Wednesday - August 8th

[angelique5666]

Happy Wednesday! I figured that today I'd share a photo from one of my favorite movies, Midnight in Paris! I admit to grabbing the movie from a Redbox because you know who was in it, and, while I will cry about him being utterly underutilized, it's still an awesome movie overall. Pretty much everyone who played someone in the twenties turned in an

Comments

[angelique5666]

Pulling off an accent believably is really hard, especially when you have a thick accent of your own.

I've actually been told by someone who speaks English as a second language that some regional dialects are easier to understand than others. Like, I'm from the southern part of the United States, and we speak slower than most other parts. I wonder if there is a part of England that's easier to understand than the others.

[angelique5666]

I can understand that a British one would be taught in more schools than an American one. It's the 'proper' one, after all. Plus, a lot of American regional accents mispronounce a lot of things, mine included.

I admit to watching movies like 'Trainspotting' with the subtitles on. A Scottish accent is one that I can barely work through, and I speak English as a first language! Don't feel bad, there.

[angelique5666]

I pretty sure in Hong Kong the English is taught with a British slant as well. I'm sure you're right and it does vary. Other than the accent they teach actors on TV (a kind of non-accent), I wouldn't think any of the more regional accents are taught in English classes.

*laughs* Totally happens with a lot of us. Plenty of Americans get confounded by many of the accents across the Atlantic. The differences in slang don't help, either.

[angelique5666]

I actually had the worst French teacher out there. I'm from Louisiana in the States, and we have a subsection of Canadian French people called Cajuns. I got taught with THAT accent, so I pronounced everything wrong. It was atrocious. But yes, I believe French is usually taught with the Parisian accent. Most foreign languages usually teach with one of the major city accents.

Anyway, I used to want to teach English in Japan, but I quickly learned that my regional accent made that all of impossible. It actually intrudes on other languages that I've learned as well. In Russian, putting a different emphasis on a different syllable can change the meaning of a word. I did that all the time (at least once with a hilarious dirty result). Sometimes I actually consider speech therapy classes. Maybe I should sit in on a ESL class instead?