Sunday, June 6, 2010

The Charm of Non-Perfect English Pronunciation

Many learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) worry about their pronunciation. Surely developing one's pronunciation skill to the point where they are readily understandable is very important. However , many students need not worry about completely completely eliminating their accent.In western countries,especially in multicultural cities like Toronto, accents are largely seen as charming.If you don't believe this, just look at the following list of super successful Hollywood stars with foreign accents.
However Asian people are very capable of learning the intricacies and grammar of a language. However,past the critical stages of lingual learning (1-7 year old, peoples have to cope with not being able to pronounce words in other  languages, especially English,correctly. This is true of nearly all Asians that arrive in the United States after the age of 15,when the human brain begins to lose its plasticity. 
English pronunciation
“What!?” Is this a boring bio lesson on Stuff Asian People Like?!
(Heck no.) Asians have a way with languages. When words come out of asian mouths, they are more refined and articulate. However, this is only true to the eye of the asian. Take Fried Rice for example. Asians are known to say, “Flied Lice.” This holds true only in some asian languages where the L and R are non-present consonant sounds (when they are in the beginning of words). These languages, such as Japanese, usually carry the L or R sound in the middle. In the same category are words like “flo (for)” and “larely (rarely).”
Other asians learn simply by listening. These asians will wind up cursing by saying things like “mother-father” and “thuck you” or “shamit!” 1st Generation Asian parents are the best at mispronunciation because they have probably just heard the new word and want to show their mad skills to their children. Asian children know when their parents have just talked to their salon friends when they are asked about if they want to apply to “Habard (Harvard), Yeild (Yale), Pu-rini-ston (Princeton), or Stamfurt (Stanford).”

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