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Answering back in English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| apatch3 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5979 days ago 80 posts - 99 votes  Speaks: Pashto, English* Studies: Japanese, FrenchA2 | Message 57 of 80 17 June 2010 at 10:58am | IP Logged | ||
@ Adrian: It's not that you want to pretend to be a native speaker but if you do have a bad accent, for starters it'll be difficult for people to understand you. My answer is no, you shouldn't "pretend" to be a native speaker but you should try your level best to speak like one, even if that means repeating phrases to yourself in front of the mirror over and over again. I mean what sort of attitude does this represent "I'm learning your language but sorry I'm always going to have this accent and I don't want to even try and change it because if I do I'll be pretending" I apologize if I came off as harsh in my previous post but I was simply being honest I didn't mean to discourage you and no you don't need to practice with a willing friend or a tutor. Just listen to any sort of recording and repeat what you hear till you get it right. You have to put yourself in the shoes of the other person Imagine if somebody came up to you speaking bad accented English that you couldn't decipher. Edited by apatch3 on 17 June 2010 at 11:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6975 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 58 of 80 18 June 2010 at 6:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Usually, when someone comes up to me in bad accented English, I would probably be in the position where I wouldn't know the other persons language, so I will try again and again to understand what he/she is saying. Same as I do when I talk to a 3 year old.
Unfortunately, if you're learning Chinese you'll be in that 'bad/terrible accent' stage for a long long time. Most foreigners are there for ever. Even the famous Da Shan doesn't sound like he's completely there (although his accent is excellent). The problem is, that this 'bad accent' stage is probably a very crucial language learning period. It often signals (as it does in Children as well as the foreign language learner) that the native speaker needs to speak slower to you be more understanding about what vocabulary to use etc. However, many people miss out on this 'live' stage and instead look at themselves repeating parot phrases in the mirror for a year. The other problem is that you could work on your accent and then go out into the 'community' the problem is here that you give the native party the impression that your language ability is good when infact you just have a good accent. I guess the answer is to get a tutor or go to the countryside. After living in China for so long now I get less and less people trying to use English. And, when they do (use bad English) I usually just humor them even though I do feel my time is being wasted with pointless questions. I don't get so upset because I'm past the idle chitchat learning phrase I can speak Chinese all day if I want with other people. Anyway, I will usually leave pretty quickly if I think my time is being wasted or I have something to do. Oh, I can also comfrim when it comes to learning English in China. There are so many people here and they all think English is their golden ticket to earning lots of money, so many foreigners will be 'raped' for their English worth. I've even seen foreigners paying for private Chinese lessons where the teacher is using 95% English and just teaching the foreigner a few phrases or words. I could get a dictionary to do that. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5128 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 59 of 80 26 June 2010 at 11:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have a fresh experience in this that I would like to share. I was in France this week, and although it is some time since I have used my French, I was assured that my French was practically without any accent. In Normandy, where I was staying, I spoke to shop assistants, waiters and drivers in French, and everyone replied in French.
On the way to the airport, we passed through Paris, and did some shopping. In one of the shops, my friend, whose French accent was pretty bad, was answered back in English, and since she and I talked a little in Norwegian while the shop assistant found what she had asked for, I wondered whether the shop assistant would be influenced by the fact that she knew that I was not French when it was my turn. I therefore addressed her immediately in French, asking how much I owed her, and she answered me back in French saying she would see how much it amounted too. When she gave me the figure, she did however say it in English. I asked her (still in French)with fake surprise if she did not speak French, and she then switched immediately to French and appologized, and said that she thought I did not speak French. I draw the following conclusion: No matter how well you speak the language, you risk being answered in English if people expect you to be a foreigner. Don't let it upset you. They mean well.:-) Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 26 June 2010 at 11:39pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6659 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 60 of 80 29 June 2010 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I noticed this in Belgium too. But its like this: an English speaker learning French meets a French speaker, and wants to speak French to him. The French speaker, realising this is an English speaker, wants to try out his English on him. Its not a case of the French speaker not trusting your French skills, its simply them doing what you would do (i.e. seizing any opportunity to speak a language with a native)
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| g.polskov Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 5046 days ago 37 posts - 50 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 61 of 80 09 July 2010 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just think it is weird that people would want to try their English on me, as it is not my first language. Just as good as practicing with their fellow classmates, right? On the other hand, I have absolutely no problem if someone wants to practice their french, but probably because it does not happen so often.
I will speak English if someone approached me (say in the street) in English with the intention of practicing, because I think it is nice a local would approach me. But still, I found many people are just trying to make contact with a foreigner and are more than happy to switch to their language when their English is not so good. You can not generalise though. Some do it only to be nice and welcoming while I have seen others clearly doing it to insult. Like we would speak Spanish for a while but whenever they get annoyed for whatever reason not language related, they would switch to English as a way to put me down. Many occurences where it litteraly means: your Spanish sucks, I am better than you. I was annoyed too by the fact they all suppose being white means you are an English speaking american. I had a conversation about this with a local once, who told me I could complain if I could tell him people in my country don't suppose every asian looking person is chinese. Since that time, I shut up about it. I learned to see it as a (sometimes clumsy) welcome in 90% of cases. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vilas Pentaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6754 days ago 531 posts - 722 votes Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese | Message 62 of 80 09 July 2010 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Dear Adrian
when they tell you that prefer speak English , just ask to them as fast as you can and with the most weird accent you know this sentence Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? If they get stunned and don't understand well , start to speak in their language. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 5997 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 63 of 80 10 July 2010 at 8:27am | IP Logged | ||
That sometimes bugs me too. When I was living in Barcelona, I once heard someone with a thick Northern European accent talking to a server in English, only to hear the server complain to his coworker about Americans who go to Spain and don't try to speak Spanish! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tricoteuse Pentaglot Senior Member Norway littlang.blogspot.co Joined 6472 days ago 745 posts - 845 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian | Message 64 of 80 10 July 2010 at 12:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I also got some English thrown back at me in Paris last time I was there, but that has never happened elsewhere in France. Since my Russian friend kept mixing up languages (English/Norwegian/French/Russian), shop assistants and youth hostel personnel would address me in English as well, and one even started speaking broken Danish with us ;)
I usually just ignore the English. It's not my native anyway. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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