Teaching phonics “og” and there are a few differences between KK and DJ pronunciation. My spelling and pronunciation may have already sub consiciously sold out to the yanks but I am damn sure that I am not selling out to ugly phonics in class. “og” is ohg and not “ahg” no f@#cking way am I going to sell my foreign teaching staff out on that one. The publishers with their American ass kissing have even gone for “ahg”, bloody half wits. I will not ask my staff to fake American accents and even my local staff are not sure what is correct. Only one Taiwanese is arguing that there is only one way that is correct, or at least for Taiwan. That my friends is pure and utter BULL SHITE.
Why not just sit back and savour the delicious irony of being a native speaker in a country with one of the lowest standards of English in the world and being told your pronunciation is “wrang” ?
OK, my final decision is to have the teachers not fake anything and pronounce things the natural way for them. I won’t ask an American to fake a british accent nor will I ask a south African etc. to fake an American accent.
If it’s natural and it’s native it is right.
If I send a CD home with a book all the teachers will match the CD. Why? Because I have, by sending the book and cd home, endorsed it and therefore should save confusion and match it. So, I need to be very careful when selecting a CD and book.
Not being pig headed. It is not right for someone who has developed their English in Taiwan to tell me that the teachers at my school pronounce English wrong. Esp. when that person works for the school. She even called the publishers of the book, East and West, the retards, and got them to say that the American way is the only way for Taiwan.
I will not ask my teachers to fake it, only my wife can do that
I told my Taiwanese staff to teach whatever way feels natural for them. Some of them were educated with british English and others in Taiwan. Just don’t try to fake it
Bassman, why don’t you want your students to learn proper English? Yes, the Taiwanese have much room for improvement, but at least they are trying. That is more than can be said for the speakers of the lesser dialects such as strine, sheepshagger’s (of Scotland and N.Z.), scouse, cockney, “RP,” etc. You should be ashamed of yourself for teaching such uncivilized language. Why don’t you and your teachers take advantage of your opportunity in Taiwan to reform your English toward the proper, American standard? Yes, you are a second language learner and you’ll never have a chance of acquring 100% correct English, but why should that prevent you from making an effort? The result will surely be that you’ll at least speak a more civilized and cultured language than before. You’ll also be able to hold your head high, knowing that you are doing your best to teach your students correct, standard English.
I have a suggestion. There are many Americans in Taiwan. I think you would benefit from having private lessons with one or a few of them. You could also seek the services of a Canadian. They do a decent job of immitating us and they may charge a lower rate, being from a developing country.
If a Taiwanese ever asked me to fake a Yank accent, I would only do so on the proviso that they fake a Mainland Chinese accent, and then they would need to kiss my arse :moo:
Or maybe you should tell them to “kiss my ass.” Having their noses up the asses of Americans, they may not know what an arse is.
That’s interesting what you say about telling them to fake a mainland accent. Some non-waishengren Chinese teachers in Taiwan try to put on a bit of a mainland accent when teaching foreigners. I think their intention is to teach what is considered to be the most standard, and I think their intentions are good. However, a lot of these same teachers do a pretty poor job of immitating mainland Putonghua. When I taught English, I tried to point out non-American alternatives when we came across words like bathroom, cookie, apartment, etc. I never tried to fake a pommy accent, though.
I’ve also noticed plenty of educated Taiwanese who “clean up” their Chinese when they talk to even the most fluent Chinese speaking foreigners. Perhaps some Taiwanese wouldn’t be too irritated with your request. They might just think: “who cares, it’s not my damn language anyway; it’s just my second language.” I often think that both Taiwanese and mainlanders are a bit too obsessed with having one standard. They do it with Mandarin, and I think they want to do the same with English. I think the Taiwanese are worse about it, though. Most Taiwanese I’ve known or taught didn’t care a lick about non-American pronunciation or usage. The PRC, though, has had equally ambivalent relations with most English speaking countries, so they don’t have too much of a preference for one accent over another. A few of the mainlanders I know have a pretty good understanding that English is not like Mandarin in that most native speakers of English don’t think there is one absolute standard for accent or usage (save a few arrogant pricks who can be found in any English speaking country).
what’s your point, bassman? a phonics system has to be based on one particular dialect. it can’t be right or wrong as long as it is. some people may not like it–and i’d ask them to stop the bawling and put away the violins already–but presumably it is based on a pronunciation system in use by millions of people, however deluded they may be in speaking a language the way their ancestors have for hundreds of years and not the way it is is spoken by people somewhere else halfway around the world. if you prefer a certain dialect pronunciation standard buy phonics materials that are based on it. you can also inform people at your school that there are dialect differences and that that is a fact. if they don’t like it, fire their asses! jmo.
What’s the problem? You are the boss! Let your staff teach phonics in their own dialect and the local who is out of step can go and find another job. Problem solved. These fucking taiwanese are really starting to wind me up. Yet, i need their money. Sooner or later I will be making a choice to sell out 100% or go the *$%#@ home.
This comes on a day when the manager/owners daughter at my school (who could really do with some kind of phonetics course…she can’t speak a bloody word of ‘in ger li shu’ beyond ''ha-rou" and “hai”) commented on my accent saying that she wonders whether or not I’m really French. Furthermore, she asks that I am more considerate in my use of fang yan ko yin in front of the parents.
Ive been there over a year and she only found out that I’m English a few days ago. I feel i should change jobs before they do half of the work for me without notice.
Does anyone know of any decent jobs coming up? New year- new start
I’m sorry, but what kind of fcking sterotype is this? Being a second language learner automatically negates you from any chance of ever attaining 100% correct English??? Bull Sht!!! You can still attain 100% correct English (actually, very few people on the planet can and that includes native English speakers) even if English is your second language. It’s just that you have to start at a young age, otherwise, it’ll be difficult.
English was my second language and yet, I speak it better than my native language (Cantonese). It’s crap like this that I hear all the time, which really pisses me off. I mean, have you ever lived in any western countries where a lot of non-native English speakers are just as good at English as the so call native English speakers??? Or, are you just being sarcastic here? So ABCs, CBCs, and or BBCs can’t be as good at English as native speakers even though you can’t tell what race they are over the phone??? I’ll let you in on a secret. A lot of so call native English speakers teaching in Asia… aren’t! They could pretend to be because no one can tell. Hell, I’ve heard stories about French Canadians getting teaching gigs here in Taiwan and they certainly aren’t native English speakers.
