Search results for 'tag:Pronunciation tag:Speaking English' matching tags 'Pronunciation' and 'Speaking English'

Re: Teachers Wanted in the Philippines

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:27:58 GMT

Dear Sir / Madam

I am a qualified and experienced English teacher and I have been teaching in Korea for the past two years. My command of the English language is superb, I speak with a clear accent and I am careful to pronounce and articulate with clarity when students are listening.

It is with full confidence in my talents, training, and experience as an educator that I offer this application for your sympathetic consideration. A review of the contents of my resume, my education, teaching, and employment record will assure you that I am equipped with extensive preparation and performance in the English education field.

I hold both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree from accredited universities (see below). My abilities as a teacher have been honed and enhanced through over ten years of consistent practice in the field. I have meticulously prepared and delivered hundreds of lesson-plans, speeches, and lectures and have taught various age groups, ranging from children to teen-agers to undergraduate students to adults. I have taught conversation techniques and have conducted reading groups and discussion groups for children, university students and adults. I have actively engaged in children's education with a high degree of satisfaction and success. I recently taught in the government Elementary school system of Korea, and I enjoyed relating to and responding to the learning-needs of the children. I was selected to be the Head Teacher for Kaya University's English Summer Camp for Kids. My task was to teach and co-ordinate the activities of 7 other teachers at this intensive English camp for both Elementary and High School students. I am presently teaching undergraduate students at a renowned university in Daegu, Korea. Letters of recommendation are available from this Elementary School.

Along with my formal training and experience, I offer myself as an intelligent, sensitive and articulate person. My vocabulary is extensive and my pronunciation is clear and distinct. I am endowed with an innate sensitivity to the needs of others. I hail from a multi-cultural context and I have adapted to various cultures very well. I am a clear thinker, communicator, and an empathetic teacher who can identify and respond to the particular needs of individual students. I love working with children and have great energy and enthusiasm in the classroomâ¦students are very responsive and positive toward me.

I am currently teaching in Korea...but I am seeking to relocate to the Philippines. I will be available from the middle of December, this year.

I would like to send you my resume and letters of reference attached. I am happy to send you scans of my degrees, passport or any other pertinent information that you require. I also welcome a telephone interview. If you reply to me I would be happy to send you my photograph - to your personal email. Please reply to me at the following email address: mr.k.leigh@gmail.com

Here is my resume and letter of reference.

CURRICULUM VITAE: MR. KEREN M. LEIGH

Address: Apt. 6 Keimyung University            Sex:        Male
2139 Daemyung Dong, Nam-Gu                     Nationality:    South Africa
705-701, Daegu                                         Age:         38
Gyeongsangbukdo, Korea                            Race:        Caucasian

Email:  xx                   Phone:     Korea 010-6874-8642

EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS

2003-2004    Ph.D. Candidate, University of California at Berkeley,
    Department of Near Eastern Studies
    (currently enrolled but do not wish to complete this degree)

2000-2003    Master of Divinity Degree, Golden Gate Seminary, CA.
    Graduated with honors in Theological and Pastoral studies

1988-1994    Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy and History of Art,
    University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

1987    Higher Grade Matric Certificate, Greenside High School, Jhb.

All Degree Certificates are available upon request.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

2008    English Lecturer, FISEP Department, Keimyung University, Daegu

2007    English Teacher, Daechang Elementary School, Jinyeong, Gimhae
    English Teacher, Chillam and Jangyu Libraries, Adult Classes.

2006    Assistant Manager, Pembury Hotel â Melrose, Jhb, R.S.A..

2004-2005     Self-employed, Home Construction â Sodwana Bay, Kwa-Zulu/Natal.

2003-2004    Graduate Student Instructor, University of California at Berkeley
ï· Prepared and presented course lectures for classes of roughly 150 students
ï· Conducted tutorial classes in question & answer format for classes of roughly 25 students
ï· Graded examinations and essays
ï· Conducted one-to-one student interviews

2000-2003    Senior Pastor, Hope Baptist Church, San Francisco, California
ï· Prepared and delivered messages and Bible studies on a weekly basis for congregations of roughly 50-200 people
ï· Conducted one-to-one counseling sessions with church members, including teenagers and marital counseling
ï· Managed church staff, operations, outreach and administration
ï· Trained staff and ministry leaders
ï· Chaired and set agenda for ongoing board meetings

2000-2003    Office Manager, Medical Offices of Dr. Eva Dahl, CA.
ï· Managed doctorâs calendar, patient bookings, filing systems, stocktaking and ordering of medical supplies.

1996-1999    Operations Controller, Wheel-A-Waste Recycling Company, Jhb.
ï· Managed the routing and timing of trucks
ï· Orchestrated drivers schedules
ï· Maintained customer relations
ï· Accounting, book-keeping and banking

Letter of Reference (Translated from Korean â Original Available on Request)

From:     Jinyeong Daechung Elementary School
    Gimhae Municipality
    Gyeongsangnam Province
    South Korea

Dear Sir / Madam                            6 November, 2007

Concerning: Mr. Keren M. Leigh

This person served as a Native Speaking English Teacher at our school during 2007. I was his Korean co-teacherâ¦and we worked closely together during this year.

1. He complied with all school regulations. He understood his roles and responsibilities and fulfilled all of his duties admirably.

2. He has a neat and clean appearance and dressed very well. He was professional in all of his conduct. He has a very good nature and was sensitive to our needs.

3. He was active in class-preparation and came up with many good ideas for our classes. He collaborated with me, his co-worked, to solve any problems that we encountered when students had difficulties. He did his very best to meet the needs of students and to make sure they were satisfied.

4. He dealt with the students very kindly and he was open to listening to the students and to respond to their needs. He has a very good sense of humor and all the students liked him tremendously. They were sad to hear he was leaving us at the end of the year.

5. He was very concerned that students felt they were progressing and learning every day. He taught the students using a variety of teaching styles and methods and he made each class fun and interesting. He has excellent teaching skills and achieved our class purpose, following the lesson plans and teaching objectives.

6. He has a positive attitude and put all of his effort into teaching. He tried to find studentâs strong points and to praise everyone he worked with and taught. He is kind, polite, and sociable, so he got along very well with all our other staff members, even though he comes from a culture different to ours.

These things prove his is a good teacher in terms of his teaching ability, personal nature, and the success he achieved in the classroom. Our school strongly recommends him to you as a teacher who will benefit your school.

Kim Son Hee
Korean English Teacher - Jinyeong Daechung Elementary School

I have always had a knack for relationship building and have no doubt that I will be able to foster firm and effective working relationships with my employer. I am certain that I will make a valuable contribution to the minds and lives of the young students that you entrust to my pedagogic care. Thank you for your kind consideration of my application. I earnestly await your response.

Yours sincerely

Mr. Keren M. Leigh (B.A. M. Div)

A dictionary

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:34:17 GMT

ãThis dictionary tells you about English words and how to use them in reading, writing and speaking English. It not only gives the meaning of words, it can also help you with spelling, word building, grammar and pronunciation.

ããTo use your dictionary correctly, you need to understand how the dictionary works. At the front of the book, you will find some exercises to help you make the most use of your dictionary.

ããIf you look up the word âcolourâ, you will find two spellings for this word. âColourâ is used in British English, while âcolorâ is used in American English. When such a thing happens, the dictionary shows it with the word âBrEâ for British English and âAmEâ for American English.

ããThe dictionay also helps you pronounce words correctly. It uses a special alphabet to show pronunciation. If you turn to the inside back face, you will see all the phonetic letters with some words to show you how they are pronounced. Just have a look this page when youâre not sure how to say a word.

ããThe most important reason for using a dictionary is to find out the meaning of a wordâits DEFINITION.

ããIn this dictionary, the definitions have been written using only 2000 words. This means that the definitions of even the most difficult words are simply explained and easy to understand.
ããWhen a word has more than one meaning, read all the meanings until you find the one that correctly tells the use of the word you are looking for

crappy pronunciation...

akstylish — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:42:22 GMT

After years of speaking English, it's not changed much. No matter how hard I try, I can't control my tongue. My English teacher in Korea once said it's nearly impossible to correct the accent once you become an adult, and I believe it now. Maybe I should give up and just stick with typical Asian accent....

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: Australian/British/American pronunciation differences

Kooyeen — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:25:05 GMT

Yeah, but I was only considering two "general varieties" with their transcriptions, the ones you find in dictionaries. If you start to consider all the varieties, you'll never stop. I just noticed a mistake...

Anonymous
NOW ----- In BrE it's more like /ÉÊ/, in AmE it's more like /Ã¦Ê/

...I meant to write that in BrE it's more like /aÊ/.
There sure are accents where it's different. But it's not surprising... in the UK there are so many weird accents that some people don't even seem to be speaking English, lol.

Re: wong more time

CalifJim — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:53:27 GMT

because of my dialect, where all final N's are pronunced like English NG's.

Hmm. You must be from the northwest section of Italy. Yes? Piedmont area? bang for bene?
__________

Oh, I'd like to ask wong more thing. If people in fast speech say "wom more", is it because the N becomes very weak and it's practically impossible to hear it (--> won-more), or is it because the N disappears completely for real? (wom-more) If that is the case and the N actually disappears completely, then the tip of the tongue shouldn't even move while saying "one more".

You may be "digging too deep". These are just the usual gradations of reduction, common to all such variants in pronunciation, and as far as general principles are concerned, there is nothing special about this case.
In the first level of reduction, the N becomes weak. The tongue moves into the position for N and then into the position for M, but whether the N becomes audible is just the random effect of the exact amount of force of the air pressure, the exactness of the positioning of the tongue, the speed of articulation, and a thousand other parameters which are only microscopically measurable. The most drastic level of reduction is the one you describe last -- where the N disappears completely and the lack of motion of the tongue is as you describe it.
Any and all of these variants are within the realm of "speaking English".

CJ

Re: standard pronunciation of American or British English?

A Cornish Pasty — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 01:13:36 GMT

Hi there,

What is known as "Received pronounciation" in the UK is seen as the "posh" way of speaking English. This is how the Queen speaks, and was the way all TV presenters had to speak a few decades ago.

Nowadays, there is no standard accent for teaching children the UK, and there is no authority telling schools they must teach children to speak with a certain accent. Each child simply learns to speak according to the accent/dialect of their local area. For example, children in Wales pick up a Welsh accent, children from Newcastle pick up a "Geordie" accent, children from Birmingham pick up a "Brummie" accent, etc, etc.

What could be called General British pronounciation would probably be the way people from some parts of the South of England speak, people who speak like this are generally seen as having no accent.

Re: accents

SillyMe — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:35:48 GMT

Anonymous wrote:
SillyMe wrote:
Hello,

I just don't understand why you people are obsessed that much with your accents. For me there is only one thing seems important that is to be understood. I doesn't matter how you sound unless you are a stage performer. If we are foreigners we are supposed to speak with a foreign accent. From personal experience I can say that it makes me feel inconvenient when a foreigner is trying to speak with my accent in my native language; it sounds like a total humiliation. I think even if you are making small mistakes in your pronunciation you will be understood anyway, because we don't speak single words but sentences. So, mistakes in one or two words can rarely affect a clarity of speech. I believe I have a strong accent and I am proud of it. Giving up the idea of sounding perfect did improve my communication abilities in English.

Tell my English boss!!!

In honour to the truth, the nearest you are to the Queen English, the clearer the communication it is. That is a fact. Maybe you are proud of your accent but not me. Speaking English with a strong accent (for me) is like writing English with poor grammar, everybody understands you but I wish to improve it.

There is no excuse to speak or wright with poor grammar (A few mistakes are usually not regarded as poor grammar since everyone understands that you are not a native. Of course if it is an official paper then it is a different story... you have to have a language check done.)
But I think your boss isn't right. It is extremely difficult to learn the Queen's English pronunciation if you are an adult. But I think everyone or ,well..., almost everyone can learn grammar. So, these things cannot be compared. Or may be he made a mistake to hire you if this position had required native English skills. It isn't your fault anyway.

Re: accents

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:01:36 GMT

SillyMe wrote:
Hello,

I just don't understand why you people are obsessed that much with your accents. For me there is only one thing seems important that is to be understood. I doesn't matter how you sound unless you are a stage performer. If we are foreigners we are supposed to speak with a foreign accent. From personal experience I can say that it makes me feel inconvenient when a foreigner is trying to speak with my accent in my native language; it sounds like a total humiliation. I think even if you are making small mistakes in your pronunciation you will be understood anyway, because we don't speak single words but sentences. So, mistakes in one or two words can rarely affect a clarity of speech. I believe I have a strong accent and I am proud of it. Giving up the idea of sounding perfect did improve my communication abilities in English.

Tell my English boss!!!

In honour to the truth, the nearest you are to the Queen English, the clearer the communication it is. That is a fact. Maybe you are proud of your accent but not me. Speaking English with a strong accent (for me) is like writing English with poor grammar, everybody understands you but I wish to improve it.

Re: Cover up my accent

Keyser_Soze — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 15:51:54 GMT

Definitely NOT European! I tend to agree with another poster, I'll put you somewhere in Asia, though I'm not sure... The Far East sounds more possible, (Korea? Japan? China?) but there's an off-chance you're from an Arabic-speaking country, or Iran, though, to be honest, most Arabs have clearer pronunciation.

In terms of your accent, I think you've got it all wrong: You must master correct English pronunciation before you even start thinking about your accent. And, I'm sad to say, you haven't. Lay more stress on getting the individual sounds of words right, so people will be able to figure out what you are saying, and maybe then you can start worrying about whether they'll be able to place your ethnic background.

Then again, why bother? I'm not a native speaker myself, just a teacher, but I can surely say I love listening to people of different ethnic backgrounds speaking English in their respective accents, be they German, French, Italian, or what have you.

I do have a hint if you want to sound very British, though: Just make sure you dont let your upper lip move at all when you speak. If you're finding this hard, ask a dentist friend to give you two shots of novocaine, one on either side of your upper lip. You'll sound just right!