Article Sphere Logo
 
Main Article Categories

 Alternative Medicine
 Arts And Entertainment
 Automotives
 Beauty
 Business
 Communications
 Computer And Technology
 Disease And Illness
 Finance
 Food And Beverage
 Health And Fitness
 Home And Family
 Home Based Business
 Insurance
 Internet And E-Business
 Legal
 News And Society
 Pets And Animals
 Product Reviews
 Real Estate
 Recreation And Sports
 Reference And Education
 Self Improvement
 Shopping
 Travel And Leisure
 Women Health And Fitness
 Women Interests And Issues
 Work At Home
 Writing And Speaking
 All 511 Categories
 

Misunderstandings Due To Accents

By Expert Author: Lynn Bo
View Summary | Submitted: 2006-02-03 | Word Count: 537 words
Lynn Bo
America is a melting pot. That is what they say. New York City is certainly proof of that especially Queens NY. We have Greeks, Peruvians, Italians, Korean, Spanish and Indians. We in fact have people from over 120 countries, many recent arrivals. And together we all must work, play and get along. Certainly it can get confusing. Miscommunications and misunderstandings abound. It is a challenge pretty unique to American life. Many immigrants are speaking English, it is just there own version of English with there own accents and speech patterns. These accents can make a Chinese person sound angry when they are not, or a Korean person sound more diminutive than what they are feeling. How often does the Italian or Spanish person sound more emotional to our ears than how they are feeling? Many of our stereotypes do come from the person's accent.

The Spanish and Italian languages have a pattern of rising intonation, while American English has more peaks and valleys, so when they apply there natural stress pattern to English they sound emotional to our ear. The Russian intonation goes down at the end of each sentence. When this is applied to the English language they can sound depressed. How many impressions are we receiving incorrectly due to accents? And what must it be like when two heavily accented people talk to each other?

Learning English is no easy task; we speak figuratively and use a great deal of idioms. Many have to learn English while trying to earn a living or get a degree. How much time can they put into English pronunciation? Well in all honesty in this age of information and service industry growth they may want to find some time to put into it. People spending money on services want to be able to communicate clearly with the waiter, the sales staff and the tech support person on the phone. Promotions and jobs are going to those who have the communication skills.

Attending accent training classes can be inefficient as they usually have students with many different language backgrounds in one room. Each background has there own challenges and it is difficult for the teacher to get to everyone and allow everyone to get enough practice. For some following a school schedule would just be impossible. Textbooks for self study just don't cut it. You need to hear the sound before you can copy it! Tapes and videos involve rewinding and cueing to hear the examples repeated, which can be frustrating and a waste of time. Now however, accent training has gone high tech. You can now work on your accent with the help of your computer. This is ideal as so much information can be packed into one software CD-ROM. These CD's contain animated graphics, video clips, waveform graphs, and lots of practice games. The other feature that the software contains is instant feedback. You just click the button and you can record yourself and play both yourself and the model speaker to assess how well you have done. You can here the examples over and over again with no rewinding or cueing. It does seem to me that the high tech solution to accent training has finally arrived!
About the Author/Author Bio

Lynn Bo is an expert in the field of accent reduction who posses advanced training in accent reduction and phonology. She is also the founder of http://www.AccentMaster.com a line of accent reduction software programs. She can be reached at Lynn@AccentMaster.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/Misunderstandings-Due-To-Accents/8999

Comments on this Article


More "Languages" Related Articles

 

Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Languages" article category.

People interested in the above article "Misunderstandings Due To Accents" are also interested in the related articles listed below:

It was in 2004 that Chris Anderson coined the phrase The Long Tail, which contrary to some people’s expectations has nothing to do with the dog’s anatomy. Actually, it is an entirely new economic model for the media and entertainment industries. In a nutshell, the Long Tail theory claims that infinite online ‘shelf space’ and relatively easy access to potential users make it economically feasible to provide content for niche interest groups.
As businesses thrive and communities mingle to share mutual interests, there crops up one problem. The problem of understanding each other’s language. Most of us would suggest that use of English as the formal language is the answer. But there are few nations who believe in using their mother language for all informal and formal dealings. Poland is one such country where the Polish language is used for interactions of all kinds.
Spanish language largely spoken by the natives of Spain originated from 'Vulgar Latin' or popular Latin which covers the popular dialects and sociolects of the Latin language. It also drew influences from the language 'Basque' which is spoken by people who live north of Spain and some even from 'Arabic' which is from the southern Iberian Peninsula.
Malta has fast become one of Europe's premier EFL destinations, as the island's ties with the English language, coupled with its fantastic natural resources have made this an attractive location for agents and private students alike. With its rich history of been visited, and often invaded by empires throughout the ages, Malta, as a nation, has learned well the importance of resilience, communication, and adaption to new cultures, and cultural influences.
Of all the languages in the world why has English become the desired form of global communication? Maybe it is because English at its most basic level is extremely easy to learn.
Companies providing language translation service are getting more and more attention today. As the competition in the business landscape is getting fierce, business owners can no longer afford to ignore the global market. Sadly, however, many of these business owners who regularly acquire the help of translation companies don't really know if they are getting the service they deserve. These owners believe that a translation company that knows their required language is already enough, not knowing that what they are doing is highly dangerous.
According to several surveys held over the years, the words people consider to be their most favourites of all times seem to relate one way or another to individual experiences. Especially positive words of encouragment.
Article Directory Home Reference And Education Languages

Can't find what you're looking for? Try Google Search!
(Search in 26 languages: English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Arabic, Italian, German,
Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Dutch, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Greek, Serbian
Slovak, Hebrew, Swedish, Romanian, Polish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Czech, Croatian, Bulgarian)
 
 
Copyright © 2005 - by Larry Lim, Singapore - Article Search Engine Directory at ArticleSphere.com™
All Rights Reserved Worldwide. All Trademarks and Servicemarks are the property of the respective owners.
Template Design by Internet Marketing Singapore | Internet Marketing | Singapore Classified
Español Français Bulgarian 汉语 漢語 Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Finnish Deutsch Ελληνικά Italiano 日本語 한국어 Norwegian Polish PortRomanian Русско Serbian Slovak Swedish [أربيك] Hebrew