Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Juregen]

[MattAwesome]

[mistermasan]

let us not forget that many "americanisms" are fossilized versions of the way british english used to be. e.g.- the extra vowel in many british spellings. the lancet doesn't use "feotus" but rather "fetus". why? because "fetus" is the correct spelling. circa mid-1850's the brits got on a "french kick" and started inserting extra vowels to be more like their cross channel brethren.

so...americans have been keeping english pure since 1776.

[cj1976]

My accent has never been criticized or questioned in all the time I've been here. Some words like 'doctor', 'water', 'grass' cause a tiny but of confusion initially, but the students are able to adjust quite quickly.
If I was ever asked to change my accent to sound more American, I'd ask them to change their behaviour to be more like the Japanese.

[Yaya]

[Yaya]

[chellovek]

[dumpring]

I have a pretty mild British accent (Sussex) and the kids seem fine with it. The only problem is actually me getting confused with their spelling (things like tyre/tire and cheque/check) I kept correcting them till I realise they'd just learnt the American spelling of words.

[morrisonhotel]

[Depths of My Soul]

[air76]

The funny thing about some British people getting so uptight about calling their pronunciation "the right" one, or whatever, is that they only seem to do it to Americans. I've never heard anyone complain about incorrect pronunciation in Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa...while their accents share some of these "correct" British pronunciations, there are plenty of words that they pronounce just as differently as Americans do, albeit different words in different fashions.

If we got into a time machine and went back 150 years neither of our accents would sound anything like the accents of the 1850's, in either country.

To their credit, the Spanish are MUCH MUCH more anal about this issue than the English. I say "if you don't want your language changed then don't colonize."....sorry, colonise.

[Scotticus]

[KubelHomer]

[Lunar Groove Gardener]

Soooo many wonderful English language accents, including various second language speakers. It makes me wonder how my Spanish, German or Korean
accents sound to natives; I'll never know. All of the materials that I have used for the past several years have had accents from all origins including African, Caribbean, New York , Australian etc. That is in video and on audio listening exercises. Nothing mono-cultural about it, but some haggies will advertise for
N.Americans....soooooo don't work for them. Some also ask for breasteses and check ethnicity. I've met every color, accent and type teaching in the Hermit Kingdom.

If you speak clearly, people ought to be able to understand what you are saying. If they cannot, you'll have to slow it down, clean it up and enunciate
EFL teacher style.

Rock on.

[davochest]

My first director here said i had to teach with an American accent and I was so offended that I found myself holding myself back from doing something to him that would not only get me fired but jailed. That was seven years ago and have never worked in a hagwon since.