Mod note: split from this thread.
Can’t your students tell the difference between an American accent and a non-American accent? :loco:
You really haven’t been here long have you fortigun. If teacher has been here a while their accent becomes an international accent. I’ve been mistaken for several nationalities. A lot of Taiwanese are unaware of the differences.
A friend of mine from Yorkshire England was told to tell the kiddies that he was from america. One of the parents was a taiwaneese girl maried to an american. she came in one day and asked where in America he was from. My friend said " umm Texas". “Wow” the mom said, “thats where my husband is from”. On the next parents meeting the texas husband came in and asked were in Texas he was from. He replied in is not very hidden yorkshire accent " the north part".
The texan responded real loud so everyone could hear " thats were i’m from too. it’s nice to meet another Texan" The wife was last seen pulling her husband away saying “see I told you so”
I figure that either the texan was being really nice because my friend is a good teacher( after all, with a little work even a guy from England can teach English) or that he was lying to his wife and he was actually form Yorksire too.
that is howthe storywas told to me so if it’s just an urban legand it’s not my fault
I sometimes wonder if learning Chinese tends to mangle accents a little.
All the tongue twisting and tone work.
As well of course as the mixed nationalities confusing each others accents.
Ring up sattelite tv. He is an aussie and I would have bet money he was anything but an aussie. (this is a compliment satellite tv)
[quote=“Ironman”]
Ring up sattelite tv. He is an Aussie and I would have bet money he was anything but an Aussie. (this is a compliment satellite tv)[/quote]
Yeah he does seem almost normal. 
Yeah, the manager at McDonalds still swears that I am British. :loco: I’m Canadian by the way.
I haven’t noticed this, certainly. The teachers in my school who have been here for 5 or more years still have very strong South African, American, Canadian, and British accents.
I’ve had Taiwanese identify me as from New Zealand, England, or Australia, but never Canada or American. I’ve been turned down for a one on one class because my accent was clearly non-American. I think they might be a bit more cluey than we give them credit for.
I went home to New Zealand for six months. I was told by friends I had a North American accent but I was told by family I had a nice English accent. [quote]I haven’t noticed this. The teachers in my school for five years still have very strong South African, American, Canadian and British accents[/quote] Maybe they’ve been mainly associating with people of their nationality. I noticed when my aussie boss was here for a few weeks mine became thicker and I had to repeat a lot of stuff to friends of non-antipodean backgrounds.
I’ve spent most of my time here in small towns rather than Taipei so this may have a lot to do with my personal modification. Although hearing kuds sung back “lundun brudge is falling down” meant I had to change it for my own pleasure.
An Italian guy in Taiwan mistook my Australian accent for an English accent once
It was weird 
But I will admit… he probably wasn’t all that far off.
When I do speak english in Taiwan… I often find I have to put on a phony english or american accent so that Taiwanese people will be able to comprehend what I am saying
When I speak English few people have any idea where I’m from, but when I speak Mandarin they sure as hell know I learned it in Ta1chung 
Not from this post they 'aint. What a dumb schmuck – think yourself lucky you didn’t get the job. Imagine being stuck in a room for hours on end with such a dim bulb!
Yeah he does seem almost normal. 
[/quote] Normal,what’s that? lol
LOL… nice one. But then I’ve had the benefit of learning Malay where 40 hours a week was the normal class instruction time and the course went for a few months.
Then having lived in Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia for a few years with many a British and Irish subject for football and rugby playing I’m sure I picked up a few of the others accents on certain words.
The I learnt Chinese in Taichung at Feng Chia Uni where the class was 20 hours a week from 8am to midday, another several months later and my accent was completely twisted. Got to practice my Malay and Indonesian in class with the other foreign students. Pissed the Chinese teacher off no end. And I only did that as she called me a liar when asking what other languages the whites spoke.
Of course being in Taiwan for 16 years has also helped change the way I speak. When I’m with my German friends with the conversation flicking between German und English I’ve been picked up speaking English wit a German accent. Ja, ich bin eine auslander.
Not from this post they 'aint. What a dumb schmuck – think yourself lucky you didn’t get the job. Imagine being stuck in a room for hours on end with such a dim bulb![/quote]
Erm, my accent is non-American because I’m from Australia. What was so dim about the person who realised this? 
I haven’t noticed this, certainly. The teachers in my school who have been here for 5 or more years still have very strong South African, American, Canadian, and British accents.
I’ve had Taiwanese identify me as from New Zealand, England, or Australia, but never Canada or American. I’ve been turned down for a one on one class because my accent was clearly non-American. I think they might be a bit more cluey than we give them credit for.[/quote]
Yeah, generally speaking, I think people CAN at least tell the difference between the standard American accent and the English accent. The Canadians only give themselves away when they say ‘aboot’ and the letter ‘z’, otherwise few could tell them apart from the Americans. Well, except for the French Canadians of course. Australians and New Zealanders are a bit hard to tell I guess, more often than not they tend to be mistaken as Brits. Don’t know about Scottish or Irish though. I doubt they could detect Boston or New York accents. That’s fer sure.
“Aboot”…sounds the same as a Tidewater or Charlestonian accent.
linguist.de/reese/English/america.htm
southernevents.org/southernevent … nguage.htm
dixienet.org/spatriot/vol6no2/verbal7.htm
patriotist.com/nwarch/nw20041025.htm
pbs.org/speak/seatosea/ameri … /southern/
Not from this post they 'aint. What a dumb schmuck – think yourself lucky you didn’t get the job. Imagine being stuck in a room for hours on end with such a dim bulb![/quote]
Erm, my accent is non-American because I’m from Australia. What was so dim about the person who realised this? [/quote]
You have to be pretty much of an ignorant nimrod if you think an Aussie can’t teach English as well as a Yank, is what I meant.
pronunciation north and south of the border actually isn’t all that different along the west coast. for many, we have a “lost vowel” (pronounciation of cot/caught etc. the same).
most americans thought i meant vancouver, washington, when i said i was from vancouver. i imagine my pronunciation is now a mess compared to what it was.
lotsa diff’s the more you move east though …
That’s ignorance on their part. Vancouver, Canada is more known than Vancouver, Washington! Them Americans, eh? 
That’s ignorance on their part. Vancouver, Canada is more known than Vancouver, Washington! Them Americans, eh? [/quote]
Exactly! They have gotta be :loco: if the first things that pops in their head is Vancouver, Washington.
On a side note, funny how people from the west coast of Canada can sound more “American” than people from the south of the States. The twang and all.
That’s because you are more mainstream “American”, culturally speaking, than most Southerners (Florida excepted, because it’s not part of the South). They didn’t call it a separate country for nuthin’.
One interesting anamoly is that many people in Louisiana talk like they’re from Boston. The Cajun accent often sounds remarkably similar to Bosstown “takin’ my cah down to Boston Hahboh” accent.
BTW, not all Southerners speak with a twang. The accent varies region to region. Folks on the east coast lowlands - the Carolinas, Georgia - speak with a soft burr. It’s when you get up into hill country that you start hearing the twang prominently.