Search results for 'tag:British English tag:Vocabulary' matching tags 'British English' and 'Vocabulary'

Re: If I'm used only to Standard English, might I have trouble understanding dialects?

Mr Wordy — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:26:35 GMT

There are some differences in vocabulary and idiom across the British Isles, and you might encounter some regional words and expressions that you're not familiar with. But the core vocabulary and grammar are not hugely different, and you might find that a bigger problem is pronunciation. If you're only familiar with the sort of English spoken by middle class people from the south of England, and you go into a pub in a rough part of Glasgow, say, then you might not even realise that the people there are speaking English at all.

The native speakers I (as a native speaker myself) have most difficulty with are young urban working class people. In this case, vocabulary (lots of "yoof slang" I've never heard of) and pronunciation both cause problems. I might overhear, say, a group of youths chatting in a London suburb and only catch about 50% of it.

There's no need to try to speak regional dialects of British English yourself (unless you're particularly interested in doing so, of course). If you speak something approximating to "standard" British English then you should be able to make yourself understood anywhere in the British Isles.

Re: Poll: British English vs American English

Cool Breeze — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:49:26 GMT

When I attended school in the late Middle Ages, I never wondered whether I was taught British or American English. I suppose I was taught both: differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. I find it strange that anyone would like to confine his knowledge of the language to just one variety. Why on earth? And how could that be possible? I have seen him is both British and American! I don't know how it could be possible to learn just one variety as they are so similar, after all. The dialectal differences in Britain are far greater than the differences between British and American English, as I have said before in some other thread.

Brits understand Americans even if they have never been taught American English, and vice versa. If a Finnish teacher of English has spent a lot of time in England or the US, he may be more familiar with one variety and may thus want to emulate British or American pronunciation in his teaching. The students can't help hearing both because all the texts in the books that are used are recorded on CDs by native speakers, who include Brits, Americans, Canadians, Australians and even the occasional Indian. All these nationalities are employed in nationwide listening comprehension tests as well.

When a Finn is enrolled in a university, few of the books on the syllabus are in Finnish unless he studies Finnish Philology or Finnish History or something similar. If he studies social sciences, biology, medicine etc. the majority of the books are in English. In some cases he may be able to choose a book in another language also, usually Swedish, German or French. As a rule, it is safe to say that university studies are not possible if you are unable to understand scientific books written in English. These books may be written by Britons, Americans, Finns, Germans, Spaniards or people representing other nationalities because English is the leading language of science and no university can function properly without English. Some of the visiting lecturers and professors don't speak a word of Finnish!

It seems utterly trivial and futile to me to try to concentrate on just British or American English when one just can't manage with only one variety and the differences are so small.

Cheers

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: British English and American English

Vorpar — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 20:49:10 GMT

It wouldn't be a big deal to mix vocabulary. It would resemble writing that has slang in it. There are a few words that can be confused (like football or chip) but the writing would generally be clear.

Re: Poll: British English vs American English

Daffy Duck — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:35:30 GMT

Anonymous wrote:
Well, I have encountered this problem recently. I had been learning english for few years, then I stopped attending courses or lessons, I have been learning at home and watching American TV series and movies.. so I have picked up a lot of vocabulary. So far, so good. Then I realised, when preparing to Cambridge Exam, that I have to "forget" american words and learn british equivalents. Because now I am mixing both.. It's fine by me, as long as people can understand me. Still when passing an exam you need to be consistent, using either american or british english. It's tricky. American english surrounds us everywhere, so we're more familiar with it. On the contrary I just love british accent, even though learning british pronounciation isn't easy.

Nice to hear from you again, Anonymous It's tricky for us teachers, too. We don't even know, if it's just going to be British or American English. Few days ago, I met some students and their parents asked about teachers who can teach Canadian English. Imagine?!

Re: Poll: British English vs American English

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:56:04 GMT

Well, I have encountered this problem recently. I had been learning english for few years, then I stopped attending courses or lessons, I have been learning at home and watching American TV series and movies.. so I have picked up a lot of vocabulary. So far, so good. Then I realised, when preparing to Cambridge Exam, that I have to "forget" american words and learn british equivalents. Because now I am mixing both.. It's fine by me, as long as people can understand me. Still when passing an exam you need to be consistent, using either american or british english. It's tricky. American english surrounds us everywhere, so we're more familiar with it. On the contrary I just love british accent, even though learning british pronounciation isn't easy.

Re: Poll: British English vs American English

Daffy Duck — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:04:24 GMT

Titithi wrote:
I agree with you: learning both is useful. In my country,we have learned British English and we should explain why the pronunciation of this word can pronounce in different other way or why people use "will" instead of "shall". Today , our program is changed into American English, we usually explain the difference between B.E and A.E.in pronunciation and in some cases of grammar or vocabulary.....It is not serious in lower level. Imitating is the best way to learn so we use only the CVD or Cassette with the American speakers voice while in the past we use British books and Cassette. Students often ask us some suspicious thing that they have heard on TV and on Movie, Ads.....Are they true or wrong...?

Thanks Titithi!

Re: Poll: British English vs American English

Titithi — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:46:07 GMT

I agree with you: learning both is useful. In my country,we have learned British English and we should explain why the pronunciation of this word can pronounce in different other way or why people use "will" instead of "shall". Today , our program is changed into American English, we usually explain the difference between B.E and A.E.in pronunciation and in some cases of grammar or vocabulary.....It is not serious in lower level. Imitating is the best way to learn so we use only the CVD or Cassette with the American speakers voice while in the past we use British books and Cassette. Students often ask us some suspicious thing that they have heard on TV and on Movie, Ads.....Are they true or wrong...?

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.

English spoken in Malta

LulÃº — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:29:23 GMT

Hello,

I'm studying English and I'm especially interested in the linguistic situation of Malta. Can we find any linguistic differences between British English and the English spoken in Malta? If so, what kind of differences, exactly? I mean, can we find, for instance, differences in pronunciation, vocabulary or even syntax? I'd really appreciate it if someone who lives or has ever been there could give me some examples or tell me his opinion.

What I wonder is: we talk about British, Irish, or Australian English, but can we also talk about Maltese English?

Thanks in advance!