Hey,,,
in order to be considered a good english speaker, do we really need to speak like a native american?
why?
in order to be considered a good english speaker, do we really need to speak like a native american?
why?
American Accent
No.
There are lots of good native speakers in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. that speak a whole heck of a lot better than I do.
There are lots of good native speakers in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. that speak a whole heck of a lot better than I do.
I don't think it's particularly "special" to speak with an English accent at all! No way! Sorry, but I just had to throw in my penny's worth here. I feel homesick surrounded by some of the English accents here (disregarding all the non-UK accents floating around London in profusion) and believe you me some of them are pretty dire - extreme Londonspeak radically Estuaryised. They'd feel at home on TalkSport radio.
To be fair, though, the nice ones are really nice - like the two blokes with whom I share this flat in Putney - one comes from Marlborough, in Wiltshire, and the other from Horncastle, in Lincolnshire , and they both have cool, nondescript standard English English accents which are difficult to pinpoint to any particular region of England, so I reckon you can call it standard RP, and it's easy to understand every syllable they utter.
The guy from Lincolnshire told me that people from that county are known as "yellowbellies" and that it has something to do with the fact that many of them once worked on the land - ie in farming and agriculture. I still don't get it really, and nether does he I don't think as he can't explain it properly.....yellowbellies? People from similarly agricultural Norfolk (next door to Lincs.) are called "swede bashers" - that I can understand. Apparently they're also called "Norfolk dumplings" - nope, don't get that either - the only dumplings I know of are those stodgy flour, suet, parsley and herb things you get in stews.
To be fair, though, the nice ones are really nice - like the two blokes with whom I share this flat in Putney - one comes from Marlborough, in Wiltshire, and the other from Horncastle, in Lincolnshire , and they both have cool, nondescript standard English English accents which are difficult to pinpoint to any particular region of England, so I reckon you can call it standard RP, and it's easy to understand every syllable they utter.
The guy from Lincolnshire told me that people from that county are known as "yellowbellies" and that it has something to do with the fact that many of them once worked on the land - ie in farming and agriculture. I still don't get it really, and nether does he I don't think as he can't explain it properly.....yellowbellies? People from similarly agricultural Norfolk (next door to Lincs.) are called "swede bashers" - that I can understand. Apparently they're also called "Norfolk dumplings" - nope, don't get that either - the only dumplings I know of are those stodgy flour, suet, parsley and herb things you get in stews.
>>I don't think it's particularly "special" to speak with an English accent at all! No way! Sorry, but I just had to throw in my penny's worth here. I feel homesick surrounded by some of the English accents here (disregarding all the non-UK accents floating around London in profusion) and believe you me some of them are pretty dire - extreme Londonspeak radically Estuaryised. They'd feel at home on TalkSport radio.<<
I strongly agree. I honestly get rather irritated by posters on here who speak as if there is something "special" or "better" about English English, or say that English English is the "correct" English. Not that there is any problem with English English at all, but it is still very annoying when people try to go and promote it over other English dialect groups. In the case of non-native speakers, it is probably just a combination of naivete combined with the idea of English English being better being bashed into their heads by English teachers. In the case of native speakers, it is just pure English chauvinism.
I strongly agree. I honestly get rather irritated by posters on here who speak as if there is something "special" or "better" about English English, or say that English English is the "correct" English. Not that there is any problem with English English at all, but it is still very annoying when people try to go and promote it over other English dialect groups. In the case of non-native speakers, it is probably just a combination of naivete combined with the idea of English English being better being bashed into their heads by English teachers. In the case of native speakers, it is just pure English chauvinism.
<<I honestly get rather irritated by posters on here who speak as if there is something "special" or "better" about English English, or say that English English is the "correct" English. Not that there is any problem with English English at all>>
One small point, though, is that England IS our mother country.
One small point, though, is that England IS our mother country.
>><<I honestly get rather irritated by posters on here who speak as if there is something "special" or "better" about English English, or say that English English is the "correct" English. Not that there is any problem with English English at all>>
One small point, though, is that England IS our mother country.<<
Not here in the Upper Midwest, where we really have no "mother country" and have very little in the way of ties to the UK. The population here is quite Americanized, but is not truly Anglicized one bit. And if we had to pick some "mother country", it would be Germany not England, at least here in southeastern Wisconsin.
One small point, though, is that England IS our mother country.<<
Not here in the Upper Midwest, where we really have no "mother country" and have very little in the way of ties to the UK. The population here is quite Americanized, but is not truly Anglicized one bit. And if we had to pick some "mother country", it would be Germany not England, at least here in southeastern Wisconsin.
Travis, I have a question. When Americans come from other countries and settle there in the usa, how on earth they have the audacity to kick out muslim immigrants from their country or want to stop them coming to the usa? All of them are, in fact, immigrants and were born elsewhere.
>>Travis, I have a question. When Americans come from other countries and settle there in the usa, how on earth they have the audacity to kick out muslim immigrants from their country or want to stop them coming to the usa? All of them are, in fact, immigrants and were born elsewhere.<<
You're talking about immigrants from Latin America and specifically Mexico here, not the Middle East. The matter is that this is just yet another instance of the idiotic nativism that crops up now and then in the US, and which really is not that new. Last time there was a major amount of nativism, in the late 1800s and early 1900s; that time it was targeting the European immigrants from places like Germany, Ireland, and Italy from whom a large portion of European Americans today are descended.
You're talking about immigrants from Latin America and specifically Mexico here, not the Middle East. The matter is that this is just yet another instance of the idiotic nativism that crops up now and then in the US, and which really is not that new. Last time there was a major amount of nativism, in the late 1800s and early 1900s; that time it was targeting the European immigrants from places like Germany, Ireland, and Italy from whom a large portion of European Americans today are descended.
I would think that those Americans who have links to England (or shall we say Great Britain as a whole) by heritage and ancestry are pretty much in the minority. The fact that their everyday Language happens to be English is purely incidental, and if I was an American with an ancestry which had no connection with England/Britain at all, then I would be just a wee bit upset if people assumed I was of British heritage just because of the Language I speak. I can understand the resentment shown in here over the issue of English English accents and the fultility in suggesting that they are somehow "superior" - we Scots can identify with that!
In reality, some of the English English regional accents are pretty dire, and I've mentioned in this Forum before that I really think that many Americans speak a better standard of English overall than do many of the English themselves - I don't refer to accents here at all - it's nothing to do with accent per se - purely clear, concise and articulate use of the English Language.
You only have to listen to some of the phone-ins on English radio to realise the truth of this. :-) There are areas of the UK where the English Language is being mutilated wholesale - like parts of this city I'm in now. It depends on a variety of factors really. This part - Putney - isn't too bad on the whole though. A good many round here sound quite "posh". :-)
I know that large parts of the American Middle West are either German or Scandinavian by and large when it comes to heritage. I believe that Iowa is almost exclusively German in origin. How come it doesn't have any German sounding placenames? Cedar Rapids, Boone, Council Bluffs and Waterloo don't sound at all Germanic to me, while Des Moines and Dubuque sound positively French!
In reality, some of the English English regional accents are pretty dire, and I've mentioned in this Forum before that I really think that many Americans speak a better standard of English overall than do many of the English themselves - I don't refer to accents here at all - it's nothing to do with accent per se - purely clear, concise and articulate use of the English Language.
You only have to listen to some of the phone-ins on English radio to realise the truth of this. :-) There are areas of the UK where the English Language is being mutilated wholesale - like parts of this city I'm in now. It depends on a variety of factors really. This part - Putney - isn't too bad on the whole though. A good many round here sound quite "posh". :-)
I know that large parts of the American Middle West are either German or Scandinavian by and large when it comes to heritage. I believe that Iowa is almost exclusively German in origin. How come it doesn't have any German sounding placenames? Cedar Rapids, Boone, Council Bluffs and Waterloo don't sound at all Germanic to me, while Des Moines and Dubuque sound positively French!
<<You're talking about immigrants from Latin America and specifically Mexico here, not the Middle East. The matter is that this is just yet another instance of the idiotic nativism that crops up now and then in the US, and which really is not that new.>>
Baloney.
The immigrants of old were legal immigrants, at the turn of the century.
The new ones are illegals. There's a world of difference.
Baloney.
The immigrants of old were legal immigrants, at the turn of the century.
The new ones are illegals. There's a world of difference.
''How come it doesn't have any German sounding placenames? Cedar Rapids, Boone, Council Bluffs and Waterloo don't sound at all Germanic to me, while Des Moines and Dubuque sound positively French!''
Aberdeen is in Scotland, yet the name of that city sounds German.
Aberdeen is in Scotland, yet the name of that city sounds German.
>>Baloney.
The immigrants of old were legal immigrants, at the turn of the century.
The new ones are illegals. There's a world of difference.<<
"Legal" versus "illegal" is just a matter of arbitrary government policy. There really is nothing inherently morally "right" about such policy - political power simply comes out of the barrel of a gun, to quote Mao. In this case, it is just a pretext for underlying racist nativism more than anything else.
The immigrants of old were legal immigrants, at the turn of the century.
The new ones are illegals. There's a world of difference.<<
"Legal" versus "illegal" is just a matter of arbitrary government policy. There really is nothing inherently morally "right" about such policy - political power simply comes out of the barrel of a gun, to quote Mao. In this case, it is just a pretext for underlying racist nativism more than anything else.