Is that true? I learned Chinese in Taiwan and there are many places in China I have a hell of a time understanding what is being said. Different vocab, different accent, and even different ways of asking common questions?
Mind you, you do pick up the differences fast, so overall it doesn’t make much difference. But still, I would have no problem specifying that I want a Taiwanese Chinese teacher over a Chinese one.[/quote]
I’m just saying that over his academic career, a Taiwanese student will go through many many English teachers, and by the time they grow up and decide to go overseas, one particular buxiban teacher is not going to make much difference. Just my opinion. I knew a lot of Indian students in college and they didn’t have too much trouble with their British English. They called zero, zed.[/quote]I bet they rode “lifts”, lived in “flats” and thought Thanksgiving was in “autumn”. Poor benighted souls.
Still, I think the differences between kind of middle-of-the-road Am Eng and Brit Eng aren’t as great as the differences Muzha Man found in Mandarin across different places.
Back when I was a wet behind the ears student, I attended a seminar by Jack Richards -and I tend to trust the word of someone who has made a lot of money teaching and writting books for teaching.
A couple of the points he made, which are relevant to the topic at hand, were (supported by studies and statistics and stuff):
Most English is used between non-Native speakers, i.e. as lingua franca
Accent is not that relevant, as long as it does not interfere with communication.
English is a tool for communication. This tool should be flexible and adaptable, suitable for each situation. Meaning it does not have to be perfect as long as you can carry your meaning across.
Therefore, I believe that, while “American” English is such a marketing ploy, achieving this accent as a target is irrelevant when most students cannot communicate effectively. This we who have taught average Taiwanese students know, that their test grades may be good, but they can’t “function” -go beyond rehearsed phrases, achieve goals using English, such as negotiating or arguing- in the target language. We as learners of Mandarin Chinese have experience this limitation in competence in the academic medium, and hence supplement it with the enviromental knowledge -i.e. actual practice and normal exchanges with Natives in a Native speaking medium. The Taiwanese do not have such an advantage, and are therefore "stucK’ in this phase.
Furthermore, statistics show an increasing number of Taiwanese students follow graduate education in England, Australia, and New Zealand. Hence, IELTS and other test preparation are also an expanding market. To ignore this makes no business sense.
Personally, I had my first British teachers in high school. Before I switched to translation, I chose to take English courses at the British Institute beacuse I always liked it best. It was my choice, and as a consumer, in that market in particular, I had a choice.
and the difference between a fairly standard american accent (let’s ick George Clooney here, not Elmer Fudd, Donald Duck, or Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain) and a fairly standard ‘home counties’ kind of British accent is less than the huge variation you may find across the three former fiefdoms of Great Britain, yes, and NornIron. that’s why alcohol was invented: to give everyone in the UK a level playing field when it came to accent and dialect.
and the difference between standard American accent and a failry standard ‘home counties’ kind of British accent is less than the huge variation you may find across the three former fiefdoms of Great Britain, yes, and NornIron. that’s why alcohol was invented: to give everyone in the UK a level playing field when it came to accent and dialect.[/quote]Well, yes.
We don’t really have much in the way of dialect differences any more though. Not nearly as much variation as there used to be, anyway.
[quote=“irishstu”]Didn’t most of the North American accent come over from Ireland?[/quote]I think before that, it was heavily influenced by folk from Deverrrn and Corrrnwall. I remember in my A-level English class, we listened to a recording of some US east coast island-dwellers who sounded just like people from the south-west of England.
Years ago someone posted on forumosa a link to a video of people saying their favorite curse word. The best one was the Irish girl saying wanker. I used to have a copy of it, but I lost it.
I do remember the parents at one school questioning the accent of the upper intermediate level Belgian, hired illegally. They told them he was South African.[/quote]
Mind your words young lady … he was probably Flemish, close enough to SA’can … not geographically tho …
[quote=“Muzha Man”]Maybe it has nothing to do with accent. Maybe they have just found that people from the UK love to complain bitterly, as evidenced by this thread.
Seriously, though, would you accept an employer asking you in for an interview but then not hiring you because he felt your accent was too strong? There’s little regional variation across NA, except the very south, which is not true of the UK. I have problems understanding you guys sometimes, and it’s common for American TV stations to actually subtitle UK speakers on the news.
Maybe these policies are a holdover from the early 90s when Taipei was a hotspot for the Liverpudlian diaspora.[/quote]
No, they are turned off the moment the applicant asks for a glass of ‘wada’ …
If you’re teaching students spoken language, they’re either going to be confused that their last teacher said “toMAYto” and you say “toMAHto”, or they’re going to start saying it like you. .[/quote]
But they don’t, not ever. They say it like Chinese speakers learning English say it. And alsoly, it’s not important in any test on the planet. And furthermoresome, if it seriously confusing them at the level they think they are, there are not ready for the test of their choice.
Of course, they can choice which teechur they like, but if they ask to see what passport you have in order to determine where you are from, then… I’m always going to take the piss a bit.
I don’t ackcherly gaf, obviously, because I always got paid more for having a different accent. Won’t somebody think of the poor starving Canadians?
[quote=“the chief”]…
Say I were running a bar, and someone came in wanting a, just say for example, Bacardi and Coke. Now, I might suggest that he try, say, Havana Club and Coke, because it’s much smoother and tastier, being distilled in Cuba the same way it’s been for 100 years, as opposed to the Bacardi, which is mass produced swill that’s full of all manner of additives and supplements.
But IF the dude (or tranny, as the case may be) wants Bacardi, well, shit, I ain’t going to refuse him and insist he have something else because it’s betteerrrrr.
[/quote]
I don’t really think this is an issue about the Taiwanese perceptions of accents and lifestyles. I image lady Loretta was more chagrined at the discriminatory nature of the advert. Loretta should have the right to apply for any teaching job where she has the pre-requisite credentials. Accent and/or nationality are bullshit credentials.
Also, the ‘business’ discussion. As a business man wouldn’t you prefer a shit-hot teacher to a dumb ass who you hire because he says ‘yall?’ (Not bad mouthing Americans, it just so happens the discussion is about Americans.) Isn’t it smarter to educate the kids in the language?
Bottom line: Loretta should not be discriminated against on the basis of accent or nationality, which makes the people who wrote the job advert a bunch of toss pots.
[quote=“Dr. McCoy”]I get mad when I see an ad that says, “must be under 40 years of age”.
Those pusillanimous popinjays![/quote]
In the u.k. I think age is now not an acceptable form of discrimination, but it used to be ok. I lost out in an interview based on age. I could sue those narrow minded bastards in this day and age, but not then. Who says it was better in the past?
