What does it mean to speak good English?

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Nikolai
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Re: What does it mean to speak good English?

Beitrag von Nikolai »

cassielfsw hat geschrieben:Even within the same country! People from Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Dallas will all have markedly different accents. There are lots of different regional accents in England as well. I don't know about other people, but I like listening to accents. Even if you're barely understandable, I'll try really hard. :wink:
Do you English people not make a distinction between accents and dialects?




GreensideRose
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Re: What does it mean to speak good English?

Beitrag von GreensideRose »

From my own experience I can say that people in the UK are very curious about accents when it comes to foreigners. They seem to like to guess where you're from (unless you have a very broad accent) and are genuinely proud of themselves when they get it right. Not that anyone ever guessed me right though :roll: :mrgreen: - I had Irish, Welsh, Swedish and South African. Not once did I have German in 8 years. Which is probably not necessarily a bad thing haha!

Nicolai, I think the people in the UK do make a distinction between accents and dialects. For some here (up North) it seems to be very important that you speak the right dialect. For example, a mackem (person from Sunderland) would always be recognized as such when they come to the Geordies (people from Newcastle upon Tyne) as these two groups have had a very long feud. It's probably comparable to the little feud between Prussians and Bavarians :D
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cassielfsw
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Re: What does it mean to speak good English?

Beitrag von cassielfsw »

Nikolai hat geschrieben:
cassielfsw hat geschrieben:Even within the same country! People from Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Dallas will all have markedly different accents. There are lots of different regional accents in England as well. I don't know about other people, but I like listening to accents. Even if you're barely understandable, I'll try really hard. :wink:
Do you English people not make a distinction between accents and dialects?

I'm not English, I'm American. :wink:

An accent is how you pronounce words, but a dialect includes different vocabulary and grammar. I speak differently than people in various other parts of the US, but if I were having a conversation with one of them (which happens on a regular basis as I work in a call center) we'd both be using Standard American English and avoiding regional slang. A different dialect would be African-American Vernacular English (Black American English, "Ebonics"), or British English vs. American English.

I don't know if British people are quicker to draw the line between an accent and a dialect than I would be.
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Nikolai
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Re: What does it mean to speak good English?

Beitrag von Nikolai »

cassielfsw hat geschrieben:
I'm not English, I'm American. :wink:
Sorry :|

I have never been in America so I have many prejudices and think that Americans are weird.
No that was just a joke. :D
but I have really never been in America.
An accent is how you pronounce words, but a dialect includes different vocabulary and grammar. I speak differently than people in various other parts of the US, but if I were having a conversation with one of them (which happens on a regular basis as I work in a call center) we'd both be using Standard American English and avoiding regional slang. A different dialect would be African-American Vernacular English (Black American English, "Ebonics"), or British English vs. American English.
I think that we Germans use 'accent' (Akzent) and 'dialect' (Dialekt) in a different way than you.
'Dialekte' are the regional variations of native speakers and 'Akzente' is how foreign speakers speak our mother tongue.
The most stupid German 'Dialekt' is 'Sächsisch'.
That's awful.
And the Spanish 'Akzent' is :censored:.

tiorthan
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Re: What does it mean to speak good English?

Beitrag von tiorthan »

Nikolai hat geschrieben: I think that we Germans use 'accent' (Akzent) and 'dialect' (Dialekt) in a different way than you.

You're comparing apples to oranges because "Akzent" and "accent" are false friends, even though they go back to a common root.

The English word "accent" means the way someone pronounces words, whereas the German word "Akzent" means a difference in pronounciation in regard to a standard which, by the way, is not restricted to non-native speakers.

The word "dialect" and "Dialekt" on the other hand mean exactly the same in both languages. It's an identifyable set of vocabulary and grammar rules particular to a region.
The most stupid German 'Dialekt' is 'Sächsisch'.
Why would you qualify it as "stupid"? Stupid is an attribute of people and people's decisions and not of languages.


Also what's commonly called "Sächsisch" is not a dialect but a sub group of the Thuringian dialects. Linguists call it "Obersächsische Dialekte" because "Sächsisch" was the German dialect spoken by the Saxons in the region called Lower Saxony. In fact, by all rights, the Lower German dialects could be called "Sächsische Dialekte".
You're never too old to learn something stupid.
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Ehab Goda
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Re: What does it mean to speak good English?

Beitrag von Ehab Goda »

Hi, sorry for the late reply but I'm new to this blog 
To the business at hand. 
Fluency, in my opinion at least, is being able to understand what you hear or read, say what you want to say whatever it was, write what you want other people to know and being able to interact with the language-or processing it. All of this must be without the slightest bit of hesitation or difficulty. Only then can I say that the person before me is a fluent English, or whatever other language, speaker. 
Let's take German for Example, your mother tongue, when you interact with other people in your country, do you face any problems when you try to express what you want to express or to understand what you are supposed to understand? The answer is no of course and this is the point I'm trying to make. Fluency is speaking, listening, writing and reading in the language without any difficulty. So, being able to only introduce yourself or tell the time is not fluency in my opinion.
So, try to enhance your language by reading a lot, this will give you a very huge amount of vocabulary, and try to listen a lot to native English speakers either by watching videos, listening to radio stations or by speaking with one of them.
One last thing, have you ever thought about what it would be like to speak English with somebody for two, three or even five consecutive hours??? Some people may think of this as a terrifying thing, but actually I think that if you ever managed to reach this level, you would become a fluent English speaker.  
Thank you for reading what I've just written and I hope that it will help you. 
Your friend in English learning.,,
Ehab____
Brace yourself.

Guest12-15

Re: What does it mean to speak good English?

Beitrag von Guest12-15 »

But referring to the example of accent:  If you regard the video of Gareth Jameson's he is also talking about accent as  a different way of pronunciation, not as lying emphasis on syllables. 

tiorthan
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Re: What does it mean to speak good English?

Beitrag von tiorthan »

johannajger hat geschrieben:he is also talking about accent as  a different way of pronunciation, not as lying emphasis on syllables. 
What you mean is stress and not emphasis. (If you want an explanation what emphasis is please ask, it requires a longer explanation to make clear how it differs from stress.)

Stress patterns are an integral part of an accent. If you change your stress patterns but keep everything else, you will be perceived as having an accent.
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Guest12-15

Re: What does it mean to speak good English?

Beitrag von Guest12-15 »

I think I know what emphasis means.  In my opinion emphasis contrarily to stress  refers to semantics.  

tiorthan
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Re: What does it mean to speak good English?

Beitrag von tiorthan »

Yes, emphasis has to do with semantics, which is why you cannot emphasize syllables, because they aren't semantic units.

Also, stress is just one way to put emphasis on a semantic unit, there are other means as well.
You're never too old to learn something stupid.
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