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

Can anyone proofread my essay? Its a little long sorry

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:35:01 GMT

The idea of American dream and success grabbed my parentâs attention in the 80âs. Both of my parents were born in Korea; however they both have a complete different childhood. It was never easy for both my mom and dad to settle in the developing nation of Korea. Both my mother and father were born the 60âs where Korea just suffered from the Korean War against North Korea. Korea being in the stage of rebuilding the nation, most people worked extremely hard in making ends meet. Life in Korea after the war is significantly different to the kind of life people are living in now. Nevertheless my mother and father ended up in the United States giving me many opportunities of life.

First of all, my father was from a fairly wealthy family in Korea. My grandparents had some land properties and known to be pretty high in the social class. It is very interesting that my father never served in the Korean military service as after the war it was mandatory for all men to serve in the army at least once in their life time. Apparently my grandparents paid their way out of making my father in serving in the army. But how did my father end up in the United States? South Korea has been heavily influenced by the United States and in the 60âs and 70âs Koreans believed that the United States is where the opportunities are known to be the best country in the world. This idea is ironic because today Koreans are very anti-America in terms of trade and politics but, in the past it was all different. My aunt moved to New York in the late 70âs and got married. My aunt persuaded my father to move to the US to study. That time my father was a college student in one of the prestige Korean university. He was majoring in economics and considered moving to the US where his sister was. After confirming that he will further his education in the US he took the TOEFL test and applied for the F1 visa. According to my father he lined up at a ridiculously long line in the US embassy in Jongno-gu, Seoul Korea. Many people were seeking for migration to the United States however, not many were similar to my fatherâs case of to further his education. It didnât take very long for my father to get his F1 visa as he had relatives living in the United States. After attending college in New York he majored in accountings and got his CPA. He managed to get a job in a small accountant firm in Queens, New York. He then applied for the permanent residency and as he worked in a firm he managed to get his green card by employment-based visa where he got sponsored by an employer.

Due to the fact that my father spent most of his childhood in Korea, he never experienced foreign culture. It was never easy for him to adapt to the American culture. Especially he founded hard to adjust to the food and different lifestyles. My dad told me that he suffered and missed the Korean food and as his college was in a rural area it was difficult to find Asian restaurants. Moreover, it was very difficult for my dad to communicate with people as English being his second language. He once told me about a story that happened in his first year in the US. He was told that in Costco they sell a Korean traditional food called âKimchiâ. However, he couldnât find any, so he asked one of the employer where he can find âKimchiâ. Surprisingly the worker understood him and directed him to aisle 3. But my dad didnât find any âKimchiâ but found cream cheese. He told me this story to tell me how it was hard to communicate with different accent. Apparently it was hard for my father to express his feelings as his English was not that great. Not only this, other people found it difficult to understand him with his Korean accent. There were many interesting stories my father told me about but the message or the moral behind his stories is that I am very lucky to be bilingual and fortunate to be born in America. Among my community I often here how people born in the United States gets head start in life. What they meant is that being born in America you get good education and many opportunities compare to a person born in an Asian country. Frequently my parents tell me that it is an advantage to be born in America but they always said I should work extra hard as an Asian to be recognized and sustain in society. I believe this idea was stuck in my fatherâs mind. He had work extra hard in college and managed to get a job which later he used his education effectively back in Korea. Like what Tim Fong said some people go back to their home country to apply their skills. I think my father has done this, but he never told me exactly why he left America. However, I can guess on why he left the country and it was because of racial discrimination, competition and perhaps because of his language ability. This can be understood as my father mostly stayed and interacted with Koreans. He stayed and worked near Korean town in Flushing New York. But for most, due to that fact that he went to a Korean Church made him to feel like home.

On the other hand, my mother has a totally different story to my father. My motherâs family was middle class in terms of social class but always willing to climb up the social status. It can be said my motherâs family was more of a risk takers. When my mother was around ten her family migrated to Argentina. The whole South America boom where thousands migrated to have a piece of fortune convinced my grandparents to move to Argentina in the 70âs. The prediction of South Americans countries can be the next United States made my motherâs family to migrate to Argentina. However, after living in Argentina for more than 20 years they started to notice that the economy was shifting down. So they decided to migrate to New York. My mother managed to transfer school with an F1 visa, but my grandparents had to wait for the migrant visa. So my mother settled in New York before my grandparents moved in. Both my grandparents worked in Argentina and my mother and her brother and sister had to help. When they moved to the US my grandparents managed to set up their own dry cleaning business. They did not have any connections but the fact that they know how it is hard start a new life in a foreign country made them easy to adapt. Although they have migrated to a foreign country before it wasnât easy for them to settle in but, it was somewhat easier than other Korean who came from Korea. My grandparents lived in a Spanish town as they were fluent in Spanish. It is very interesting that they can speak Spanish and not English. It was rather easy to settle and start a business in a Spanish town. However, my grandparents told me that they have experienced discrimination among the Spanish community. Some founded it interesting to see Asians speaking Spanish but some founded intimidated. My grandparents experienced robbery due to their race and the fact that they were Asian in a Spanish town. However, they never gave up and worked in the dry cleaning business for 18 years and managed to earn some profit. I have asked them if they regret in coming to America. They straight away answered âNo!â and wished they came to America before Argentina because they feel that America is the land of opportunities.

Although they lived in the Spanish community, the Korean culture and language was still practiced in my motherâs family. They eat rice three times a day, speak Korean everyday and even watch and read Korean newspaper. My grandparents always enforced their children to learn the Korean culture in which my mother said she is very proud that they did this. The idea of respecting elders is crucial in my motherâs family. And the reason why it is important is because my grandparents believe without respect goals cannot be achieved. The goal for my grandparents in moving to Argentina or the United States is to have some share of the American dream as well as to educate their children. My mother and my grandparents always tell me this: that I must be a better person than them (grandparent and mother). I believe this is similar to most parents who decided to migrate to United States. They would like their child to have the best education and be a better person than them.

In conclusion with my father earning his green card when my mother married my father she was able to get her own green card. Then my brother and I were born! However both my parents did not like the United States. They both have worked so hard and suffered just to survive. So they moved out of the United States. They may never tell me exactly why they decided to move out of the States but, I can guess that the competition and the kind of life you need to be adjusting to survive in the United States were really hard for them. I am not saying they were not successful in the US but they experienced new part of life and learnt how some people live like this and some people live like that. Now only my motherâs parents and her sister and brother live in the United States. They all managed to become citizens except my mother and my father. The rest is scattered all over the world and somewhat really benefitted from their stay in the US. Both my parents do not regret the fact that they left the United States but learnt a great lesson of how life is really hard.

Re: the ~ thee

Kooyeen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:25:10 GMT

Hmm, can I answer even though I am not a native speaker?
I would say "thee eagle" because I learned to pronounce it "thee" before vowel sounds. Words like "university" and "wall" don't really start with a vowel sound, but with "semivowels", I think. In IPA they would be /j/ and /w/ respectively. That's why I say "the" in front of "university" and "wall".

Philip
I seem to insert a glottal stop if I try to say 'thee' before 'evening' rather than just slide from one word to the other.

That reminds me of some weak sounds the author of American Accent Training says learners should try to put between vowel sounds when connecting different words: Thee (j)other, three (j)oranges, etc.

Just my opinion.

Re: AMERICANS PLEASE HELP!!

Kooyeen — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:19:02 GMT

First of all, you need some grammar too, because I noticed typical Asian mistakes, or non native constructions anyway.

Anonymous
i'm live in PRC <-- I live in...

Here's the best tips I can give you:

1 - Get a grammar book, and read it, learning the most common structures. "English grammar in use" by Cambridge University Press seems a good one.
2 - Learn how to recognize the sounds of vowels and how to speak like a native speaker. I used "American Accent Training", by Ann Cook. It is one of the best.
3 - Practice, replacing your first language with English every time you feel like it. You should start to think in English.

Point #2 is the most important. I improved my listening skills by at least 50% (from understanding 25% to understanding 80%). The link is http://www.americanaccent.com/ ,if you want to take a look.

Re: How to speak English with an accent?!

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:30:03 GMT

Good Morning sir,

I am kavitha from chennai.i finished m.com graduation in Chennai university(corresponding course). Now i am working in small company as a java programer. i c't able to speak English in fluvantly. so i missed my best opportunities. i would like to improve my communication...what i do...

Canadian, and about "like"

Christanford — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:33:12 GMT

How is the generic Canadian(like from Vancouver, Toronto..) accent different from the generic US accent?
I think the way Hayden Christensen speaks is very rythmic, could anyone comment on his accent so that I could try and learn that?

Does it bug you that some people keep saying "like" in every sentence when it is not necessary to?
My private tutor is from Canada and she says "like" every 5 second and it kind of rubs off.
I don't mind saying "like" a lot but would anyone be bothered by this?
I'm gonna have my university interview, so do you think I should that the whole "like" thing out of my system?
Also, how often do British people, Canadians and Americans say "like"? Is it universal?

Re: Where to find daily conVerSation

Tanit — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:13:00 GMT

Hi K.,

I spent a whole year in the UK, doing a postgraduate course. To make things worse, I chose to go to Wales because Cardiff Uni is at the cutting edge in my field. Have you ever heard somebody speaking with a Welsh accent? For the first two months there, I only wanted to cry... In spite of my excellent performances during tests and exams (I had taken the FCE, the CAE and the TOEFL), I could understand very little outside the Uni
You know, most teachers' accents were pretty standard and easy... something like BBC's anchors, and my classmates were mostly international students, each with their own accent (we were a funny bunch!). I simply became accustomed to them... Welsh English (there was a girl who had a nice Swansea accent), Scottish English, Cornish English, Virginia English (AmE), Indian English, but also French-English, Chinese-English, Pakistan-English, Greek-English and lot more! Oh, I really miss them!
However, cashiers in supermarkers and kids playing in the parks were too hard for me... real English, lots of phrasal verbs I had never heard before, lots of contractions, and intonation quite different from the one I am used to!!!
Funnily, for a piece of coursework I had to interview six people. I was quite discouraged when I had to do the write-ups of the interviews (I remember you posted in the thread I created, "Spoken English").

Anyway, what I wanted to say is: formal education (all of the four skills) has helped me a lot to deal with University tasks, or with "formal" situations; it was not of (great) use, though, when it came to "real", daily life. I had often to guess, but people were usually kind, and when I made it clear I hadn't understood, they would repeat slowlier what they had just said, or rephrase it.

Re: When I have trouble...

CalifJim — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:23:04 GMT

I know of a case where a woman from Columbia studied at a university in Georgia.
At the end of her years in the U.S. she went back to her native country, and, to the dismay of her relatives, she spoke English with a Southern accent, unlike any of her siblings who had been educated at northern universities in the U.S. (I don't think it was a matter of any effort to pick up any 'micro-pronunciation'. It just happened through imitation.)
_____________

While travelling in Italy, I ran across a shop-keeper who spoke extremely fluent English, with a Cockney accent and vocabulary. (Again, I don't think she tried to pick up a certain 'micro-pronunciation'. It just happened through imitation.)
_____________

I have a male friend who learned French exclusively from women teachers.
Later, travelling in France, when he spoke French to native speakers, they commented that he spoke somewhat like a woman. It was very embarrassing for him. The source of the problem seems obvious to me.
_____________

It's anecdotes like these that led me to give the advice I did.

CJ

Re: How would you define "native speaker of english"?

monfrancom — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:49:10 GMT

Hey CB

It was a rhetorical question. Read Post :399013 for example.

The example I use in Post :427999 is actually a French structure (my mother tongue) that I am trying, with little success considering my effort, to learn. This means the English structure connects far better for me than the French one, which I learnt later in life.

I am bilingual. I live in QuÃ©bec. There are unilingual francophones and unilingual anglophones as well... right at my door step (less of the former). I have yet to hear an anglophone speaking French and not recongnize origin within the first or second word. Some time back, I have given up trying to decide if that person speaking English is a francophone or an anglophone, as SO MANY francophones speak English SO WELL, I simply can't tell if they are native speakers or not. This phenomena is also a common one for English speakers... even with me. They don't KNOW that I am a native French speaker. Of course, some can tell right away, or soon after I have spoken!!! Following my college/university studies (approximately 65% of which were done in French) and my work experience (in French) it became easier for more anglophones, and francophones as well, to recongnize my origins. It's in the accent.

But his is local. If I lived in Saskatchewan say, or Alberta, within a couple of weeks not a one of them would know without my telling them that I am French.

Some Canadians are emphatic in identifying themselves as bilingual: not French, not English.

Re: Curious about Comtemporary RP Accent**

Tam Sadek — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 02:50:13 GMT

According to John Wells at University College London:

"I do not understand the proposed distinction between Mainstream RP and Contemporary RP (unless the writer thinks, wrongly, that âcontemporaryâ means âyoungâ)."

You can read more of what he says about it at: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/blog0707a.htm

Whereas according to the British Library's Accents and Dialects of the UK website in their section on London RP, the commentary says:

"Michelle speaks with an accent most of us would immediately associate with a middle-class background. Many of the vowel sounds she uses have a traditional RP ring, but she also uses a number of pronunciations characteristic of contemporary RP. In other words she uses certain features we only encounter among younger speakers."

You can read more about this as well as hear a sample of this accent at: http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/received-pronunciation/london/

Make of this juxtaposition what you will...

Hope that helps

Re: Which of the following dictionaries would you recommend?...

Kooyeen — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:40:35 GMT

Hi,
my English is not good at all, really, but I'm improving. If you want to know how I improved and how I'm improving, then... let's just say I used to read some stuff in Practical English Usage by Michael Swan and English Grammar in Use (Cambridge University Press), but then I stopped relying on grammar books. They are oversimplified, confusing, and often too prescriptive, even those that claim to follow a descriptive approach. So I can't recommend any grammar, because I have yet to find a good grammar, and I think I don't really need one anymore. I don't think a bunch of rules to keep in mind is the key to fluency. However, I think the grammars by Cambridge University Press are acceptable, to get started.
Then I learn a lot in this forum, asking, writing, reading natives' answers. Dictionaries help me a lot too. I use the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, and the Merriam-Webster, all online versions. I use the Merriam-Webster mainly for pronunciations, the others help me with collocations, patterns and examples.
American Accent Training by Ann Cook helped me improve my listening skills. The problem is that I don't read much, so my vocabulary is extremelly limited, and therefore this limits my listening skills too. I hope I'll soon be good enough to rely mainly on spoken English (listening), which I believe is the best source of reliable English for ESL students.