Is your accent unbearable?

[Arlindomarco]

I've watched "Noel".It's an american movie, the story is nice, Penelope
Cruz is really a pretty woman, but her spanish accent sounds so weird,so freak!
It has gotten on my nerves!Note. She plays an american
citizen.She doesn't play an immigrant or something like that.
To what extent is a strong accent an obstacle for ESL speakers?
I'm waiting for your answer!

[Jamie (K)]

In the United States, a foreign accent is an obstacle only if it's so strong that people have to work hard to understand you. If your speech is easy to understand, most people don't care about your accent.

[Yankee]

.
I've seen that movie, too. You're right -- Penelope Cruz is very pretty, and she definitely has a Spanish accent, but her accent sounds neither weird nor freaky to me. She is easy to understand. So is Antonio Banderas.

Speaking of accents, the governor of California has a German accent. :wink:
.
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[Jamie (K)]

[Lost_Soul]

Speaking of accents, what is important is how you stress words ! I had a chance to speak to a New-Zealander once in my mother tongue on Skype. He said a word and wrongly stressed it and I was not able to understand it. Once he stressed it right, I instantly understood him. That's it!

[Jamie (K)]

When I lived in Europe, an Irishman came to the town where I lived once. His Irish dialect happened to be one of those in which the individual sounds were almost the same as the way they are pronounced in Midwestern US English. However, we American Midwesterners still had trouble understanding him sometimes because his sentence stress was so different.

[Alan]

Hi,

On this matter of accents, I am always intrigued to know why Australians invariably make a statement sound as if it's a question. I believe this is described as using 'high rising terminals'. I wonder if this way of speaking is a sign of diffidence or uncertainty on the part of the speaker.

Alan
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[Yankee]

[Alan]

Hi,

There are parts of Switzerland where German is spoken but my word what a dialect and and when the German speaking Swiss speak English, you can tell a mile off where they come from.

Alan
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[Jamie (K)]

[Aro]

[Jamie (K)]

[Yankee]

Hi Jamie

As you probably remember, I lived in Germany for nearly 18 years, and in that time I had lots of opportunity to talk to Germans from all over Germany. You're not trying to suggest that all Germans sound the same when they speak German, are you? ;) I also met and spoke with people from Austria and Switzerland. I'm quite aware of the different sounds that spoken German has in various areas.

Now, just of curiosity, what sort of accent would an ESL student from Mexico have? What about from Puerto Rico? From Argentina? How many people would say, "Oh yes! That's unmistakably a Mexican speaking English." or "There's no question! That's an Argentinian speaking English."? Is it only possible for people from Spain to have a "Spanish accent"? Do all of the people in Spain sound the same when they speak Spanish? Do all ESL students from Spain have the same accent in English? Just wondering... ;)
.
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Ralf]

Amy is right, and she's not. You often find speakers who can imitate an accent in a foreign language quite well, but mostly you're still able to tell the speaker's native tongue. I've once met a girl from Austria with a pretty good English accent and asked her whether she was from Germany - in German. A mistake, because when she spoke back to me in (Austrian) German I couldn't understand her anymore. It's only when the speaker has a distinctly marked pronunciation that is close to his first language or dialect that you can tell his origin. In my classes here in Leipzig/Saxony, probably about 10% of my students speak in what you could call a Saxon accent. And Arnold Schwarzenegger -- in the early days of his career -- could probably be associated with this 10% community of Austrian English speakers.

As for Spanish language speakers of English, I find it hard to make distinctions. My knowledge of the Spanish language is fairly limited, but I've never really encountered any problems to understand a person from South America, whereas people from Andalusia, Galicia or Catalonia are often hard to understand.
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[Jamie (K)]