Search results for 'tag:Literature tag:Accents' matching tags 'Literature' and 'Accents'

Need your Help... Pls pls pls

Sushi* — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 00:06:28 GMT

Dear everybody:

I have a very sticky rpoblem and I need your help.
I am a student in the department of English Literature. My native tongue has always been Arabic. I, everyday in the college, learn new words and vocabs. The problem is, I CANNOT REMEMBER ALL OF THEM. I mean, after I learnt them all by heart. When it comes to either speaking or writing, and I want to recall a spicific word, it just doesn't come across my head. Other times, I get stuck when i want to know the English word for a word in Arabic.
Putting all of these aside, my pronunciation is a huge thing I have to deal with. I can speak American and British accent, but which is which, I cannot serttle on any of them.
Lol, It's too long sorry

Re: Bilingual Education

Titithi — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:57:08 GMT

It's an interesting subject. July Lai reminds me of the proud of some Vietnamese literature teachers who were highly appreciated by the vietnamese ex- patriotes. Almost Vietnamese parents in USA would like to have their children followed the bilingual program education as they have attended when they were young. But it's very difficult because it depends on the state where they live.So, they used to invite their relatives who were Vietnamese teachers to visit them and taught their children about culture of their people. It's very great to see a Vietnamese can speak two languages with a good accent and a graceful way to exhibit their art and literature, especially a woman with a considerable culture.To me, I think bilingual education is the education program that children followed at the same time two systems of education. Such as, you should learned French program like a French in France and Vietnamese program like a Vietnamese in everywhere in Vietnam. Peole used to say:" They value as two people". As the matter of fact , each culture has its own feature but it's not quite different to others. We can search a lot of thing at the same point of view. For example: the six and eight words "syllables" in the traditional poem in Vietnam. It has the common point about rhyme and rhythm with sounds and images which reflected deep feeling and noble thought like the other modern verses of many countries. In bilingual education, you learn a lot of thing similar to two people but it's always the same. It's a good condition to review all of your knowledge. May be, that's why who follow the bilingual education can answer easily a lot of difficult questions and always look like smarter than the others because they learned a lot. No one is smarter than the others, there is only who has learned something and the others haven't learned or never learned.

Titithi

Re: Who's learning Indian English?

milky — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 06:55:35 GMT

<<We don't really regard Indian-English as being a proper dialect of English, merely English spoken with an Indian accent, and grammatically influenced by the persons native tongue.Standard and non-standard dialects>>

A standard dialect (also known as a standardized dialect or "standard language") is a dialect that is supported by institutions. Such institutional support may include government recognition or designation; presentation as being the "correct" form of a language in schools; published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks that set forth a "correct" spoken and written form; and an extensive formal literature that employs that dialect (prose, poetry, nonfiction, etc.). There may be multiple standard dialects associated with a language. For example, Standard American English, Southern English, Standard British English, and Standard Indian English may all be said to be standard dialects of the English language.

A nonstandard dialect, like a standard dialect, has a complete vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, but is not the beneficiary of institutional support.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect

Re: Which country is everyone from?

Amoly — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 13:42:14 GMT

hi..............everybody...from all nations religons and cultures

i am from Saudi Arabia.

i live in Dammam.I have a bachelor degree in English literature.

My accent is little bit American,of course my language is Arabic.

Re: Native-speaker intuition.

Cool Breeze — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 08:36:44 GMT

Englishuser wrote:
A non-native speaker who has immersed himself or herself with highbrow literature written in a foreign language could very well have a more vivid vocabulary and a better knowledge of the grammar of the language than the average native speaker. At least as far as the 'standard version' of the language is concerned.

Englishuser

Hi Englishuser

I agree, learning the grammar of a language can be relatively easy for a person who is familiar with the grammatical structures of his native language. As far as I am concerned, English grammar was a piece of cake for me even though it differs considerably from Finnish grammar. It was easy because there is so little of it; an English word has very few forms: write, writes, writing, wrote, written. That's all there is written as single words. Of course has written, having written etc. exist in addition to the five basic forms.

However, in Finnish, for instance, you need six forms just to say something affirmative in the present tense, a different inflection for every person (I, you, he, we, you, they). You need another six forms to ask a question etc. Nouns have more than a hundred forms and an adjective has hundreds of inflected forms. Some English people have said to me they don't belive me when I say that. That's because they think the languages they may have some knowledge of, usually German or French, are as complicated in structure as a language can be. They know of nothing else.

What is difficult about English are the countless idioms and spelling.

By the way, when I am abroad I try not to sound British or American even though I have been told that I am able to mimic the American accent quite well. Finland was never a major country in world politics or colonization and I often get good service just because people don't really know anything about my country. They have no preconceived notions.

I was once having a drink in a hotel bar in New Orleans. The man sitting next to me asked me: "Where do you come from?" I said: "Finland." He said: "Which state is it in?" So I got wise and a couple of days later when a fiftyish woman asked me the same question, I said: "I'm from Europe." Her face lit up: "That's marvelous! I've got relatives in the same country."

Cheers
CB

Re: Past perfect in a museum

Pastsimple — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 22:35:00 GMT

Grammar Geek wrote:
Not that this is on topic, but I'm intrigued. A posting outside a building is called a label in BrE? What is a sign?

Well, GG, it's in NnsE - Non-native speaker's English! In other words, using label is a sign that you're not a native speaker.

Nice you consider my English BrE! If you are interested, I was taught BrE at secondary school, have some colleagues that are Brits, and visit Britain now and then. However, most films I watch are in "American", my university lecturers were Yanks and I read American literature more than I do British. All in all, those two contradicting sources of influence can indeed create pretty mess sometimes: I use British spelling exclusively but Brits tell me my accent/pronunciation is more American than British. Can't get rid of those R's!

Re: Written English and Spoken English

Nef — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 01:14:14 GMT

Patricklui wrote:

Hello I am new to here. My mother tongue is Cantonese and I like to polish my English.

It's known that English has two different versions : spoken and written. I have been learning English since I was a child and my written English is not too bad because this is what I have to master in order to pass most exams. However, when it comes to speaking in English I often don't know what to say and struggle for words. Though I am in a city where many Englishes live and work in, I hardly make any native friends, what means, I lack an language environment. My problem is:

How can I learn more about the spoken version of English - the way that natives speak? Can you suggest some free online material focusing on spoken English?

Looking forward to your reply.

Hello Patricklui,

I work in an ESL program, and I know that your situation is very common. Some students speak better than they write or read. Some read, and often write, better than they speak. Some are more or less at the same level in everything, but these seem to be rare.

I'd suggest listening to English on the radio and watching some English television, if possible. (Be careful which programs you choose. For one thing, given your location, it may make more sense for you to listen to British English than to listen to North American English. For another thing, some shows aren't much like real conversation.)

Also, when you can, listen to people speaking English around you (possibly on a bus or while you are having something to drink or reading a newspaper someplace.) Do you think these speakers sound like you sound? Do they abbreviate things you might not abbreviate? (example: Want to go? or even Wanta go? versus Do you want to go?) Do they use different inflection (raising and lowering the pitch of their voices) than you usually do? Would you understand a lot of what they said if they slowed down?

**My strongest suggestion is to take a class in conversational English, if you can. Look for a class that focuses on practical communication.** An intensive conversational class (one that meets frequently and for fairly long amounts of time) would be good, if you could manage it. Again, try to find a class that focuses on conversation (not on writing, not on reading, not on reciting long passages, not on learning about literature, not on a combination of these things). Talking, listening, understanding, using, asking questions, learning more.

Another possibility (perhaps hard to find and not cheap) would be a class that focuses on pronunciation. (This is more specific than a class that focuses on conversation.) Still more specific would be working with a speech coach or therapist who focuses on accent reduction. You might not need either of these two. Try other things first.

Spend some more time on this forum, particularly in the areas where you think you need help. I think Www.eslcafe.com is another good forum. See what other people are doing to improve their speech.

If possible, ask a few proficient English-speaking acquaintances for feedback and suggestions.

Practice saying common phrases the way you have heard proficient English speakers say those phrases.

Good luck!

Re: Vacation

Phuongninhbao — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 08:52:46 GMT

I like your poem very much, especially the image of " Since my eyes decided to take a walk along the street, I can't hardly concentrate...". It reminds me a famous reading of our romantic poet in the revolution of poem in my country with the sentence that I've learnt by heart:" Some kinds of frogs scattered their souls of cemetary to cover the quiet road and the road was spread of black tar:I wandered slowly, the evening was creeping in my mind from the way of the soul of two eyes". I'm very interested in images, sounds and colours in poem. In our schooling ,we should learn a lot of poems, especially the ones who have a great influence in Chinese such as Duong Poem, an aristocratic poem with rhymes , rhythms accents and the definite number of words and sentences..It made us very bored. So free verses are the most interesting way to enjoy literature. You can't be sensitive with the beauty and the interesting if you don't grasp all rules of poem. However, to express your sentiment you can leave out all of these rules. And I feel your vacation with a deep sadness with the slap of the waves like the desesperate sigh of S.O.The suffering of the orphan, the life bellt, the rope{ slave}, the shell {the symbol of timidity] .Your vacation is not vacant , there is a sadness of angel, the tear of angelic white. It's very tender, smooth and flowery.Your sadness is not really a sadness but a romantic sensation.Let's enjoy with this sentiment when we could feel it.But I think it's not very suitable in this forum, so you should repair a little to add some rhymes, some rhythmes and turn it into a new poem instead of free verses.{Our forum is learning English}

Phuong ninh

Re: Could you please help me with the word literacy

CalifJim — Thu, 18 May 2006 23:35:21 GMT

Both have the primary accent on the first syllable and a secondary accent on the last syllable.

                   /          \
literacy:    LIT er a cy

                  /          \
literature:   LIT er a ture

CJ

Could you please help me with the word literacy

Anonymous — Thu, 18 May 2006 21:58:33 GMT

I always have problems with literacy- literature. My firs language is spanish. Where do I put the accents on li or te?
Thank so much for your help