Accents, Dialects and Linguistic Abilities

Andeavor wrote:I find Swiss German to be unromantic, rugged and a abomination of language in general. It's a mystery to me that we have a working media.

I inexplicably started laughing really hard when I read that. Had you not mentioned Swiss German, I would have sworn you were describing the Danish language

I think most people speaking foreign languages sound strange to those who speak it as their mother tongue.

Vektrix wrote:I think most people speaking foreign languages sound strange to those who speak it as their mother tongue.

Come again?

If you speak English as your Native Language, you tend to find those who speak a different language as their native language funny when they speak English.

And Vice-Versa.

It depends, I find foreign accents in most languages very charming - except for the German accent in general. My favorite is when an English speaker is fluent in German but keeps the soft r's and k's (as in ch), and if they know Swiss German than even better.

And to be honest, if they know their vocabulary you wouldn't mind a foreign accent in the slightest, now would you?

No, of course not, I was just making an observation about foreigners speaking different languages. However, many Brits seem to think they can make non-Englishs speakers understand by talking slower and louder

That is true. But it sometimes does help to annunciate and not babble one's ear off. In fact I was told even the French do it for each other.

In Switzerland when someone tries to communicate with us we always make an effort to speak in their language or one that is closer to theirs. Something many English-speaking folk ain't doing, eh?

Well, Switzerland has three national languages doesn't it? Even has Latin on it's stamps. As far as am aware, Switzerland promotes languages a lot in their schools. We are the opposite really. Although Languages is well promoted, we still have an empire mentality when it comes to learning. By that I mean we still think we own most of the world and everyone else speaks English anyway.

ALthough to a certain extent this is true, but I think we should still make an effort.

In Britain no school promotes taking up a foreign language, they do teach other languages but by the time you've learnt to say je m'appelle a french person of the same age would be asking a question in almost perfect english

Not at my school Ben, they actively promoted it.

My school doesn't in fact most the schools in Norfolk don't hence why my AS french clas is the second smallest in sixth form (the smallest is German). I come from a large sixth form too, about 500 adding up to a total school population of about 1800

Lol, our french education was a night mare, I had 4 teachers in 2 years, one of which I felt really sorry for as she was a wreck following the murder of her daughter (which came out later when she broke down in front of the class) after being much ignored by the kids as they paper pelleted the walls, ran on the rooftops, screamed fought and generally were obnoxious. I was one of the few trying to get on with it. I really wanted to speak at least one other language as well.

One thing that made me kind of angry too, was when I lived in germany me and my mum would go shopping and we would try our best to communicate in german, somtimes it really didnt happen. The majority of germans were really friendly and extremley helpful. Some of the english people that lived next to us though really had a poor attitude that went along the lines of 'we won the war... they should speak english.' That attitude really really annoyed me. I really liked the german people around us though, some of the nicest people I've met.

I don't get along well with that attitude either Red. You are in THEIR Country, speak THEIR language if you possibly can. If they wanna speak your language, then great.

Sorry to hear about what happened to your French teacher - we had the opposite with French mind you, she was a great teacher of French, but you did kinda get the feeling if tyou didn't behave properly you'd find yourself... on the other side. german we had 7 teachers in 2 years, yet I still got a good grade. I caused the forst German teache rin the period to have a nervous breakdown... whoops.

Speaking of teachers, my Italian teacher was a small-sized nightmare. Even though she was Swiss, she'd burst into class and talk our heads off in Italian - in a beginner's class. It even came to a small fallout between us when she criticized one of my presentations as I was giving it and gave me a bad grade right then and there.

Boy, was I miffed.

i speak german with a very funny accent it's a mix of "Hessisch"German and "Pfälzisch"German, but i can speak normal german, too! i have a friend who live in the north of germany...and if i speak with accent she can't stop laughing
i think my english is british english? i don't know...maybe a brite tell me the answer

Wow, andeavor, I thought I had a hard time in languages. Yeah, the kids I got put in with were those that really really didnt want to be in a french class, let alone school. Typical.

Although like you and vek, my first french teacher was like an enigma. She was lovely and friendly. Very small but boy if you annoyed her, you would know about it. She also felt the need only to speak in french when in class. Mind you she was french.

And vek, what in the world did you do!? Haha, our R.E teahcer left because 'our class was an abomination.' she too had a mental break down, apparantly caused by us. She was pretty mental to begin with though...

One of my French teachers was this perfectly dressed, timid lady. One day, right before a vocabulary test, I attempted to scribble a few difficult words on the desk for cheating. When I looked up, there she stood smiling at me and asked if I was going to erase them before the test.

Mais oui madame.

Kevin92 wrote:
i think my english is british english? i don't know...maybe a brite tell me the answer

Sounds like the original english language to me!

I don't have an accent which is just as well, considering what the Norfolk accent is like!

Andeavor wrote:One of my French teachers was this perfectly dressed, timid lady. One day, right before a vocabulary test, I attempted to scribble a few difficult words on the desk for cheating. When I looked up, there she stood smiling at me and asked if I was going to erase them before the test.

Mais oui madame.

lol, nice try

What you need Andeavor is a decent sized watch and write some of the harder answers under where the strap goes.

bmpalmann wrote:

Kevin92 wrote:
i think my english is british english? i don't know...maybe a brite tell me the answer

Sounds like the original english language to me!

I don't have an accent which is just as well, considering what the Norfolk accent is like!

Lol, considering I was born there, I was lucky to escape it being a heavy influence on me but my dad sounds very Norfolky. I try not to copy.

oh ok...so i am a normal english speaker