Ville_maddengurl  +  321527 Mon, 29 Jan 07 05:37 PM I  am a pure idiot! well, i did something wrong, you teased me ... i went on , then you went on teasing me instead of warning... Now give me a honest advice MrP ; how can i live with this shame? and please don't tease this time... Ville_maddengurl Joined on Tue, Oct 18 2005 Adana Contributing Member 1,710 Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up...(Thomas A. Edison) American English, Lazy English

	MrPedantic  +  321699 Mon, 29 Jan 07 10:29 PM Sorry, Merve, I know it was bad of me...but it was late...I had just completed my annual tax return...(that major work of fiction)...levity inevitably ensued... ~ ~ ~ ~ But do you really want to change your accent to a British one? MrP MrPedantic Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004 Veteran Member 12,592 ...opella forensis / adducit febris... Accents, American English, Lazy English

	Kooyeen  +  321737 Tue, 30 Jan 07 12:51 AM  MrPedantic wrote: Oh yes, use "and stuff" all the time. Use it for "etc.", or when you can't think of anything else to say, e.g. MrP: "Well, um, you know, er, not really. Just, um, watched tv and stuff." That's interesting. I thought the expression "and stuff" was only used in American English. There's an animated series in which half of what the characters say is just: "Dude, chicks (for "girls"), like (used like a comma), and stuff /or something (at the end of a sentence), damn, cool, this is gonna be cool, this sucks, Immuna (for "I'm going to"), and various swear words." That cartoon is a kind of "Course in Modern American English Usage". Merve, if you change your mind and want to perfect your American English, that's a good course. If you want to switch to British English, well, I don't know what to recommend. But maybe you could take Stewie Griffin as a model to imitate (Stewie from "Family Guy").   Kooyeen Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005 Italy Senior Member 4,968 Parental Advisory / Explicit Posts British English, American English, Lazy English, Commas

	Ville_maddengurl  +  321742 Tue, 30 Jan 07 01:16 AM  MrPedantic wrote: Sorry, Merve, I know it was bad of me...but it was late...I had just completed my annual tax return...(that major work of fiction)...levity inevitably ensued... ~ ~ ~ ~ But do you really want to change your accent to a British one? MrP Never mind, it is really easy to hurt a little girl like me... and you can placate a little girl easily... That's it...You will tease me, i will regret... I will decide to be more vigilant...And you will tease me again and again and again...Until i become ripe and more well-informed than you. Everytime it happens...  I want to thank you MrP, i could not think you would tease me...I took my lesson from you; I won't even trust my father... Let us forget British English, i am quite happy with American English (Hey,dude,it's a boy! -Griffin-) In the end : AMERICAN ACCENT RULES!!! Ville_maddengurl Accents, British English, American English, Lazy English, American Accents

	Marvin A.  +  321788 Tue, 30 Jan 07 03:58 AM Unless you get the accent down perfectly, it's unlikely that anyone will even be able to tell which dialect of English you learned. For example, Japanese speakers cannot make the vowel distinctions between General American and RP, nor can they pronounce their final r's, so they sound "British" (RP) no matter whether they tried to learn General American, or RP, or Scottish English, or any other variety of English. But...their Japanese accent is stronger than their "RP" accent, so they still just sound like they're speaking Japanese-English. I'm serious about this. So, to those of you that think that you're going to end up sounding like you're speaking with a British accent, or a North American accent, you're not...without long dialect coaching and accent reduction. An interesting thing that I've discovered: If you do manage to get a near native sounding accent, then you might as well learn the opposite accent of the country you plan on visiting. So, if you're going to visit the States, then learn RP. If your accent is fairly good, you *will* be mistaken for an Englishwoman. Marvin A. Joined on Fri, Dec 8 2006 Regular Member 638 British Accent, Accents, American English, Lazy English, Vowels, American Accents, Dialects

	Ville_maddengurl  +  321900 Tue, 30 Jan 07 12:08 PM I've never seen any Japanese who can use American accent perfectly... On the other hand,Japanese-English is cute i think... i am learning English at an American College for 11 years ...In 2003 summer i was in Florida, they-Americans- could not realize i am American or not... Ville_maddengurl Accents, Learning English, American English, Lazy English, American Accents

	Marvin A.  +  322013 Tue, 30 Jan 07 04:30 PM >> i am learning English at an American College for 11 years ...In 2003 summer i was in Florida, they-Americans- could not realize i am American or not... << Well, then, if you did manage to perfect your accent, then why on earth would you want to change your accent, and come up with a bizarre, trans-Atlantic accent? Stick with what you can do well. That's quite an achievement and you should be proud of yourself. Marvin A. Accents, Learning English, American English, Lazy English

	Orpheus  +  322238 Wed, 31 Jan 07 03:36 AM Speaking of lazy English, I remember I decided to learn British English because I was too lazy to pronounce the 'R' Orpheus Joined on Tue, Jun 17 2003 Jakarta, Indonesia Regular Member 587 'Truth is Subjectivity' - Kierkegaard British English, American English, Lazy English