Search results for 'tag:American English tag:Learn English' matching tags 'American English' and 'Learn English'

Questions about flapping and glottalisation.

Lincoln Punch — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:42:32 GMT

Hello. I'm a student from Korea (South) trying to learn English based on received pronunciation. And it's kind of hard because everyone here tries to learn American English.

Here goes the questions:

1. I reckon Americans often use 'flapped d', but it seems that British people don't flap 'd' sound as much as Americans do.
Is it considered 'lazy' to flap 'd' pronunciation in British English? Like, when you say 'had a', or 'bad eighties'.

2. How about flapping 't' sound in one word? i.e., little, bottle...

3. Using glottalisation is THAT bad? I know it's originated from Cockney accent but I love the sound when 't' is glottalised.
If I glottalised the 't' sound when it's in end of the word, for example, 'I got a', 'about it', would I be considered as a 'lazy' speaker?

4. Am I using 'reckon' properly? :p

Sorry for asking so many questions, but I'm a very curious student.

Thanks for reading. Have a good one!

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:34:01 GMT

Hello, another English teacher here. I have been teaching English in China for about 2 and a half years now and also speak fluent French, decent Spanish and am learning Chinese (not as hard as you may think once you get the hang of those tones, easy grammar). Now I'll start off by saying that English seems to be an incredibly easy language to communicate with (and by this I mean to give the general idea of what you're trying to say). However, if you want to learn English like a native speaker then it's a completely different story. The pronunciation CAN be difficult to learn depending on your native language and also the age you attempt to learn it at. Training your tongue and mouth to move the same way a native speaker does can be difficult to do, especially if you're like many of my students who got their start at an older age or didn't have good teachers. I've also noticed that my younger students are able to mimic my speech much easier than the older ones speaking, both of whom are studying at the same level. I started learning French when I was 4 years old (Quebec French, I'm Canadian) and because of the quality of my teachers and my young age I was able to become quite good with my pronunciation. With my Chinese because I'm learning from scratch from native speakers my pronunciation is also decent (notice I said decent, not great, although when speaking Chinese I'm always understood). Native language has a lot to do with it too as the sounds you use in one language may be very different for another. I've taught in both the north and south of China and find that the people all have the same problems. Chinese people have problems with s (they often pronounce it as a sh sound) and with closing their mouth for the letter m ("sometimes" is a nightmare for them and they often say it like "suntine"). L and R can also be troublesome. One can't forget sentence stress as well as well as linking words together to make it go smoothly.

The vocabulary can also be a pain. Someone here mentioned 150,000 words in the English language but the number is actually much higher. The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) contains over 600,000 definitions. Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged contains 475,000 main headwords and it is believed the language grows by 25,000 words a year. Don't believe me, check Wikipedia. There's also the difference in spelling and vocabulary between the different forms of English. British English and American English use different words and the words that are the same can be spelled differently. American English and Canadian English essentially share the same vocabulary to a large degree but the spelling of Canadian English in many ways is closer to British English. British English is pretty much the English form most Asian and European countries will learn but American pop culture will also have an influence, not to mention the American economy and it's impact. This can all be very confusing. To the person saying they are tired of using "well" as in "well, then..." there are many substitutes you could use.

The grammar is also a nuisance. It's not the hardest of things but certainly isn't the easiest. Sure French has a gender attached to all of it's nouns (which I hated when learning it), but English still has more exceptions to it's rules that need to me memorized. So many even native speakers have trouble with it. A language like Chinese that may seem hard to speak actually has very simple grammar. For example if you wanted to ask someone where they are you would say "ni zai na li" or simply "ni zai nar" (you where?). To ask a question in Chinese you merely ad "ma" to the end of a statement. "Ta hui shuo zhongwen" is "he/she speaks Chinese whereas "ta hui shuo zhongwen ma" is "does he/she speak Chinese?". Also in Chinese as there are no forms of he or she.

It's impossible to say which language is easy and which is hard when compared to each other because there are so many things that need to be taken into consideration. Let's just say that English has it's easy parts and it's ridiculously difficult parts as well. Speaking at a native speaker level can be done and I know people who have done this, but it takes a lot of hard work, good instruction, and a good learning atmosphere. I hope all that made sense, I stumbled onto this site a 2 in the morning and am quite tired.

Re: just to... A weird doubt

Kooyeen — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:58:02 GMT

Amy, you're trying to confuse me, don't you?

Well, I think I heard it a lot of times! Are you saying that "want to" is always pronounced "wanna"?

So you want to learn English... and what makes you think I'm going to teach it to you?
So you wanna learn English... and what makes you think I'm gonna teach it to you?

Wanna and gonna are very common, but not the only way to say it. Of course, the faster you speak, the more likely you are to always say "wanna".

I think they are different words because the way you change the pronunciation of those words is not a general feature of American English. In other words, there's a lot of people (like me) who pronounce twenty as twenny. But they also say innerstate for interstate, cenner for center, niny for ninety... so that's a feature. A lot of T's are left out after N's. But if you consider "wanna" instead of "want to", or "gonna" instead of "going to"... also "gimme" instead of "give me"... those are exceptions, those are not pronunciation features.
Take "gimme". It should be "give me". So, when do you drop V-sounds in American English? Never, I guess. So that's not a way to pronounce some sets of sounds. It's a different pronunciation of a set phrase, which leads to the new word "gimme".

I hope you like my theory... I don't know if that was good, since I didn't even know what exactly I wanted to say. More or less what I wrote, anyway.

Re: i have allday to studying english

Kooyeen — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:34:43 GMT

Quangtrungvtv wrote:
if i have 12 hours a day to study english

Good, that's the only real way to learn English. Using it a lot (= most of the time).

Tips:
0) You should decide what variety you want to focus on (usually either British or American English), because there are some differences, especially in vocabulary.

1) Get a bilingual dictionary (English / Your first language). Dictionaries on CD-ROM or on the net are better because you can find every word extremely quickly.

2) Get a monolingual dictionary (English with English Definition). Longman have some good ones that are vital for every learner. There are several dictionaries for learners, anyway, as I said, dictionaries on CD-ROM or on the net are better. Longman, Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries are also available online for free.

3) Get a basic grammar book. Cambridge ones (by Murphy) are pretty good. I would avoid anything by Michael Swan, I think his grammars are confusing. Unfortunatley, every grammar book for ESL learners seems to focus only on British English.

4) Practice, but try not to make mistakes, otherwise you'll also be practicing "bad English". Post here in the forum, think in English, read English stuff (good English though, and on the net there's a lot of non-native bad English, so be careful).

5) This is the last point but it should be the most important one: learn how to pronounce words in a decent way, improve your pronunciation. Choose what variety you want to learn (usually either American English or British English), and use that accent when you read or think in English. If you don't do so, you are not going to practice listening, because you are not going to understand. And listening is the last step... you should practice listening too, once you are skilled enough to understand the general meaning.

End of my tips.

Re: I WANT TO LEARN ENGLISH WITH SKYPE

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 06:03:01 GMT

I can help you. I am an American English Native Speaker and I studied at some of the best U.S. and European schools.

Chris

Re: Is American English lazy English?

MrPedantic — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:42:04 GMT

Ville_maddengurl wrote:
i want to give American accent up and learn English accent to talk more intelligible...is it OK now, MrP ..?

I'm sorry, VM, you're going to have to speak much more slowly.

In fragments.

Without verbs.

And say "er" and "um" and "right?" a lot.

And add quite a few expletives.

Preferably in a glottal mumble, through your nose.

Then British people will understand you...

MrP

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Ville_maddengurl — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 02:28:09 GMT

i want to give American accent up and learn English accent to talk more intelligible...is it OK now, MrP ..?

Re: Who's learning Indian English?

milky — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:09:14 GMT

When were native speakers exported to the US? The US became the US at what date?

Was France ruled by Britain for a few hundred years?

<Now, we could certainly call this a "dialect", and even a "standardized dialect" of English-->

As is Standard American English.

May Americans would not eveb know that Denmark is a country. So, time to educate yourselves?

How many people would that be?

<Remember, that we have a different mentality over here, since we are not often exposed to people with a strong accent. >

Not even Spanish speakers? I think what is really happening here is that you and your mates don't have much contact with "foreigners" who live in your country.

I've been teaching EFL for 26 years all over the globe. Most of the studtent complaints I get about understandability are related to the way white Americans speak.

Re: Who's learning Indian English?

Marvin A. — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:52:16 GMT

Sorry to contradict you, but that is exactly what is happening in the USA today. Speakers of other Standard variants and indeed taking classes in using Standard American English. The question is, why don't Standard American English speakers, want to do the same when they plan to have long-term contact with certain speakers of other standard dialects?

I think the difference, is that English originated in England, and some of the native speakers were exported to the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. They spoke the original dialects, which slowly went their separate ways over the years. This is a totally difference case, then when non-native speakers learn English. The situation in India is about the same as that in France. The French learn English at school, and/or from their parents. Their parents are *not* native speakers of English. Now, we could certainly call this a "dialect", and even a "standardized dialect" of English--because they would all make the same mistakes, etc., and have very similar pronunciation and grammar. Even if they learned it as a second or third generation person--e.g. their grandparents passed down their knowledge of English to their children, who then passed it on to their children. Ok, this is all well and good, but if they decided to go to an English speaking country, they would not be regarded as being native speakers of English (whether or not they technically were). I have a feeling that when it comes to Indian-English, it is more common to hear it Britain than it is in North America (excluding our larger cities). I know that over there, there are many Indians--so it is more likely that they would consider it to be a proper dialect of English and grant it recognition as a valid form of English. Over here, I'd say that the majority of people don't even know that many people speak English in India, and even if they did, it would be regarded rather the same as how French people, or how Koreans speak English. To add to the problems, since it is not a form of English that we are used to, from what I've heard, it is considered to be one of the *most* difficult accent on English to understand--most people I've talked to have rated it far below say a strong Chinese, or Vietnamese accent in comprehension. Remember, that we have a different mentality over here, since we are not often exposed to people with a strong accent. That is why they would have to learn a recognized dialect of English. Ironically enough, though, if they learned a nearly perfect British accent of English, they would be more likely to be considered to be native speakers of English on this side of the pond, than if they learned a near perfect North American dialect.

Re: non-native accents

Marvin A. — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:10:58 GMT

J Lewis wrote:
Considering how little effort the British and the Americans generally make to learn foreign languages, I always appreciate whatever attempts my students make to learn English, however imperfect. My hair doesn't stand on end because of mistakes connected with their own language.
The only thing I object to here in Italy is mistakes coming from preconceptions about English, which have no basis in the Italian language. The main one concerns the letter "a", which many Italians are convinced is pronounced like an "e". Partly this comes from a simplification of the "ei" diphthong, so they pronounce "David" as "Devvid" and "Glade" as "Gled", but mainly form a mis-hearing of the Southern English, and particularly the American, short "a", so they talk about "feshion", "news flesh" and "menegers". In vain I tell them that no one in Britain says anything like "Hugh Grent". In vain I ask them why, if they have to say "Internetional", they don't also say "Emnesty".

In some dialects of North American English, /Ã¦/ is indeed pronounced as [ E ] . This is particularily true in Northern Midwestern dialects that have only a partial NCVS. Dialects with the NCVS pronounce it as [ e@ ] . Many other dialects also realize /Ã¦/ as [ e@ ] when it is followed by /n/ or /m/, including California English.