Where am I? I need some help...

[sunflower.baby]

Hi,
I dont think my English is very bad, maybe quite good but please forgive me if i post this kind of article here!
I'm very confused about my sound... It's not too bad but not very good! . I wonder about it!.

I'm a Vietnamese... be familiar with English for several years... My sound may be a hybrid produce between English accent and American accent...
I think it is the English for Vietnamese... That means I can use English to express the idea with other Vietnamese guys clearly but with the same idea, i could not express to other foreign people (England, American or non-English-based people...). That is my problem because my job needs it very much! .

Could you guys help to point out some points to improve and build up a standard pronunciation?
And one more thing, can you tell me what is the main difference between traditional English and American English...
Any help is very appriciated!

Thanks for your reading and don't forget to correct me if there is any incorrect/mistake!
Sunflower Babe!

[Torsten]

Hello Hieu,

Many thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Could you please tell me why you think that English native speakers don't understand when you speak English while you can communicate with other Vietnamese people in English? Are you saying that you have an accent that is easily understood by Vietnamese people while other nationalities find it difficult to understand your spoken English? As for improving your pronunciation, could you please tell me how much time you spend listening to English every day?
If you want to get an overview of the differences between British and American English, you can read this: British vs. American English

Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[sunflower.baby]

Hi Torsten,

First of all, thank you for your reading and understanding... .
When communicating with other Vietnamese people in English, we don't care about the stress of the word. For example [communication]: the correct stress is [communi'cation] but with Vietnamese, we can say ['communication] or without stress, and the listener can understand what I meant or sometimes we speak the English words like reading the Vietnamese words and the listener can rebuild the English word himself and undertand what i said (it's hard for you to understand the situation), maybe this is a poor example. But when communication with other nationalities, they will be confused what i wanted to tell/ask them... and i need to spend time to confirm again... waste time...! . And i also know the pronunciation is the most important thing for speaker to describe what he wants to say.
For years ago, i just use English almost while emailing or reading the technical documents and i don't spend time much for improving about pronunciation. Right now, when working overseas, i often use English for communicating about the jobs and i know one thing that writing an email to describe for what i want to say is easier than describe by verbal! . That's the problem.
And one more thing i want to tell you, i have been in Japan for 2 months and i think it is not a good place to improve my English. Almost of Japanese people here can not understand English even the receptionist in the hotel, I just can communicate with some Taiwan guys by English in the working place... :-p.

That is the reason why, i have tried to refresh/improve for months.
I found this forum and i know people here is very friendly and may help me to improve the English... (posting some articles help to improve the writing skill :p and you guys can give me some hints...).
Actually, i just spend a little time for listening some kinds of news or my favorite English songs... maybe around 30-60 minutes...
I found the link talks about the basic pronuncication, you or the others may refer if you want: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/pron/chart/chart.shtml. I think it's basically helpful for the beginner in general and for me in particular (but maybe the sample voice is not the standard one! :p).

Please don't forget to correct if there is any mistake. I think you guys may be my English teachers/mentors...