Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Where is an actual accent when you have to speak English?







Click at image or link above for viewing this video




Yesterday at work, my friend forwarded me a funny video about speaking English among Thai. The video showed some truth that some Thai people try to speak English with a very good accent and Thai mixing together when they talk to their Thai friends, but when it comes to a real situation that they have to speak English properly with native speakers, they just hardly speak it or get stuck with the actual accent.

After I watched this video, I thought it was so true as I have seen that type of person myself. One of them was my English teacher when I was in a junior school. It was so funny that this video reminded me of her. I remembered that she liked to emphasize the accent of every word in English, but sometimes I thought it was just too much – maybe she tried to make it fun for class– but when there was a time she had to speak English with a foreigner, she turned to be a different person. She spoke with him in a less emphasized accent that it sounded more like Thai accent. Her reaction with a foreigner was also different than when she was in class—in class she was a bit exaggerated but with him she was like awkward. All that I said, I meant no offense to her but I found it was strange that some Thai people liked to speak a real good English accent for fun with their friends, but when they have to do it when native speakers, they just can’t or get shy.















My friends at work have a same type of this syndrome too—haha.. I call it as a syndrome now—I noticed that she liked to speak a real good accent of English to her friends, but when she was assigned to do MC in English, she just got freaked out and asked me to do it instead. What is wrong with these people… I don’t get it.

Anyway, making your accent like native speakers’ ones is good, but please keep it good when you speak with them too. It’s good for you!

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