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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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 Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 6:48 am Post subject: |
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| You could check the EU, where the situation is more or less the reverse of here. It isn't fair here, and it isn't fair there. |
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shawner88
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 6:56 am Post subject: |
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Personally I have a hard time myself understanding British accents. I used to have a couple of friends from England when I was in Geoje-do, and I really had a hard time follwing them. However, no matter what they talked about they sounded highly intelligent.
Last edited by shawner88 on Thu Jan 15, 2004 9:02 am; edited 2 times in total |
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TECO
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 8:44 am Post subject: |
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One day, I asked a British teacher if he wanted to go and grab some lunch together.
He said something like: "No - I brought some gorgeous botties today."
I'm thinking, WTF are 'botties?' So I asked him what he was talking about.
Apprantly 'botties' are just sandwiches (and they were 'goregeous' to boot!) LOL
An Australian teacher told me he was "Crook" one day after I asked him how he was doing.
"Crook" means "sick", apparantly in Australia. |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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| waggo wrote: |
Well Bobby this question comes up quite often....you will run into some employers who believe that their students wont understand you...but slowly they are waking up to the fact that there is little difference beween the two and a few I spoke to realise that GENUINE ENGLISH(not British English!) is the superior accent to learn.
Korea is the only country where there is a bias for North American English in place...the language schools in England are packed with Japanese who are "in the know".
Tests have shown that ANYBODY regardless of race is treated with more distinction in the United States if they have an RP English accent.
Silly little colonials! |
"Genuine" or not, Koreans wanna learn American English because the US is Korea's biggest trade partner and most Koreans opt to study in the US, not Britain.
I'd also like to see which test you quoted that says people with Brit accents get higher status in the US, though I know American girls dig a guy with the accent. I'm also not sure that a university's English program in the US would want to hire a Brit teacher since many Koreans who study in the US want to learn the American variety.
I'm sure the original poster will land a job somewhere, but he may have to leave Seoul to do it (and that might actually be a good thing). I guess things are tight over there in that they are getting pickier about what teachers to hire. I remember one chain that adopted a "US" teacher only policy to get more students. |
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bjonothan
Joined: 29 Apr 2003
Location: All over the place
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| Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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Waggo is a complete dickhead. Genuine English??? I believe English was made in England. American English is superior??? Stop pulling your dick. And you are a teacher??  |
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razoo
Joined: 10 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 5:31 am Post subject: RP and Some Reminiscences |
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bjonothan wrote:
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| Waggo is a complete *beep*. Genuine English??? I believe English was made in England. American English is superior??? Stop pulling your *beep*. And you are a teacher? |
I don't think Waggo was saying that American English is superior. I think he was saying that R[eceived] P[ronunciation] is thought of as superior in some quarters. It's a pronunciation that is, or used to be, associated with the upper classes in Britain. I've also heard it called "BBC English" and "UC English." I'm certainly no expert on Britain, but I think that situation has changed somewhat. At least I know that on BBC World, I've heard accents from all over the English-speaking world. I'm going to make a wild guess that there's more diversity nowadays in the accents on the domestic BBC, but I'm ready to stand corrected on that.
I was first exposed to British accents in a big way in 1964. I was 11 years old, sitting in my living room in Louisiana, watching the old Ed Sullivan show, when these four guys came on that really created a stir. My dad got up and left in disgust (these guys were worse than that damn Elvis Presley guy, who my dad thought was a homosexual).
The next day at recess, it was all we talked about. And guys began to wear their hair like those guys, and some people even began to try to imitate their Liverpool-fused-with-rhythm-and-blues accents while singing their songs. When, within the year, we were occasionally experimenting with cigarettes. some people even held their cigarettes a certain way, all the way down to where the index and middle finger intersect, claiming that was the way Paul McCartney smoked (I never noticed; just took their word for it).
By about 1965-66, some of us were beginning to hang on their every word. . . . |
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waggo
Joined: 18 May 2003
Location: pusan baby!
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| Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 9:26 pm Post subject: |
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Bjohnathon...Im not sure you read my post properly...or the person who read it to you didnt anyway.
Yaya the tests were first carried out in department stores in New York by an American social studies group and then carried out in other stores across the country...the outcome was the level of service given to "customers" with an RP(Queens English) accent was far higher than that given to Americans with regional accents. |
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matthewwoodford
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Location, location, location.
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| Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 1:27 am Post subject: |
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| TECO wrote: |
One day, I asked a British teacher if he wanted to go and grab some lunch together.
He said something like: "No - I brought some gorgeous botties today."
I'm thinking, WTF are 'botties?' So I asked him what he was talking about.
Apprantly 'botties' are just sandwiches (and they were 'goregeous' to boot!) LOL
An Australian teacher told me he was "Crook" one day after I asked him how he was doing.
"Crook" means "sick", apparantly in Australia. |
It's 'butties' (and it's 'apparently'). How do you pronounce 'goregeous'? |
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bobbyhanlon
Joined: 09 Nov 2003
Location: 서울
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| Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2004 2:11 am Post subject: |
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to those who were understanding and helpful, thanks and best of luck to you.
... to those who say, 'it's supply and demand, deal with it'- yeah, cheers guys. i was just asking for a way around it, not an opportunity to be sneered at for being british. oh, screw it. i don't need to justify myself or my nationality here.
anyway i think i'm going to just move up here and teach privates for a few months while i work out what to do. if anyone knows of any good opportunities in the meantime, i'd love to hear from you.
cheers! |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 10:15 am Post subject: |
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| Why is the NAmerican accent preferred anyway? Are Koreans and perhaps others too dumb to notice half or more of the English speakers of the world do not have an NA accent? Or is it just a selling or image point to say we have American-type speakers at our school? |
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kiwiboy_nz_99
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Location: ...Enlightenment...
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| Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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| are any kiwis proud of being a kiwi? what is new zealand known for anyway? |
You are now officially pissing me off, what are you trying to prove with this crap?
New Zealand has the most meters of fibre optic cable laid per capita in the world, we're the most wired country. Being small allows us to actually be very fast in taking on new technologies, I believe the advertising lingo is "early adopters".
We also have the most eftpos machines in stores, so we're the closest to being a cashless society, which is where the world is heading.
We have the best agriculture in the world, our beef sells as premium even in countries with strong agriculture.
We're independant, we didn't go to Iraq, and we don't allow nuke ships in our ports, both of these things pissed the US off greatly, and they leaned on us but we the PM stayed true to the people.
We have a female PM and Chief of Justice, and were the first country to give women the vote.
Our colonial history is the least bloody in the Common wealth, we have a treaty with the original inhabitants that is precedent setting in the colonial world.
We have big ski mountains like in Aspen, and we have beaches like in Hawaii, the only difference being that you can get from one to the other in three hours, because everything is small.
We have a huge percentage of our country declared as national parks and wild life reserves. And we have areas of land in the south that are, because of lack of access, untouched by humans sinse prehistoric times.
A kiwi first split the atom, a crucial step in discovering nuclear power.
A kiwi first climed mount Everest.
We have the best rugby team in the world.
We have Crowded House, best pop band ever sinse the Beatles.
And we're the most progressive liberal country in the world.
All of this is what you could say if you felt like it, but your quote contains a misconception. We don't care what we're 'known for', that's not where we get our pride from. Even if New Zealand had absolutely zero achievements or notable features, and if no one else had even heard of us we'd still be proud, for the simple reason that New Zealand is home. |
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Neil
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Location: Tokyo
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| Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe it's the varity of English accents that is the problem.
I might be wrong but from my (albeit inexperienced) ears most Oz, Kiwi, and North American folks have the same accent as their fellow countrymen/women regardless of what region/city in their countries they are from (with the odd exception).
Yet in England for example a bloke from Liverpool sounds completly different to a bloke from Manchester despite the two cities being very near and there's loads more regional accents about. |
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blah
Joined: 08 May 2003
Location: Ulsan, Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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I have taught English in Three countries in Asia so far, and have come to the conclusion that Asians do not want to learn �proper� English. Nor do they really understand what a North American accent is.
What they really want is to speak English like their favorite movie stars out of Hollywood. When they say North American accent, they really mean West coast USA accent. This generally includes Western and central Canadian accents as well because they sound similar to the Asian ear. TVs and movie theaters are where Asians became familiar with the sound of English, so accents commonly heard through these media are easiest for them to understand.
Let�s face it; accents from many areas of New York, Southern USA, and Eastern Canada are as far off from �TV English� as any accent from England, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa.
If the British movie industry were as popular throughout the world as that of the US, guess what accent would be in greatest demand. |
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waggo
Joined: 18 May 2003
Location: pusan baby!
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| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:55 am Post subject: |
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| Hugh Grants? |
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waggo
Joined: 18 May 2003
Location: pusan baby!
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| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:04 am Post subject: |
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| Kiwi boy....I love the way you stuck up for your country there....dont you guys usually say you have the best rugby team in the world? Im surprised you missed that one out. |
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