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 Sat Nov 03, 2007 15:03 pm Your accent |
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first off I would say that EVERYONE has an accent, it just depends on who's listening
but sure I get stereotype plenty for having a surfer accent or abroad for having an American accent
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Boke
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| Sun Nov 04, 2007 16:21 pm Your accent |
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| Boke wrote: | first off I would say that EVERYONE has an accent, it just depends on who's listening
but sure I get stereotype plenty for having a surfer accent or abroad for having an American accent |
Hi Boke,
You're right there. And some accents are afflicted with more (mostly bad) notions than others. Even when sported by a local hero. And this is only a mild and washed out Cork accent 
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Ralf
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| Tue Nov 06, 2007 16:27 pm Your accent |
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| Boke wrote: | first off I would say that EVERYONE has an accent, it just depends on who's listening
but sure I get stereotype plenty for having a surfer accent or abroad for having an American accent |
What's a surfer accent? Is it an accent where people say 'Dude' all the time? I think it's adorable. I can never say 'dude' without sounding weird.
I try to speak accent free, especially Malay accent free, and an American friend told me my speech is very clear, but he never commented on my accent (huh, now I don't know whether my speech is free of the Malay accent or not  )
The funny thing is, when I speak English in Malaysia, I speak purposely with the Malay accent because I have this silly thought that people there will understand my English better that way. Maybe, I do think people treat me differently if I don't speak with that particular accent in my country.
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NinaZara
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| Tue Nov 06, 2007 19:18 pm Your accent |
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Hi Nina et all
Should your speech be accent free, and if so in what way?
Or is it more important to be authentic, natural and intelligible to your audience/listener(s)?
Likewise have the ability to adjust your speech to whoever is listening?
But then how far are we willing to compromise our accent for the sake of a well or badly trained ear?
I used to get wound up by my "soft/cute" accent in German. But I am in the main understood, so there is no problem really.
cheers stew.t.
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stew.t.
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| Wed Nov 07, 2007 16:43 pm Your accent |
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Hello Stew, long time no see 
Answering your oh so many questions... 
| stew.t. wrote: | | Should your speech be accent free, and if so in what way? |
I think I would be happy enough if people can understand me and actually pay attention to what I am saying.
| stew.t. wrote: | | Or is it more important to be authentic, natural and intelligible to your audience/listener(s)? |
I don't think which is more important is more important here, which is more important would depend a lot on what we want to achieve.
And I think we will always be authentic because I think accent has much to do with our voice too, not just the pronunciation.
| stew.t. wrote: | | Likewise have the ability to adjust your speech to whoever is listening? |
I first noticed this when I and a friend talked to a couple of students from Thailand. The girl had to repeat so many times to make me understand what she was saying. And I also notice that the Thais couldn't understand what I was saying either. We were like the ducks and the chickens, trying to talk to each other.
That was when I realized that 'Oh, people from other country don't understand Malaysian English... 
If I can switch my accent to make people understand me better, why not? I think it's cool. I once had trouble choosing between having my accent nearest to the British (most Malaysians have a soft spot for British English) or the Americans and an American friend told me maybe I should adjust my accent depending on the person I am talking to. What on earth made he thinks I can do that? I used to understand British English better but now I find American English pleasant to the ear and not so long ago I watched a British movie and I can only understand half of it. Oh, I am being Americanized... English-ly speaking, of course.
| stew.t. wrote: | | But then how far are we willing to compromise our accent for the sake of a well or badly trained ear? |
I have not lived in an English spoken country so really, I cannot say. But if it i s for the better, I am cool with it. It is my identity that I am not willing to compromise.
When I was studying at the university (in Japan) and I tried looking for a part time job thru the phone, the Japanese on the other line did not know I was a foreigner until I told him my name. I didn't mind that, but when recently a collegue told me I have the Japanese heart, I was taken aback and when I thought about it I nearly felt insulted and I told him, with a smile of course, I am still a Malaysian at heart and that will never change. (When my mother told me this, I thought she exaggerated, but when a Japanese said this, I freaked out)
And lately I become so cautious of this accent thingy I started asking people in the office about my accent (Japanese). Five years living here and I only started asking now? Most of them told me, there are things that give me away. I don't know how to explain this, but in certain situations, the Japanese would have said it differently from the way I do.
I think the same would happen if I live in an English spoken country.
Talk soon,
Nina
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NinaZara
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| Wed Nov 07, 2007 17:03 pm Your accent |
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Hi NinaZara,
| Quote: | | Most of them told me, there are things that give me away. I don't know how to explain this, but in certain situations, the Japanese would have said it differently from the way I do. |
This seems perfectly natural to me. It is very difficult for adult learners to speak a foreign language with a perfectly native-sounding accent and when that happens it is normally the case that the person is a very good mimic, nothing more. The only thing in language learning that children are really good at is acquring the pronunciation. And then it is not only about the pronunciation i.e. making the speech sounds of your target-language accurately, but also about intonation and rhythm.
If you want to improve your Japanese accent I suggest you study the phonology of the Japanese language. Japanese has a voiceless bilabial fricative sound which you do not have in Malay. Can you make this sound? Aside from the Japanese close back unrounded vowel, I don't expect you have had much trouble learning to make the Japanese vowel sounds.
EU |
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Englishuser
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| Wed Nov 07, 2007 17:23 pm Your accent |
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Hi EU,
I think it's the Japanese that must learn the phonology, at least the ones I am working with. I wish they could open their mouth when they speak. They like to mumble and this is strictly male speakers. I once told my boss that his pronunciation is bad and he said he couldn't agree more.
Maybe I was not clear, it was not my pronunciation in Japanese, but the choices of words that I use that give me away, the nuance as they always put it.
Nina
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NinaZara
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| Thu Nov 08, 2007 7:09 am Your accent |
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| NinaZara wrote: | Hi EU,
I think it's the Japanese that must learn the phonology, at least the ones I am working with. I wish they could open their mouth when they speak. They like to mumble and this is strictly male speakers. I once told my boss that his pronunciation is bad and he said he couldn't agree more.
Maybe I was not clear, it was not my pronunciation in Japanese, but the choices of words that I use that give me away, the nuance as they always put it.
Nina |
I can understand that, I'm in Japan too and I'll call up someone for business or something and on the phone they'll think I'm japanese then I tell them my name and they suddenly get quiet or the worst they start to speak half japanese and half english thinking it helps.
Yeah, well a surfer accent , we do say dude a lot and stretch out our vowels and there's a lot of surfer slang that other don't use or understand, it doesn't come out so much now unless I get drunk but if your not from the states it can be hard for someone to understand
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Boke
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| Fri Nov 09, 2007 17:44 pm Your accent |
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I grew up in northern Wisconsin, where the accent is, by American standards, nasal -- hard vowels, diphthongs, etc. There is no rounding of vowels. O is Ohhh, not ehooo as it is in California. The nasality of the Wisconsin accent is likely due to the heavy percentage of Wisconsin settlers who were either German or Scandinavian.
I moved down here (Tennessee) seven years ago and since then my vowels have become perhaps a bit less nasal.
As a result:
When I go home to Wisconsin, I might as well have been born and bred in the South -- my vocalizations are greeted with playful snickers. I'm telling you, my accent has not changed much at all, but those f'ers can pick it up.
Down here in Tennessee, I'm a damn Yankee. They think I must have starred in Fargo.
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prezbucky
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| Fri Nov 09, 2007 18:07 pm Your accent |
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| NinaZara wrote: | | What's a surfer accent? Is it an accent where people say 'Dude' all the time? I think it's adorable. I can never say 'dude' without sounding weird. |
Watch the Disney cartoon Mulan, and listen to the prince that Mulan falls in love with. The actor has a really heavy California beach boy accent. Imagine how startling it is for the rest of us Americans to see a dignified prince of ancient China open his mouth and talk like a surfer dude! It wasn't meant to be funny, either, so it's a classic case of bad casting. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Fri Nov 09, 2007 18:12 pm Your accent |
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| Ralf wrote: | | Do you feel that at times you get a special treatment because of your accent? |
I get special treatment from foreigners, because many of them claim I'm the only native speaker they can understand. This is because I had three years of practice speaking in a European town where nobody understood natural speech. It was like going to broadcasting school!
I also know that, unfortunately, with my Midwestern accent I can get things from people that speakers with heavy New York, Boston or especially Southern accents can't. The Midwestern accent is the standard accent in the US, so if you speak it very cleanly, people assume you're more intelligent than people from other regions, even though you're not. Unfortunate, but true. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Fri Nov 09, 2007 20:30 pm Your accent |
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The Midwestern accent might be the standard accent in the US, but the Southern California accent is a plague on/among our media, movies, etc.
U (too) = eew (teew) or ihoo (tih'oo)
A (day) = eh (deh) or @h (d@h -- rhymes with "dad")
O (no) = ehoo (neh'oo)
The rounding of the O and U, especially, makes me want to barf. There is no E before either of those letters.
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prezbucky
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| Fri Nov 09, 2007 21:10 pm Your accent |
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| The part of that accent that bugs me is the way they pronounce "car" like "core" and "house" like "hæuse". Very annoying. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Sat Nov 10, 2007 1:27 am Your accent |
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yah (standard Wisconsinese form of "yes" -- the German "jah")
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prezbucky
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