2020 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I studied English at a teacher's college and I was supposed to work as an English
teacher, but I couldn't find any work as a teacher, so I worked in different fields which had very little to do with English. I want to return to using English actively and perhaps start teaching. I had an online conversation with a native speaker, and she discovered that I make a lot of pronunciation errors, especially with the th and ing sounds. I watch a lot of TV shows and films, using both British and American pronunciation. My teacher seemed a bit appalled that I watched American shows like Friends. I wonder if I should now avoid any shows which use the American version of English if I have pronunciation problems, and concentrate only on the films and shows which use the British variant? It seems a bit too extreme to me to give up everything that doesn't use BrE. What do you think? | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5319 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes  Speaks: German*, English | Message 2 of 4 04 January 2020 at 11:15am | IP Logged | ||
If you originally learned to pronounce English words with a British accent, e.g. Received Pronunciation, it makes sense to stick with that variety for the time being. However, I don't think that watching US TV shows would be detrimental to your language learning progress, because you'll need to be familiar with both varieties of English, if you want to work as an English teacher, and British and American English have far more similarities than differences. However, at a bare minimum, you should be familiar with the differences listed on this website. You also might want to search Youtube for videos that explain the differences between British and American English. BTW, most HTLAL members have moved to language-learners.org because of constant technical issues. I'm sure you'll get more answers, if you also ask your question there. Edited by Doitsujin on 04 January 2020 at 2:04pm | |||
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3824 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 3 of 4 11 January 2020 at 6:27am | IP Logged | ||
The "th" sound will be close to the same in both British and American English. As for the "ing" sound, which part gives you trouble? The vowel, or the "ng" part? A Japanese friend of mine watched the entire 9 seasons of Friends...5 times. Out of all of my Japanese friends, his English sounds the most natural. So that show must be useful. ;) | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5319 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 4 of 4 11 January 2020 at 8:46am | IP Logged | ||
Many Slavic and Germanic languages have word-final devoicing and speakers of these languages often pronounce -ing as /ink/ instead of /iŋ/. |
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