Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[mohd_baharim]

hai everyone..
i just want to know weather is it important for us immitate how native speaker speak english.
few of my friends try so hard to be just like a native speaker but till now he still sound weird and some time i cant even understand what he said.
for me as long as we use correct grammar and be aware of our language it would be ok.
what you guys think about this?

[RedRose]

It is up to what purpose you learn English for. if you learn english for original communication with foreigners, then as long as foreigners can get what you mean when you speak english, that's enough! however, if you wanna become an English TV announcer, you have to imitate native speakers' pronuncation; u have to make your pronuncation exactly like a native's.

[Snake777]

[mohd_baharim]

do we need to forget our mother tongue when talking in english? i cant deny that i stil sound like malaysian when i talk in english. that is what we call manglish.
before this i've read an article given by my lecturer about another lecturer from europe. he(the foreign lecturer) said that he had tried very hard to make sure his malaysian students speak in proper english(sound like a true english man). but after they were out of his class, most of their students use manglish(jeopardise term for him). i dont think he should say that. every country has their own accent, right? even different person has different accent.

[ErwinR]

Yes, where do native English speakers live? I try to obtain a British accent, because I think that is the easiest to understand for foreign people. But an American or an Australian or even an Irish or a Scottish sound really different.