|
 |
Language show off experience | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| dlb Triglot Groupie Joined 5779 days ago 44 posts - 52 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek, Italian | Message 33 of 54 04 February 2009 at 7:45am | IP Logged | ||
|
What about accent claims? I’ve met very few, next to none, non-native speakers of English that don’t have a marked accent of some sort, truly excellent English, but you know they’re from somewhere. I’ve met tons of Americans that claim to speak x, y or z language without an accent. Come on.
I personally have nothing against accents as long as you speak well enough that your native listener doesn’t have to work too hard to understand you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SlickAs Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5877 days ago 185 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Swedish Studies: Thai, Vietnamese | Message 34 of 54 04 February 2009 at 7:49am | IP Logged | ||
Maybe you would change your opinion if you went to Montreal, or Zurich, or Miami, or Amsterdam, or Stockholm. Nebraska (or wherever) is hardly crawling with people who take languages seriously. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dlb Triglot Groupie Joined 5779 days ago 44 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek, Italian | Message 35 of 54 04 February 2009 at 8:12am | IP Logged | ||
|
I have traveled to and studied in many countries and would think that the best non-native speakers of American English would be living in the US. There are very accomplished non-native speakers here, but they still tend to have a marked accent. Personally I find it charming. I live in Washington DC. People take language seriously here. I’m also thinking of people in the media.
You really think non-native speakers don’t have an accent? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6148 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes | Message 36 of 54 04 February 2009 at 8:18am | IP Logged | ||
It really depends on the individual speaker and amount of exposure. I have heard Scandinavians speak in perfect General American/Received Pronunciation depending on their preference although the majority do have the typical "Abba" accent. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SlickAs Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5877 days ago 185 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Swedish Studies: Thai, Vietnamese | Message 37 of 54 04 February 2009 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
I know personally non-natives who have learned English as an adult and speak with no discernible accent. I have also seen a friend up close that I went to university with who speaks English as a second language decide that since he is studying in Australia he now wanted to speak with an Australian accent instead of the faux-American one he learned at school / through the media, and change it over to authentic within a month (and I know he worked hard on it and asked me to correct him). The problem with saying "all the foreigners I meet in America have accents", is that the definition of "foreigner" is almost someone who has an accent. The guy calling himself Rick Lopez, or Bob Balletti (instead of Ricardo and Roberto) and has no discernable foreign accent, you say "well, but he is not foreign". You meet them everywhere. But you notice it when you travel. So if you are in Guatamala city, and you ask for directions and a guy steps forward with perfect American English, you say to yourself "he must have lived there". My Spanish teacher in Colombia spoke with a flawless American accent, and he had infact lived in LA for 2 years. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5881 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 38 of 54 04 February 2009 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | ||
|
My Spanish is very close to native Mexicans when I'm rolling on a familiar topic. I've never left the states, but I interact and speak with Mexicans every day and they've had a huge influence. I've had several tell me that I sound Mexican, and they ask me if I learned Spanish in Mexico. I use to get a thrill when I would tell them that I learned it all here and watch the looks, but now it's gotten kind of routine, no big deal.
A couple of nights ago I was talking with a Mexican friend for about 5 minutes and noticed this other guy (as white as me) watching us. I figure the guy is American, I couldn't really tell. Later I see him talking to my buddy and I'm like cool, he obviously knows Spanish cause my buddy doesn't speak any English. So later he introduces himself to me and asks me where I learned Spanish. I tell him "here". He's like como que here? Utter disbelief. Turned out he spoke really good English and we had a great time going back and forth between the two. Really cool. I don't go out of my way to tell people that I speak Spanish. I don't tell people that I'm fluent when they ask me. I'm not looking to show off. I'm just always trying to improve. It kills me when I hear stories of people claiming to speak x language and not really be able to. What's the point? I get humbled daily at work when something comes up that I don't know or don't recognize and I realize that I've still got so much further to go. No need to brag or try to advertise. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dlb Triglot Groupie Joined 5779 days ago 44 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek, Italian | Message 39 of 54 04 February 2009 at 7:48pm | IP Logged | ||
Chalk it up to a difference of experiences and opinion. I’ve studied Spanish in Guatemala, Mexico, Spain, Chile and most recently Argentina. I’ve never heard an accent that could pass for American. American influenced, yes but not unmistakably Spanish first. In fact I would think it would be easier for someone with another Germanic language as a first language. At least you have a better shot at getting the rhythm, stressed timed vs syllable timed right. I see many non-native speakers who struggle with stressed-timed rhythm and syllable reduction. One of the best accents I’ve heard was actually one of my professors and I could tell from the first time I heard her speak that there way something odd about her English, but it really was close to indiscernible. Turned out she is German and moved to the US when she was 20. She is now close to 50 and has a doctorate in applied linguistics. And what about pour Arnold? He is really making progress, but there is still a marked Germanness about his accent, not enough vowel reduction I think. And then there is my friend that claims an indiscernible Spanish accent. Native speaker can’t tell where she is from type claim, because she has studied in both Spain and Costa Rica. OK so she can roll her Rs and she lisps her Zs, but even I can hear the classic English diphthongs, Os ending in Ws and so forth, and the stressed timed rhythm in her Spanish. I have been told that my Spanish accent is Central or South American. I tend to believe that my accent is American with other influences. I do of course work on accent along with grammar, vocabulary and situational appropriateness, but believe that situational appropriateness is more important at advanced levels. I’m not saying that it is impossible to have a totally neutral second language accent past puberty. I think it is over claimed, rare and should be respected. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SlickAs Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5877 days ago 185 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Swedish Studies: Thai, Vietnamese | Message 40 of 54 04 February 2009 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Mate, go to Montreal. They are walking around everywhere. "Oh, really? English is not your first language? Here I had known you for 3 months and always thought you were an Anglophone ... I mean I know you have a French last name, but thought that was distant past ... your parents dont speak a word, and you only really put English together 4 years ago? You are kidding?"
I even know Quebecois here who speak with an English Canadian accent. Futher, getting your rythem, intonation, colloquial usage right is entirely possible, and something worth working towards. Saying 'near enough is good enough and it's impossible anyway' is defeatist. The attitude alone will hold up your pronunciation. Sure, if you are learning some dialect, like say you are in Abeline, West TX, it is going to be pretty hard to pass yourself off as an Abeline native to the locals, but you get the accent almost perfect, and you will definitely pass yourself off as an English native speaker from Abeline anywhere outside West Texas. And there comes the crux ... if you are expecting those foreign speakers you meet to have exactly YOUR accent, and are not allowing enough lattitude for the fact that there are very different native American accents from different part of the country and they may be native English speakers from, say, New Jersey, the Bronx, Boston, Memphis, East LA, or Austin TX then you are holding your standards too close to the way your parents and uncles speak in your immediate neighbourhood and holding them to an unfair standard which just justifies your own bad accent in Spanish. But even that said, at work I have an Indian guy who has been here for 5 years, and when people with whom he has a telephone relationship with meet him in person, they are suprised that he is Indian. He is even into Australian sports (such as Australian Rules Football), builds relationships in the 'informal' Aussie style perfectly, and speaks entirely colloquially. And I told you about my Argentinian mate who learned the Australian accent in a month. But further, Australian actors commonly switch to sub-dialects of American English for acting roles that pass themselves off as guenuine to even the locals: I am thinking here as Russell Crowe doing West Verginia in "A Beautiful Mind", and Anthony La Paglia doing New York in "Without a Trace". Brit Hugh Laurie does Boston pretty well in "House" too. And that is before we even start with the Nicole Kidmans, Kate Blanchetts, Naomi Watts, etc doing a standard Californian English. Spaniard Javier Bardem did it well in "No Country for Old Men". Edited by SlickAs on 04 February 2009 at 8:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
