haha Jamie, you sometimes look more like Don King
What a face!
Even the thread is freezing for fear. It can’t move. Got stuck.
: )
I think it should say “How dare you say that”!
“My hair is beautiful” but with a Romanian Accent…
With Ro. accent would be:
How dare you? Say that my hair is beautiful!
Haha
Bonsoir! Mons - Can I possibly have your executive summary on Michel Thomas’s accent Maintenant Si vous plaît mademoiselle?(with sugar coated cherries on top)
Bonsoir,
Here’s the summary: English-tres bien; French-very good!
Thank you for the cherries 
Bonne nuit!
Ok Mons so you talk about Accents in private messages yet leave me to Monologue
on the thread… 
sob Ok… so here we go… lets start with a
story about Foreign Workers. In N Ireland there’s quite a lot of Polish Immigrants and
it actually reminds me of East Germany in the 90’s after the wall came down. There
are many similarities I can see regarding language and the same rules apply in both
cases. One typical situation common to both is groups of Foreign workers arriving
with a collegue often a student who translates for them. I have witnessed this type of
situation many times Germany, the UK & Ireland. When these
groups first arrive they are generally dependant on their translator (who speaks with
a strange native accent) simply because they don’t speak any English (or German
whatever the case may be) Now the strange thing is in both cases if you roll the
clock forward 2 or three years the guys who couldn’t speak a word of English now
sound like locals with a Belfast accent (Or a Leipzig accent) “yet” their translator still
speaks with a strange Polish Accent. Now does this perhaps shed a little light on why
the late great Michel Thomas Spoke French and English and probably all his other
languages(apart from polish)with A Polish accent?
Interesting!
You surely have very much experience with people who come from other countries and become or not, very good English speakers.
I also notice that you are a very good observer.
I think that it’s more difficult (not impossible) for a translator to get rid of his native accent, because:
- There’s no need for him to improve his English speaking – he has another aim: to intermediate as good as he can, the communication between the parts, to make himself understood by both English and none-English speakers, and he will, although he doesn’t focus on a good pronunciation.
- He doesn’t come to the state to think in English or German, because he must think in his native language also, as he has to speak it with his compatriots.
On the contrary, the immigrants learn English or German while speaking the new language with no possibility to escape from it; they have to improve the new language because they need it badly – it’s a matter of will and determination and they also borrow all the accents of the native ones.
On the other hand, after a while and automatically, they start thinking in the new language, which is the most important step in speaking it well.
There is another aspect, I told you: It’s about the “musical ear” to translate from Romanian (there must be something similar in English, I don’t know). But I think this is the most important, in speaking a foreign language and sound local.
But this is something inherited, not obtained by study or speaking. One who can’t distinguish intonation, accents and doesn’t feel the right topic of a phrase, will never sound local, no matter how much he is surrounded by native speakers or how hard he wants to learn.
I know a Croatian man who sounds local in German after 10 years of living in Germany and a Romanian girl who sounds 100% American when she speaks English, although she has never been there.
Michel Thomas sounds very well, in both English and French – I noticed some different accents but not many, and the funniest thing is that in some French words of his, I found English accents, as for “J’ai alle” which he pronounces like English people some sort of: “Jey alley” just to give un example.
I wouldn’t generalize anything, because I don’t have so much experience in this field; I just say what I think about it.
See that we’re still having a dialogue?
Warm regards,
Mons
The way I see it Mon’s It all comes back to the “RP”(Received Pronunciation) Its a bit
like the first time you lift a golf club and swing it “That’s your swing” whether you
like it or not and you have to work a little to change it.
So if someone is Polish and learns English from a Polish English teacher in Poland
the chances are that he or she will speak English with a Polish Accent. And I would
guess the longer he or she speaks English with a Polish accent the harder it will be
to change, especially if she is living in a non English Speaking country.
I think its an instinctive and a 100% natural human trait to “Assimilate” with others
around you There are clearly a lot of other dynamics that may linguistically affect
immigrants like if they settle with a local Girl. A common situation in Germany was
English Speaking German Girls living with British or Irish Guys and communicating
entirely in English which can seriously impact on language learning. Also the group
may stay as a group for years and only communicate with each other in English and
have Satellite TV in English which can also impede linguistic assimilation.
There are probably lots of other possible variables/factors which can play apart but I
honestly think
[size=150]“The RP” “Received Pronunciation” [/size]
Is one of the main factors in the process of language learning as one can only after
all copy what one hears.
Hi, James
I guess you’re right about the importance of this RP.
Children learn very well a foreign language by playing with other children who speak it natively.
My father learned German and Hungarian very well this way, because they were many children of these nationalities in the back yard or in the street and they used to play all day, speaking all these languages.
I also agree that TV plays a good part in learning how to speak a foreign language.
On the other hand, PC plays its part in learning how to write in a foreign language – I’m thinking of English, of course – I experienced both.
Have you ever heard a child speaking English well, although he didn’t attend any English class? Well, I met one; he had watched cartoons on TV very much, and this was enough for him to speak English fluently and imagine: correctly! He was even using the sequence of tenses very well, just from the TV.
But that was about 15 years ago. In the mean time, the good habit turned into a bad one: all the cartoons have been doubled and this is the most stupid thing which our television providers could have done. Of course, the children prefer them doubled.
In my country, all the movies have always had the original sound, so whoever wanted to hear and learn, learned, while reading the subtitle. Exception: cartoons, as I said.
However, without good basic knowledge, it’s hard for an adult to learn English only from TV programs. But he can take from it a good pronunciation and of course, a lot of vocabulary
See you,
Mons
Hi Mons
Thats interesting about the cartoons/tv etc. I think Holland and the Scandinavian Countries are a good example of that also?
English speaking in Holland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden is very high not sure how much but quite a bit more than the rest of Europe. i have also heard that
there is also a lot of English TV programming too. I would also imagine young people listening to pop songs over and over again pick it up without even realizing.
Something else I noticed in East Germany was the number of German Girls who spoke really good English with a UK or Irish regional accent simply because they
had lived with or dated a “Brit or Paddy” (as we used to say) It could be quite confusing if you went into an Irish Pub and got served by one of these girls because
you automatically thought they were British or Irish. I can remember speaking with German girls for say 10 minutes and then mentioning something relating to UK
or Ireland and then having to be told they were German. These German Girls that spoke English also had an obvious advantage with English guys over girls that
couldn’t and if they dated or lived with one they were totally fluent in seemingly no time at all. The above aspects of Language Learning seem quite organic/natural
and also very effective. Could it perhaps also be that using technology too much may have its downside?
Wat dae yee tink Monzy?
Monzy???!!
Well,
If “its downside” means something negative and “technology” means computers and smart-phones then yes, it could be.
Why?
Because this technology is full of games which create dependence to the extreme. The people who get addicted to it (so many people!), lose any interest for other things as for example in learning a foreign language – they don’t need anything, but to be left alone. They isolate themselves without knowing, don’t socialize anymore or socialize in very restraint groups of players of the same games, they kill their own time and … when could they learn a foreign language? Many games don’t require knowing English – look how many little children play PC games.
Should I think about the habit of many people to write messages “in short” or codified? – it would not be any bad, if it didn’t affect the skill of writing correctly. It’s available for any language, not only for English. I feel sorry for the children who learn using the PC-style before using correctly the normal writing.
You said about high English speaking in Holland, Norway etc. Isn’t English the second language there? I don’t know. Do you remember ABBA? I’ve always admired their English and I also learned En. from their songs.
And yes, we can learn English from music – there are songs that we like, so we listen to them again and again, discover new words, often look for the lyrics (many thanks to the new technology, this time), we even try to sing; this would be a good RP because singers have always a good pronunciation, even if they live in a non-English speaking country.
For example and for a little sound and colour from Romania,
google.ro/?gws_rd=ssl#q=lala+song+lala+band
Is it a good RP of English (with American accents)?
Mons
The context was all “RP” Mons what I meant Mons I think was - Computers and Machines in a lot of cases don’t help your “RP”
That was a Scottish accent just to counter the formality of the subject matter. Scottish people always try to put a Y on the end of your name for some reason? And I absolutely hate Jimmy.
I think Bills called me Jimmy a few times but I suppose since a lot of Southerners think Newcastle is in Scotland - that kinda makes sense anyway.
Nice to meet you, Jimmy!
Heres a gud Scottish RP Mons if you knae wot a mayene
Bill keeps spitting the bait out
youtube.com/watch?v=cBCQMWMbeMU
Nice song , interesting English and an entire history.
No, I didn’t know about Mayene.
Oh Mons your mate has just arrived and ooh! “I could crush a grape!”.
ebay.co.uk/itm/Michel-Thomas … 1361607368
Ich wird bald zuruck sein
Ooh! Stu Francis? Ooh! I didn’t know this guy.
“I could pop a balloon, I could rip a tissue, I could jump off a doll’s house, I could wrestle an action man, I could duff a daffodil” - if he says so …
But I see that Michel is a good friend of yours, although you analyzed his accents pretty much in this thread. He must have gotten upset a little, so he left us a week ago, to come back today; in the meantime I forgot him, but you didn’t.
Are you really studying? French, German, Spanish, Italian? All of them? 'cause if yes, I’m your admirer forever!
Ooh! not German, because you know it already, you have lived there.
I’ll admire you without German.
Or Spanish.
Or Italian.
French would be enough, in fact.
Well its really Just his Methodology Mons (hope its spelt right) but it is also important to remember his accent. Im just having a nosey and just wanted to get the Advanced course but as you can see you get the ordinary course with it for free.
Its kinda handy because now I have copied it all onto my computer I now have 2 Christmas presents to give to relatives. “Cheap Skate”
Sent someone I know some in an email too
And please don’t be “Admiring” me Mons because I haven’t done anything that is admirable.
Just listen to some of my little crap talks and pretend they’re interesting
btw - the Spanish & Italian were adverts as you well know!
youtube.com/watch?v=_hP1KXdu2bA
youtu.be/CPc-5SbiReo?t=1m28s