Cringefest - most cringeworthy common mistake

Yes!   Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:53 am GMT
It's not pointless. Teachers need to model the correct sounds for students. If teachers only sound "so-so", then the students may not even sound "so-so" in the foreign language, they may distort the sound to the point where the language is not recognized.

I saw this in Japan. I heard a speech in English at a private school. I was told the language was English. I could not recognize it as English-even English with a thick accent.

It would be better for the big number polyglots to be silent on the issue of accents than to discourage students from acheiving a higher level.

I am not Travis or Lazar. I have to look up the terms they use, and greg, oh la la, he uses words I have never seen even in English, but I have fooled native speakers without trying to fool them. It isn't necessary to be a linguist, to speak another language with a good accent.
I suspect that most people who sing on pitch can do it.
Christine   Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:24 pm GMT
"could of" instead of "could have".
eg. "I could of gone to the beach"

Yes! Finally someone with the same sentiment as mine! And what irks me isn't really the non-native speakers, but the NATIVE English speakers who keep on making the mistake. Just look around at forums or at Yahoo! Answers. Now that's truly disgusting.