Job Discussion Forums

[wanttoteachenglish]

Hello, I am thinking of teaching English in Japan for a year or two. I have never been out of my country before, and I have heard some people comment that our accents can be quite difficult to follow. Obviously there are many vastly different accents in my country but I was just wondering if the average native English speaker outside my country can understand my speech easily.

So I decided to conduct a small experiment. I recorded myself reading a news article off the internet and would like to ask you if you can understand my speech easily. Also, would you care to hazard a guess which country I am from? This will let me know if my accent is close to neutral or very 'local'. Many thanks, I appreciate your comments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B36A9e1cOKE&feature=player_embedded

[G Cthulhu]

Might I suggest being within 30 metres of the microphone next time? It's almost impossible to hear anything, and what can be heard makes you sound like a Saffer.

[Apsara]

I agree, very difficult to even hear what you are saying, but I'm thinking that you might actually have another language as a first language, possibly French? Honestly though there is so much static-y noise that it's hard to even make out individual words a lot of the time, so I might be way off.

[deadzenpoet]

Switzerland or France?

[Glenski]

Despite what others have written about the quality of the sound itself, your accent/intonation is just fine. I've heard worse from some Scotsmen and Aussies (no offense to anyone, just the truth).

[micchan]

Sounds like a Singaporean without the 'lehs' and 'lahs'.

[G Cthulhu]