An English Accent
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Londoner: The words they use might change. Certainly. Vocab would definitely change.
Australian: Yeah. Yeah. That’s interesting. because I have a friend from London and I can’t understand half of what he says. Just the words… the slang. It’s so…
Londoner: You see my accent has been described as “home counties”…
Australian: Mm.
Londoner: … and if I had of stayed in London or where I was and not got a professional job, I would have had a very very coarse London accent. You might have the same problem understanding me.
Australian: Mm.
Londoner: But I came from those roots but my accent has improved through college and stuff like that so I speak probably clearer than a proper Londoner or cockney.
Australian: Mm.
Londoner: I am almost a cockney.
Australian: I get called a cockney.
Londoner: I was born not that far from Bow Bells but….
Australian: When I lived in London I had been there for twenty-four hours and people thought I was a Londoner ..maybe my accent..like the Aussie accent and the London accent are not that different.
Londoner: There are a lot of similarities . Yeah.
Australian: And I mean you know I remember being in…I was working in Sainsbury’s and this guy come up and he said “oh I thought you were a cockney like me” and you know I can put it on like you know what I mean like …
Londoner: Yeah.
Australian: You can kind of talk like this. I can’t do it at the moment. You get in to a roll …Have a beer and that. You know? Lets try something. Like. I will say one thing and you say exactly the same thing: Where are you from?
Londoner: Where are you from?
Australian: I am from London.
Londoner: I am from London.
Australian: What part of London?
Londoner: What part of London?
Australian: The north.
Londoner: The north.
Australian: The south.
Londoner: The south.
Australian: The east .
Londoner: The east.
Australian: The west.
Londoner: The west.
Australian: North-west London
Londoner: North-west London.
Australian: Where’s Wembley?
Londoner: Where’s Wembley?
Australian: It’s is in north-west London.
Londoner: It’s is in north-west London.
Australian: Where’s Wimbledon?
Londoner: Where’s Wimbledon?
Australian: It’s in south-west London.
Londoner: It’s in south-west London.
Australian: Is that right?
Londoner: Is that right?
Australian: Is that right ?
Londoner: Is that right?
Tags: accent, british-accent, Cockney, english-accent, london, Sainsburys, Wembley, Wimbledon
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The more I study, the more I get hopeless. I cannot understand what native speakers say. never, never.
Same here, Theresa.
I keep on thinking, how to resolve this problem?
Bandhu
Hey Theresa
Don’t give up.
Your writing is perfect. All you need is a little time for you to accustom your ear to the other person’s way of speaking.
Have you ever met a person from Kunming? When they speak Mandarin they pronounce the word “wu” (five) in an unusual way. At first you do not realize what they are saying and then you do. Listen again. Then do it again. You will get it. Be patient and strong.
In linguistics we have something we call register. When people speak they have a different way of speaking to their family members, their close friends, their elders, their teachers, people who they do not know, people who they drink with, people who they have worked with. These idiolects or dialects or argots are very specialised uses of language but only a small group of speakers use them.
It is like a group of college students who have been on a two week vacation together to the desert in the centre of Australia and their conversation is peppered with places, names, events and words that you are not familiar with. But they are speaking your language. YOUR language. You can get to the bottom of this by asking LOTS of questions. You can find out what they are talking about by asking them LOTS of questions.
When you are talking to someone (a native speaker) they have to realize that you are not a native speaker and that you come from a different place and have a different view of history and different experiences of different places and your own language and your own way of thinking and speaking.
If the person you are trying to understand does not understand that you are you and you are trying to understand them, then it is not your problem, Theresa. It is the other person’s problem.
Don’t give up. Hang in there!
Hi,
I want to appreciate you. You have good talent of making someone understand and console.
Actually, I am also weak at english language.
Can you also help me in speaking english.
I hesitate a lot while speaking with someone in english.
I started thinking if I am making error in speaking.
Please help me out and mail me at bbandhu2008@gmail.com
Warm Regards,
Bandhu
Hey Bandhu
What kind of situations do you have to speak English in? Social, business, meeting people from other countries at the airport, phone calls (about what?), making new friends?
Although I am a native speaker, I get nervous when I have to speak too. If people are not interested in me, I am not happy speaking. It is better to shut up sometimes and just listen.
Listening is harder than speaking if you do it properly and really really try to understand where all the people in a conversation are coming from.
Some people just do not listen, even in their own language. They talk and talk and talk.
It is good to find a balance.
If you listen to all the conversations in the Real Conversations section, that will improve your comprehension and confidence and it might improve your speaking.
cheers Mark
i totally agree with u Mark sometimes listen is the great way to learn..then after that we can ask if there’s some doubt.i also not very good in speaking,listening,reading and writing skills, because of that i need to learn more..and i hope i can improve my English step by step on these website.. i need to be confident with my self too while learning..do not focus on failures but be patient until we succeed.. thanks a lot Mark through these website i know that u can help us.thanks for the great work!!
Hi,
i Am from Dubai
i joined with anew company in Dubai and all people speak inglish,i can understand what they speaking but i afread to speak with thim,i want you please to hilp me on that.
thanks,
Hello, Ghassan
is the same case with me but i´m very patient a studied every day and every night a practice with others students this situation has been changed actuality i can speak although little nervous but I speak..
Good Luck
write me if you Want.
Antonio,
hello, people I´m learning English and I need much practice my write any body help me send e-mails and answer when i reply it.
please, please help me.
Thanks.
Antonio.
hai antonio i am pravarthana from india i also very eager to learn english my email ID is pravarthana@yahoo.com
hey mark i read the e-mails which u got.i also share almost the same problem like others do…..i understand,read,and speaks english as an average.like,,,,,,,,i can fastly speak two or three lines in english.bt whn it comes to speak all my sentences in the same language i gets confuse…many of the tymes i use to overcome from this problem,,,,,,,bt not most of the tymes……i just wanna speak fluent english…..u r getting na,,,,like i just dont want to speak……rather i want myself to think in english also….plz help me out……
Hi, let me join with you all.
I am a student of post graduate program of English Education department in Indonesia. We often speak English in the class either in in our daily conversation or class discussion, and also all the subject are delivered by English. But we are very seldom to meet native speaker and talk with them. Can you give me some ways to practice our listening skills, besides from cassette?
Hi Nia…I assume by “cassette” you mean recording? So outside of recordings, all that exist are real people. And if you seldom meet them, then I suggest trying to set up a language exchange using Skype. Search for ’skype language exchange’ on Google and you will find a variety of services. If you discover anything interesting, please let us know about it. Good luck.
Hey guys,
I know the langauage of english. But I dont have to speak that all the time. Because now i’m in Kerala. So we are using a different langauge here. But Unfortunately I have got a job in an mnc company where all of the employees are speaking in english. i have also started speaking in english. But I find some differences in their accent and mine. I have tried a lot to change that accent and to get some mental strength to give a speech in English But I failed terribly. With a lot of hope I am writing this. “Is there any who can help me getting a good command over this UNIVERSAL LANGAUGE”?
Regards
DJ
Hi Didheesh, you seem to be suffering from a lack of confidence. I wouldn’t worry to much about your accent unless many people simply cannot understand you. In that case you should practice pronunciation drills with a teacher. Otherwise, keep practicing your English outside of work and your confidence will grow. And feel free to ask more questions here. Good luck to you.
if i were student
My name is Azeb Abera. I live in Ethiopia. I want to improve my Engligh language but at workplace and at home we speak Amharic language(native language). At the workplace we use English language to communicate with other organizations. But I want to speak and write english fluently. I want to communicate with others in English. Please give me your advice. In addition any body can write for me, therefore, I can practice English daily. My e-mail address is azeba@crdaethiopia.org
Thank you
Hello: This is Gurya from Pakistan.I want to improve my English in order to get high score in TOEFL which is being conducted on 26th of june. I have a very short time to be prepeared. Even though I’m striving with my full determination but instead of this I’m not well prepeared yet.Actually I’m going to get higher education in America and for this I have to get high score in TOEFL so that I would be able to get visa easily.Kindly sugest me what should I do for achieving my goal.
Warm regards:
heyyy who hear my vioce.i do understand this dialogue but i cannot speak english very well.please help me.iam very very nice girl.
Hello!
Listening is the best tool to learn English fluently. This is my email address: Please e-mail me. I’ll give you some tips on how to become fluent in english. I just want to share the tools that i am using now to improve my english. I am not that fluent yet coz i am just using these tools for more than a week only. I am also looking for someone who can help me to improve my english and vise versa. Hope to hear from you soon..Thanks. Arlene estanislao, Philippines.