MERGED: Modern Education, Literacy and English Proficiency

[crinkle]

unfortunately, the accent would matter sometimes.

take my ( and all the call center peeps out there) situation for example. my job's like a kiss a*s thing and it seems our American callers would respect you better if you didn't sound "different" to them that's why i personally worked on my accent, got it better and i'm glad i did.

[bonniebonny]

read, read, read, and read english books.

buy tutorial tapes so you'll know the correct pronunciation.

Read magazines and books out loud!!

[maling]

all this stuff about the ambiguity of the english language. pffft. i say we go telepathic! hehehe!

[Brian1d]

i don't see any point in arguing about accents. what's important is that people understand each other in communicating.

Accent affects the quality of communication. Spelling words the same is irrelevant when speaking. You need to pronounce it in a way that I can recognize (and vice versa). I may recognize several different accents, but if you come up with a pronounciation that I don't recognize, then we have a communication problem. Most people in the world don't have exposure to a variety of accents. Sometimes American's have a hard time understanding British or Australian people. Some Irish and Scottish accents are so different they are practically another langauge.

[cyclops]

80% of telemarketeers and call centers " Action centres"are from offshore US. Whenever they pick-up the phone... they are always expecting a call from India or Philippines. It's no big secret. They know who they dealing with... so, what matters now is not about having a good accent or not but if you are not "nuisance callers"or just being helpful.

[pnk_shadows]

if people think they could change their accent completely if they live in the states or speak English in their line of work, then i'd have to say, "snap out of it!" The formative years (meaning you are still a li'l, li'l child at this time) are the most crucial part in a person's life when he is taught how to speak a certain language and grow to sound like a native of that language. Trying to change our accents at the age of 20 and above will be a difficult challenge, if not futile. This is not bullshit. This has been studied. Try reading Child Psychology or Linguistics articles (semantics and stuff-you'll learn a lot). Our accents as Filipinos will always be there, however different we sound when we get to speak English fluently. But i do not think our accent is that bad. Having worked in call centers, i have talked to Americans who cannot be understood by fellow Americans coz of their accents. Our American trainers understood us a lot better than many of their fella Americans in some states.

I believe we need to learn to speak English not to erase or hide our identities as Filipinos but in order to communicate with the world so much easier. It seems that it's the global language nowadays, and considering that the world is getting smaller each passing day, we need to learn one language that will unite us all and make us understand each other. That, of course, would be English in my opinion. All we have to do is to learn how to pronounce words clearly, take note of sentence construction and be keen with grammar. Read a lot, listen more often and speak a lot more English than you used to.

[Brian1d]

I agree pnk_shadows, it is very hard to change your accent. It depends a lot on the person. Some people can with ease, some people can't. I know a Chinese girl living in the USA from 12 to 25 years of age who still had a bad accent and got her plural vs. singular mixed up sometimes. Yet I met a Japanese girl who sounded nearly American after just 1 year in the USA.

I agree that you don't need to sound like an American from the South to work with an American from the South, but you also don't want to sound like most Taxi driver's either.

The best goal I think is to work towards what I call "International English". When you work in an environment with many nationalities all speaking English, their accents tend to merge somewhat and become a sort of nuetral English. American's sound less American, British sound less British, etc.

I suggest trying to get movies and music and books from several different countires. This also teaches you how to listen more carefully.

[Spec-V]

Regardless of your accent; people here wont ridicule you; But I just have a kick on myself from one of my office mates. He is from Pakistan & been living here for 8 years & hes been here since he was 16 years old. This guy just try so hard for being black, act black & talk black. Can you imagine a Pakistani Thick Accent saying...Wazz up Brudah...how you doin?

[Brian1d]

WAY OFF TOPIC

In Japan there are some black guys from Africa who *try* to dress and act like black americans and even lie and say they are from America. They work in hip-hop stores selling American hip-hop clothes. To any American it is obvious they are not American. Even if their skin wasn't darker than most African-Americans, they look *too* hop-hop. It is too exagerated, nearly a parody.

What is even more rediculous are the Japanese girls who put corn rows in their hair and scarves on their heads. I saw one wearing a big goose-feather jacket with the words "black forever" on it. I wanted to slap her and say "look you rich japanese idiot, drink som miso soup, eat a rice ball, and WAKE UP". If you ever look at some of the hip-hop catalogs you'll laugh. No one in America would dare wear half the clothes in them.

[vern]

look you rich japanese idiot, drink som miso soup, eat a rice ball, and WAKE UP

That pretty much sums up how you think the Japanese should act. I don't know whats worse, the Japanese you speak of, or your generalizations of the Japanese.