Hi dear friends! Previously, some of my friends said me that I have problem in my speaking with accent and intonation. So, I red some parts of book “American Accent Training” related to accent and I want of you to evaluate my accent in new speaking. I appreciate if you evaluate my speaking but please focus on my accent in evaluating. Bless you!
Question: “People remember special gifts or presents that they have received. Why? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.”
To be frank, your accent is sort of ambiguity. This will hinder the rater to understand the contents of the passage.
The priority is given to the stress. For example, in the word “especially”, your stress is different from the standard one, so you should try to hear the real pronounciation in the electronic dictionary, then record both your accent and the standard accent to modify your accent. Fighting!
My friend said me that I speak like Britishers and not Americans. He also said that if I try to eliminate “r” in some words such as “prefer” and “first” and so on, my speaking will prosper and be more similar to Britishers. I can not distinguish this similarity and I do not know if I speak like Britishers or Americans. What do you think? I speak like Britishers or Americans?
Hi, to me you have a Chinese accent - your name sounds Japanese though, so I’m not sure. There really is no one American or British accent, but I guess if I had to choose to categorize your accent between American and British, it does sound a little more British. I agree that in many British accents they leave the “r” out of words like prefer and first - this is called “non-rhotic”. I guess if you want to speak with a British accent, listen to BBC radio programs, while NPR will give you good examples of American accents.
No, I am not Chinese and I am sure that I am Iranian Iran is a country which is in the Middle East and maybe you hear the name of my country from your president Bush or Obama. They say, all the time, that my country is terrorist and they want to fight with my country but we are not, I am sure that we are not
Hi Tesoke, yes I have definitely heard of Iran, please be assured I hold no ill will towards you or your country. I am sure the US is shown in a pretty poor light in Iran, but not all Americans are that bad.
Hi Cathy, I don’t think you speak Chinglish at all - your accent and intonation sound very clear and natural to me, though your microphone quality seems a bit low …
In English, Chinese speakers have a tendency to increase the volume on stressed words, but otherwise give equal value to
each word. This atonal volume-increase will sound aggressive, angry, or abrupt to a native speaker.
The last sentence is abstracted from a book,and I really think it aptly describes how Chinese speak English.
Thanks for your kind comment. Since I will pursue my mater’s degree in Canada in 2014, I really worry about my speaking, but there is no way to communicate the native speaker in my college. I even think of participating in an internship program in US in the next summer to improve my speaking. Maybe that works.
The last sentence is abstracted from a book,and I really think it aptly describes how Chinese speak English.
Thanks for your kind comment. Since I will pursue my mater’s degree in Canada in 2014, I really worry about my speaking, but there is no way to communicate the native speaker in my college. I even think of participating in an internship program in US in the next summer to improve my speaking. Maybe that works.
Oh no, I didn’t realize you were going to Canada. I wish you had told me earlier. I don’t think I’ll be able to help you much because I don’t speak any Canadian, only English.
Canada speaks English as well , and because Canada and US is very close in terms of the geologicial distance, I believe Canadian English is roughly the same as American English.
Hi, sorry I was trying to make a joke, but it is hard to convey sarcasm effectively on a forum like this. Of course Canadians speak English, though they do have a couple odd words and pronunciations
This has a lot of information, but the girl speaks awfully fast - I bet it would be a challenge for you to understand.
but we are not, I am sure that we are not 