Stu Jay Raj

angry   Fri Dec 26, 2008 10:33 pm GMT
<<Is a faucet another word for a tap? I've never heard it in my life! >>

Don't worry, it's an American word so it's 'wrong' or at least 'non-standard'.
K. T.   Fri Dec 26, 2008 11:58 pm GMT
I've never heard the great polyglots (Kenneth Hale or Kato Lomb), so it's hard to know what the standard should be for near-native speech. I've heard of MR, but I don't think I've heard him.

One thing that bothers me is the lowering of the bar for polyglots. I wonder if this bothers anyone besides me. Even if one doesn't acheive a spy-worthy accent, I wish polyglots would stop saying basically that it's "okay" to sound foreign.

I want to sound the best that I can. I don't want people to puzzle over what I've said. I know that it can be tricky to acheive the ideal accent and that having a foreign accent lets one off the hook because people may continue to treat the learner tenderly because he doesn't sound "like one of us", but at least he's made the effort.

I always think that I could sound better in some languages. I have fooled natives repeatedly in some languages, but not in ALL languages.
Spanish is one of the so-called "easy languages" for pronunciation, but I still don't sound as native as I'd like to sound. I think multilinguals should work on pronunciation/intonation even if they sound great because it's easy to let a good accent get rusty.
Caspian   Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:27 am GMT
<< Don't worry, it's an American word so it's 'wrong' or at least 'non-standard'. >>

As you wish... I just wondered what it means.

I see what you mean K.T. - if they're going to claim to be fluent, then they should be at native level.

I've heard the argument before that some people prefer to sound slightly foreign - that way, people are more impressed that they speak the language!
piros   Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:53 am GMT
Guys, you should know that if you learn a language as an adult you will never lose your accent. Almost no adult foreigner can speak my language, which does not have a very hard pronounciation, as a native. I have often listened to those polyglots on the internet and they always pronounce my language with an accent. Even foreign people, who have been living in my country for many years, still have an accent, very strong at times.
amour   Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:19 pm GMT
"Guys, you should know that if you learn a language as an adult you will never lose your accent. Almost no adult foreigner can speak my language, which does not have a very hard pronounciation, as a native. I have often listened to those polyglots on the internet and they always pronounce my language with an accent. Even foreign people, who have been living in my country for many years, still have an accent, very strong at times. "

What do you think about this topic?
In Reply   Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:23 pm GMT
"Guys, you should know that if you learn a language as an adult you will never lose your accent. Almost no adult foreigner can speak my language, which does not have a very hard pronounciation, as a native. I have often listened to those polyglots on the internet and they always pronounce my language with an accent. Even foreign people, who have been living in my country for many years, still have an accent, very strong at times."

I don't believe that you shared what your native language is, so I cannot comment as to whether I know someone who has mastered it as an adult foreigner.

As for other languages, it certainly IS possible to get a native sound in another language as an adult. I confessed above that I wasn't able to do this in ALL languages, but I've been able to do it some languages at least for a period of time (on the phone, for example).

I think trying to sound native should be a top goal. So what if you don't acheive it in every language? I think the person who tries to "sound native" will probably sound better than the person who thinks " Oh well, my accent is good enough now. I ordered coffee and got it this time instead of a black eye..."

________________

Thanks again to Stu Jay Raj
abobora   Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:29 pm GMT
Thanks again to Stu Jay Raj

I don't think it's the real STu Jay RAy
You could be right about   Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:09 am GMT
Who knows?