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Who has the worst accent? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Matheus Senior Member Brazil Joined 4903 days ago 208 posts - 312 votes  Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, French | Message 25 of 91 18 October 2011 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I guess they were speaking Portunhol, or not making a little effort to pronounce Spanish properly - they were probably pronouncing in Portuguese the words with the same spelling, like Casa (house). In Portuguese we pronounce this word with a "Z" sound instead of "S", but in Spanish it's actually "S". If we learn 30 or 50 common Spanish words that are different from Portuguese, like To forget (olvidar - esquecer), we can understand B2 or sometimes C1 Spanish, I suppose. But all of my friends (yes, all of them) can't speak Spanish properly. Maybe that's because they think the Spanish speakers will understand them, just like they understand Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Deerhound Triglot Newbie England Joined 4727 days ago 30 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, German, Toki Pona Studies: French, Mandarin, Esperanto, Greek, Latin, Welsh | Message 26 of 91 18 October 2011 at 11:16pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In response to those saying that this thread is offensive: what's all the fuss about?
If someone thinks my accent is the worst in the world I'm hardly going to take offence. Different people find different accents displeasing. I just don't see the problem. As for me, it would take too long to explain what I like and dislike about the sounds of the world's various languages and accents. With spoken English, I find some of the Indian and African accents most difficult to understand. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| MarcusOdim Groupie Brazil Joined 4669 days ago 91 posts - 142 votes | Message 27 of 91 19 October 2011 at 1:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Actually those "different" words exist in Portuguese, we just don't use them, but they are exactly the same and mean the same... SPA = PT olvidar = olvidar empezar = empeçar and so on Foreign accents are equally "bad" (it's not the definition I want though) When speaking English to a Canadian guy, having a British, Australian, Russian or Ethiopian accent may be just as strange Even when you mother tongue is similar to the language you wanna speak, it's like comparing both Italian and German accents when speaking Portuguese, they are evenly foreign 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5252 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 28 of 91 19 October 2011 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Some people do not find anything offensive about this poll. What is the fuss about? they say. I'll explain my point of view. First, I don't think the OP or anybody has any bad or racist intentions. Second, the problem lies in the wording, "Who has the worst accent?". I said quite explicitly in a previous post that saying "least intelligible" would be better wording. We are talking about "understandabiliy" or intelligibility and not bad, good or nice sounding accent. Third, the other major flaw in this poll is the broad categories used. We see that Asia produces the worst accent in the world and that Europe produces the least. What exactly does that mean? Frankly, it doesn't smell very good. Does that tell us that Asians on a whole have a worst accent when speaking all languages than Europeans speaking all languages? So, Europeans have less of an accent speaking Cantonese than Cantonese-speakers in English? One poster even suggested that Americans (note that the poll does not says USA but all of the Americas) have the worst accents because of little exposure to to other languages. And within the Americas, it seems that the Brazilians are the worst offenders when speaking Spanish.
On a side note, some people have pointed out how certain dialects of English are hard to understand. This is not because they are bad. It's simply because we are not used to them. Sure, I find the vernacular of Glasgow difficult to understand because I'm not used to it. But I would not call it a bad accent in English. It's simply different, and I'm sure that the people of Glasgow would find my English hard to understand. Really, the whole things smacks of ethocentrism. It's all about the rest of the world speaking English, Spanish or some other European language. It's not about Europeans speaking Asian, African or any of the world's non-Western indigenous languages. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5084 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 29 of 91 19 October 2011 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Exactly my point, "worst" implies a value judgement that is not warranted. Accents in native languages aren't "good" or "bad" just different. Accents of adults in second languages depend on the individuals and I don't think you can judge them based on continents. That's painting with a pretty broad brush. Years ago, in more racist times, mocking of accents in the media was used to denigrate, belittle and devalue immigrants, be they Chinese, Japanese, Latin American, Jewish, Polish, French, Italian, Irish or whatever. I agree with @s_allard, I don't believe that was the intent of the OP but this type of thing can very easily slide into a direction that we do not want to go as a forum composed of a diverse international membership. To the credit of our membership so far, we haven't gone there- yet. It's one thing to say that you have difficulty understanding a certain accent and another thing entirely to place a value judgement on it- that is what is offensive. Edited by iguanamon on 19 October 2011 at 4:42pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5156 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 30 of 91 19 October 2011 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I feel pretty certain that leosmith is capable of defending himself, but I can't let this one pass.
I have a lot of respect for both s_allard and iguanamon, both because of their knowledge and their moral standards, and I am convinced that they have the very best of intentions. However I always get extremely concerned when accusations of rascism and discrimination are being set forward at the merest hint of a possible case of, and if someone misinterprets..... You get my drift. Guys. There are a lot of very sensible people on this forum. They can generally be trusted. Let us trust them, and answer the question which is asked related to languages. And if the question is uninterresting, there are so many other posts to be answered. If we cannot keep peace among ourselves on this forum, withouth calling the cops, I have very little faith in the possibility of there ever being peace on earth. And I would like to be able to hang on to the thought that I will at some point in my life experience peace on earth. Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 19 October 2011 at 5:00pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5252 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 31 of 91 19 October 2011 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I won't speak for iguanamon, but I have to answer Solfrid Cristin whom I have come to respect and enjoy reading over the years. I am not making accusations of racism and discrimination. Quite the contrary, what I have always said is that the design of this poll is flawed and lends itself to accusations of bias or prejudice. If the title had been "Who seems least intelligible?", I probably would not have said a thing (although I'd have to think a bit). And I believe we can have interesting discussions about the difficulties of understanding different accents without being sidetracked by controversies about what is good and bad. So, if we want peace and mutual respect, let's choose our words carefully. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5515 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 32 of 91 19 October 2011 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Okay, so the OP worded it badly. I think we've established that. We all make mistakes. Can we learn from this one and move on now?
1 person has voted this message useful |
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