Job Discussion Forums

grahamb · Joined: 30 Apr 2003 Posts: 1945

[quote="Perpetual Traveller"][quote="Jizzo T. Clown"]

For example you would find that the students would have a harder time understanding someone from say Mississippi than someone from the home counties.

PT[/quote]

Those pesky white hoods muffle the sound. Wink

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:56 pm Post subject:

Most of my students in Ecuador (where there are a lot of yanks) say that American English is easier to understand.

Most of my students in Spain (overun with Brits) said that the Brittish accent was easier.

So what does familiarity breed? Comprehension, maybe.

An interesting aside is that NONE of the aforementioned students really know the difference. The Spanish will assume an American who they happen to find easy to understand is British, and the Ecuadorians do the same with comprehensible Brits. And nobody can guess where I'm from by my accent. (Hopelessly mid Atlantic, I'm afraid...)

Justin

Jizzo T. Clown · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 12:58 am Post subject:

Justin,

I agree. Students claim that one type of English is easier to understand than the other, but when you ask them to identify speakers (in a listening exercise, for example), they're at a loss.

A British colleague in China was mistaken for an American on more than one occasion. Could've been because he spoke quickly??

PT-- Fair enough. Though I presume it would be equally as difficult to understand someone from Northern England?

jpvanderwerf2001 · Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 1117 Location: New York

Jizzo, your avatar completely whigs me out.

Gregor · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 842 Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

Yeah,
I too have had a lot of students claim that one or the other was easier, or even "better." But they have no idea, really. I got a job once in Oaxaca. Got it online (Dave's actually) but when I showed up, I thought that there had been some fatal miscommunication. The first thing I saw was this slogan - "Aprende ingl�s con ingleses - �Es lo mejor!" Which basically means "learn English with English people - it's better that way!" or something like that (sounds better in Spanish).
I'm American.
The owner was a sweet woman from Cambridge who laughed and told me not to worry about it - the students wouldn't notice the difference.
My first class was using Headway Upper-Intermediate, and THEY KNEW!
They complained, too.

But that's just snobbery. That was in Mexico. I have seen a huge (albeit illegal) demand for American English teachers in Spain, and I can only assume that it's just the same thing - American English is more exotic to Europeans, British to Mexicans.

Really - if you put someone who spoke perfect BBC English together with someone who spoke perfect, say, CNN English (that is, both American and British, but otherwise relatively unaccented), they would both be equally comprehensible.

Also, IS650 is right - the vast majority of countries use a bewildering combination of British, American, and their own local English. This is what happens when you have a completely uncontrolled (e.g, with a committee like with French) language become the global language for everyone. I just hope that high-tech and rapid communications will always ensure that it doesn't splinter into dozens of different, mutually incomprehesible languages (like Latin did).
But this is why I tell the students the differences when they come up, and let them know that some of the differences can cause embarrassment, such as when they refer to a "bum bag" as a "fanny pack" (as they do in the US). It could make a difference.
And anyway, I've been teaching outside my native country for so long that I mix them up myself. I say "zed" more often than "zee" these days (though they say "zee" in China because that's what they call the same letter in their own language). I also ride a "lift" far more often than I ride an "elevator," and I rarely use a "sidewalk" anymore. I used the "pavement" for a while, but now I find myself walking along the "foot path." I have NO IDEA where that came from. Ireland? Australia??
Best of all, I don't use a "fridge" much anymore. I used an "icebox" when I was a kid, because that's what my mother said, but now that I'm married to a Chinese woman who picked up English from me, SHE influences MY English now, and we store our food in a "coldbox"!

Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

matttheboy · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 854 Location: Valparaiso, Chile

What do they say in other countries where English is a first or close second language-places like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Singapore or India? Anyone know? I'd guess they'd follow British English (Zed) but maybe American usage has seeped in through TV and film.

carnac · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:40 pm Post subject:

Our school has teachers from England, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the US (as well as Oman, Lebanon, Sudan and Benin). The students (Arabic L1) all claim that American English is more understandable. Some further inquiries seem to show that their preference is due to more explicit enunciation by the Americans they have encountered. Please note I specified the speakers "they have encountered". Granted, they have never heard Deep South drawls or Cajun accents or hillbilly-ese. (Which I also have a difficult time understanding, usually). The show-stopper, I must say, is Glaswegian, which I have spent three years trying to understand with varying degrees of success. (The Glaswegians I know think I am going deaf because I am always asking them to repeat what they have said).
Pronunciation guide: boot is pronounced trunk; bonnet is pronounced hood; petrol is pronounced gas; and "I don't believe so" is pronounced "fugeddabouddit".
New Yorkese.
And the last letter of the alphabet is zeeeeeeeee!
And the word is sKKKedule, not sssschhhedule, #$**$#@)*&!!!!!
Note to Canadians: please learn to pronounce the following word -
uh - loom - ih - num.
All together now:
UH - LOOM - IH - NUM.

None of this al - yu - min - eee - yum business.

grahamb · Joined: 30 Apr 2003 Posts: 1945

And also from Uncle Sam's Guide to Murdering the English Language, the classic noo-kyu-lar (as in "power" and "weapons"). Enough said.

nomadder · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 6:38 pm Post subject:

It's the Brits who say alyumineeum not the Canadians. How about vitamin?

Chasgul · Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 168 Location: BG

And which spelling of vacuum do you prefer?

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

RyanS · Joined: 11 Oct 2005 Posts: 356

Us Canadians pronounce it

Al loom min num
or
Uh loom min num

Al u men ee yum is a fictional metal off of the x-men.

carnac · Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 2:09 am Post subject:

I guess the Canadian I heard saying "alyuminium" must have been a transplanted Brit. Smile

Eh?
Some years back I shared a campfire in southern Spain with a very diverse group and the question arose "If you could live anywhere, where would you choose?" The French and Germans and Italians and Americans and English and Australians etc. all chose various places. The Canadians all said "Canada". I was impressed. I have hopes of living there some day.
Does anyone else have experience with Glaswegian? Or, are there other varieties of English incomprehensible to you? (We're talking "native speakers" here, not students).