i speak with an accent in english

[SunWuKong]

so this past weekend this white girl i met at a party told me i have a cool accent. and i thought, "i have an accent?!?"

then later my chinese friend confirmed to me that i indeed have a cantonese accent when speaking in english. what the hell? how come i can't tell?

[kimpossible]

eh, my husband does too. More British than Taiwanese though. Be thankful that you don't do the Chinese grammar in English like he does though. He has a hard time with singular/plural, third person prounouns (it's all ta to him) and he couldn't get an English idiom correct if my life depended on it.

He likes to say "Come sit on my laps."

[deez nuts]

I think mine kinda faded. I haven't gotten an "oh you have an accent in awhile." I think in mandarin and translate it in my mind then speak in english when conversing.

[Chris]

My accent is so prevalent. Especially when I speak english catonese, manadarin and japanese every day. I have an accent in all the language i speak. It really hard for me to get it distinguish accent in each one.

[thaite]

I thought I had gotten rid of mine long ago. But then a few months ago I got braces. So either speak like I normally would and it comes out all mumble and lisp, or I enunciate and the accent shows up.

Freakin' weird.

[karizma]

>> heh i lost my accent and then regained it when i moved from my hometown...now im kind of immersed in an all chinese community...im fobbin it man :D

[igcognito]

My experience, with Asians an accents. Two female Chinese friends. Who speaks poor chinese, but has a STRONg accent when speaking english. Other speaks chinese, but has bad english grammar. So yeah, accents are an odd thing.

They can affect jobs, but they are not life and death situations.

[BeTheReds]

I have an accent when I speak English according to all the Brits I've spoken to. :dance:

[loserbutt]

hmm, how do you speak with an accent anyways? I've been thinking of developing a chinese accent just for fun :)

[atyc]

I speak English with a HongKie accent and life was hell when I was in high school. (I moved to Aust when I was 15, so I attended 3 years of High school.) The first two years (year 10 and 11), I just didn't feel like going to school at all. Everytime I opened my mouth, my friendly fellow schoolmates would follow whatever I said (in Hongkie accent of course). Man, it drove me crazy and I was so depressed (I wish girls would come to me and said that's a cute accent though). As for year 12, it was much more better, most of the friendly guys had left and I started to speak better but I still speak with a Hongkie accent (it didn't help when I went back to HK to work for almost two years...). Anyway, the reason why I am replying to this is that Igcognito said "They can affect jobs, but they are not life and death situations. " . Recently, there had been a shooting incident happened in Aust which killed two HongKie uni students (and 5 or 6 students hurt). And the shooter was a mainland chinese. This has not be proven yet but it's believed the shooter speaks English with a very thick accent and that might have been picked up by those two students and hence the shooting incident as a revenge from the chinese student. Again, this hasn't been stated as the motive for this incident but the news article did mention it. Looking back, I am glad I didn't go as far as that guy. I mean, yeah, I was angry but there wasn't much I could do and it was the time that I really learned how to live without too many friends (I guess it didn't help too, I was the only two Asians in that year with the other one being born in Aust).

[DaBestSpooner]

People tell me I have a manhattan accent and I think to myself "great they think I'm another shithead from the midwest trying to live out their "friends" lifestyle"

I can fake accents pretty well, I do almost any asian country, this comes in handy with telemarketers and survey people.

[bluecollarjap]

when my mom was around i was fluent in japanese, thats how we spoke to each other, but since i was really young i didn't have an accent. i could speak german english and japanese flawlessly. but now i can't remember any japanese. just stuck with this damn w virginia accent for my english, and koelner deutsch.

[lethal]

I speak English with a slight southern drawl. Apparantly I speak Vietnamese with that same slight southern drawl, in addition to the rare central accent. It freaks people out.

I couldn't fake an Asian accent in English if my life depended on it. I've no idea why. There is this one guy in my law school that the socratic method does not apply to because the professors are deathly afraid to call on him, his accent is so thick. His English, as far as I can understand it seems fine gramatically, but you have to concentrate really, really hard to understand him.

[VV o n g B a]

where did u grow up lethal? i grew up in northern alabama and nobody has said i have an accent. i've met several asians from southern alabama that have a strong southern drawl. it was weird talking to them when i first met them.

the strangest combination i've heard is the southern ghetto viet accent. viet grammar and ghetto vocabulary with a twist of southern twang. although a japanese raised in brazil i met comes in a pretty close second. i hadn't met any portugese speaking ppl b/f so that accent kinda caught me off guard.

[kimpossible]

Originally posted by VV o n g B a@Oct 30 2002, 12:21 PM
the strangest combination i've heard is the southern ghetto viet accent. viet grammar and ghetto vocabulary with a twist of southern twang.
That would drive me nuts.

[lethal]

Grew up in central Virginia, around Richmond.

I can do the annoying southern ghetto viet accent without the viet accent part. I can probably do the ghetto southern american accent in hue vietnamese better.

[Saiko]

The only accent I have is the Canadian accent in my Chinese. People laugh at my sad Chinese. It's horrible.
Actually, I don't care so screw it.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by lethalweapon@Oct 30 2002, 07:43 PM
There is this one guy in my law school that the socratic method does not apply to because the professors are deathly afraid to call on him, his accent is so thick. His English, as far as I can understand it seems fine gramatically, but you have to concentrate really, really hard to understand him.
A way to avoid being embarassed in law school lectures, huh? make the prof afraid of the student huh? hmm ...

I used to have a Malay accent in English. Basically the same accent my uncle and my grandparents have in their English. I never really understood why I didn't have a Chinese accent in my English instead, many of my Malay-speaking relatives have a Chinese accent in their Malay. But I think I pretty much kicked it. I guess I'll find out when I go back to the US and people start complaining about my pronunciation. But being in HK I'm already forgetting bigger English words ...

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by AliBabaIncorporated@Oct 31 2002, 06:05 AM
But being in HK I'm already forgetting bigger English words ...
oh no shit! most of my friends in HK were locals. my english was starting to go to hell. sometimes i just couldn't get the words out while i was speaking in english, and then that also happens sometimes in cantonese, so sometimes i have to resort to chinglish. :P

[deepadishpizza]

I've been told have a "media accent." I don't really think about it except when I try speaking Hindi or Bengali, and it sounds so American. I'm kinda ashamed about it, and am trying to learn a fobby-Indian accent.

The weirdest thing... when I get tipsy, I have a valley accent. It's sooooo embarrassing, and I don't live anywhere near the valley! Guess I grew up watching too much 90210. :blush:

[wylin]

i can do a killer korean fob or vietnamese gangster accent. OC style. Also i can imitiate chinese fobs pretty well since most of my friends are fobs.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by tazadar@Nov 1 2002, 01:22 AM
I think if you're around 16+ years old trying to learn another language, it's impossible not to speak with an accent. I know a few children around the ages of 6 to 9, where they converse interchangeable with Mandarin and English effortlessly without an accent, especially of the girls I am most impress. I came to the US at a similar young age and I don't have an accent in English or Chinese. I think it's wonderful to teach children at a very young age to be multilingual.
yeah i came to the states when i was 11 and i'm pretty sure i didn't have an accent. but then i went back to HK to live for a while and i came back with an accent. :o

[mydnyht]

Cuz you're used to it.

[moshimoshi]

i think the worst sounding is english with a singaporian accent

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by tazadar@Nov 1 2002, 02:22 PM
I know a few children around the ages of 6 to 9, where they converse interchangeable with Mandarin and English effortlessly without an accent.
unfortunately without further education and constant opportunities for interaction with peers speaking in Mandarin, most of them will lose that talent.

especially of the girls I am most impress.
Anyone else notice that girls seem to be better at picking up and retaining languages than guys? My running tally of ABC exchange students I've met at my university in HK who can speak fluent or near-fluent Cantonese shows about a 5:1 ratio of girls to guys. (but if you narrow the criteria to people who are also literate in Chinese, the ratio comes out more even).

[enygma]

i'm told that i have a chicago accent. but bear in mind, the chicago accent is supposed to have the least inflections compared to all the accents in the country so that news anchors and reporters try to imitate the chicago accent. :P

i got laughed at in korea for my accented (but proficient) korean.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by moshimoshi@Nov 3 2002, 04:35 AM
i think the worst sounding is english with a singaporian accent
i love it when singaporean girls speak singlish. :D

[blue__blood]

Originally posted by Saiko@Oct 30 2002, 11:28 PM
The only accent I have is the Canadian accent in my Chinese. People laugh at my sad Chinese. It's horrible.
Actually, I don't care so screw it.
heh, I have that too. Accents in Canto are really hard to kill..

[maldito]

I never realized I had an accent until my friends and my cousin who grew up here in Calif. said so. My cousin said I had a "Hawaiian" accent but never explained what I was doing.

Then later my friends pointed out a word that I said, then I realized what my accent was. Of course now I can dissect it alot and can point out details to anyone.

Basically we have an accent similar to New Englanders, since it was they who brought the language over anyway.

My other friends say that sometimes I sound like a New Yorker, but we don't sound like that at all.

[LT25]

When my buddy from the Singapore Army spoke English, he sounded like he was from the UK. "Who needs to learn English? I'm not going to England" - Homer Simpson :lol:

I speak English like a New Englander w/ southern slang thrown in because I grew up there (27 out of 29 years + a year in Georgia). The fact that my adoptive parent are caucasian w/o a brouge probably had something to do with it to. The kids and my friends say I speak what little Chinese, Vietnamese, and spanish i know with an American accent.

My former girlfriend had a heavy accent. Sometimes I didn't understand her English and she got pissed.

:(

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by LT25@Nov 16 2002, 05:05 AM
When my buddy from the Singapore Army spoke English, he sounded like he was from the UK. "Who needs to learn English? I'm not going to England" - Homer Simposon :lol:
wow, he went through the army and can still speak good english? when my friend went off to NS, his english went to hell and he came back speaking fluent Hokkien :dance:

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by LT25@Nov 15 2002, 04:05 PM
When my buddy from the Singapore Army spoke English, he sounded like he was from the UK.
he didn't have the singaporean accent? (singlish)