German speaker in the latest TOEIC® tests?

[Torsten]

Hi, has anyone noticed that in the latest TOEIC test sets ETS is using a German female speaker along with a couple of American and British speakers?

TOEIC listening, photographs: Weightlifting

[HamburgEnglish]

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She is not German as far as I am aware. However, it is very strange that you should mention that because I have had a few comments regarding my voice on our TOEIC test preparation at www.onlineenglish.de (smile)

At least three people in the last 3 months thought that I was a German speaker. The strange thing is that I then wondered whether living in Germany is giving me a German accent and I then questioned 100 of our members. Out of the 100 members, all from different countries, 35 were from germany. Actually I had answers from only 70 students and here are the results:

75% of the students knew I was not American and suggested that I was from the UK.
10% knew I was from Wales.
12% thought I was American or from South Africa.
3% thought I was a German speaker speaking English !!! But what is really strange is that every one of these was themselves a German !!!

Additionally, this has only started to happen in the last 3 months! OnlineEnglish has been online now for 4 years and in all this time there has never been such a comment!!

So what is your opinion???

Rob
www.onlineenglish.eu
TOEIC Test preparation Online by an Official TOEIC Test center.

[Torsten]

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Hi Rob, I can only answer your question if you record a voice message here on the forum as I have just done.

Many thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: A tractor at the beach

[Hieupt]

[HamburgEnglish]

Good point for discussion !!

Accents are an interesting subject. I mean, if someone works in France and uses English to communicate with the French, would the TOEIC test be better having a French accent?

Also, although the TOEIC test incorporates 4 different accents/dialects (another interesting topic), one of which is called British, what British is it? Same goes for American and Canadian?

.... and finally, why are native English speakers capable of working with almost all versions, be it accents or dialects of English, some of them they have never heard in their life before?

All this just goes to support my comments many years ago. !! (want to know what they were? then ask here in the forum)

Rob