Ville Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 (edited) - Edited September 11, 2021 by Ville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro_Link Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 I don't know if this is the feedback you're looking for, but I just wanted to say, personally I don't think you should drop your Finnish accent when you speak English. Don't worry that you don't sound English when you speak. The Finnish accent is cool, I've gotten more than used to it as a long time follower of F1. It's good to keep your influences and for people to hear where you come from. It also shows you've made a huge effort to learn the language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 I don't know if this is the feedback you're looking for, but I just wanted to say, personally I don't think you should drop your Finnish accent when you speak English. Don't worry that you don't sound English when you speak. The Finnish accent is cool, I've gotten more than used to it as a long time follower of F1. It's good to keep your influences and for people to hear where you come from. It also shows you've made a huge effort to learn the language. I agree completely with this. I fucking love accents! In fact, half of the reason I'm with Ine is that the accent does it for me. An accent is part of your identity. Its part of who you are. You are Finnish, so we know English is not your first language. If there's a Finnish twang or style to it, that's good. People like this sorta thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raining_again Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 I agree. You are very easy to understand, so why change what's natural for your voice? Uber mega props for being so bloody fluent in a second language! I've an awful accent and there will be no uploadage... :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konfucius Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 In Austria everyone pronounces English like Arnold Schwarzenegger.* Now please excuse me, I have to get to da choppaaaaaa in time. * the above statement might not be entirely true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ville Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share Posted October 8, 2010 (edited) - Edited September 12, 2021 by Ville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 I like your accent. It's pretty unique and I don't hear it very often so it's nice to hear something a little different. Your English was perfect for the parts of the video that I watched so kudos to you! I live in the West of Ireland so I pretty much have a very culchie Irish accent My initial reaction though was "WHAT?! A 10 minute video to ask how to pronounce English!?" :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnas Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 When I was a wee lad, my school ran an experiment in trying to teach english to kids. It was ultimately dropped, but the teacher we had was good enough to teach us basic words. And [number] O'clock. Join that with Cartoon Network (always aired in english without subtitles, here), the almost-always-in-english videogames, and my English was pretty good by the time I actually got to the obligatory English class in the 7th Grade. As for my accent/pronunciation, it's similar to British, as that's the version we learned in school, not to mention it sounds classier than its American counterpart. The good thing about the Portuguese language is that it doesn't leave a strong accent. Once we learn how another language is properly pronounced, we can do it more easily than, say, a Spanish, French or English speaker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ville Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share Posted October 8, 2010 (edited) - Edited September 12, 2021 by Ville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 I agree. You are very easy to understand, so why change what's natural for your voice? Uber mega props for being so bloody fluent in a second language! I've an awful accent and there will be no uploadage... :P But Raining, aren't you from the North? If so, that automatically makes your accent full of win! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ville Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share Posted October 8, 2010 (edited) - Edited September 12, 2021 by Ville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raining_again Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 hahah well a lot of my accent is from northern Ireland.. I have got a few tinges of other accents, the only people to notice that, however are the local ones here. I've got a scottish background and my mum's a brummie...my dad's irish and my sister was born in Germany... Talk about complicated :P I'm a culchie too, its just a back-arse-of-nowhere "country" accent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pestneb Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 (edited) intonation in English is hard to mimic, it tends to be what makes foreigners stand out, because they either leave it out or make it a bit random :P Status on RP 1)posh people use it, it doesn't receive a good press anymore, a kind of backlash against it's priviledged status in the past. 2)I do think it is the best accent to learn from due to it's clarity. Your accent is fine. Your speech, as in pronounciation of the words, and the gramatical forms are on the whole fine, I noticed a couple of mistakes, but your English proficiency is sufficient not only to use the language at a simple level, but to communicate reasonably complex issues. The one thing I would identify for improvement would be your pace and fluidity between words, the only way to fix that is to practice, maybe get an english speaker (or even better speakers) who are willing to have regular little chats with. Speaking with natives would influence word choice and accent, help with intonation etc. but tbh if I could speak finnish as well as you can speak english, I would be fairly pleased with myself. btw, i would gladly provide you with a sample of my accent but 1)my laptop is overheating so you hear the fan in the background which is annoying (to me atleast) 2)I have a cold, and my voice sounds... weird. Edited October 8, 2010 by Pestneb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paj! Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 It's been interesting hearing all the accents since coming to uni...half the students or more must be international. A friend of mine is from Norway, but has a proper like regional accent (to a region of England I don't know cause I only just got here). Another friend is from Dubai, but has an american accent, cause she went to "the american school" (which is clearly some mysterious organisation all over the world, since my mum went to "the american school" too ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The fish Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 I'm currently training to be a TESOL teacher, so Im probably your best bet. I'm nackered right now, but will get back you tomorrow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnas Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 Hmm, our English teaching started at the 3rd grade, at the age of 10...though I was already learning some colour names from Super Mario World Videogames have really helped my language learning as well...plus in Finland, we actually hear English since we subtitle foreign programs instead of dubbing them... Our 7th Grade is around 12-13 years of age. To be frank, I don't quite remember if English was also mandatory in 5th Grade (our education system has been going through several controversial changes over the past decade, so it's possible it wasn't mandatory for me, but it was to others) By the way, we also sub our shows (except the ones marketed towards children), but that doesn't mean we can clearly hear what the characters are saying (though it helps). But it's a good point, that one. The Spanish dub everything, no wonder they all find it difficult to learn English. Interesting...I thought Portuguese was quite similar to Spanish, but apparently not? I've studied the latter a bit, was quite an easy language to learn and pronounce... Spanish is the easiest language I know regarding pronunciation (English being the easiest overall). They barely have inconsistencies. Portuguese is very similar, grammatically speaking. But when it comes to pronunciation, we're much more versatile. For example, the word "lata". The Spanish would pronounce both "a"s the same way (Lah-tah), but we would pronounce Lah-tuh. Furthermore, the Spanish have their own way of pronouncing the "l", while the English have theirs (The English put the tongue closer to the lips, the Spanish "flick" it, so to speak, sometimes creating a clicking sound). The Portuguese use both forms, only differentiating them when noticing accents. Basically, where the Spanish would see only one way to pronounce a letter, the Portuguese can see several. (For the record, I'm not sure if I'm being clear, here. Apologies if not) The Brazilians aren't as versatile as us Europeans, but still more than Spanish-speakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcj metroid Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 hahah well a lot of my accent is from northern Ireland.. I have got a few tinges of other accents, the only people to notice that, however are the local ones here. I've got a scottish background and my mum's a brummie...my dad's irish and my sister was born in Germany... Talk about complicated :P I'm a culchie too, its just a back-arse-of-nowhere "country" accent! i've a real townie Limerick accent at times haha.fucking chav Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoogleViper Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 Pronunciating isn't a word (5:10) it's pronouncing. Or perhaps you may mean enunciating. Just a minor point there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ville Posted October 9, 2010 Author Share Posted October 9, 2010 (edited) - Edited September 12, 2021 by Ville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramar Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 Massive cool bonus points for not sounding American. Like most people have said your accent is your identity and your English is decent. If you can talk in a foreign tongue for almost 10 minutes about the nature of that language I don't think you've got anything to worry about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoogleViper Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 Heh, noticed this afterwards as well...though it seems that "pronunciate" actually is an alternative form for "pronounce", but just rarely used. I'll still go with the latter, no worries Yeah pronunciate is a word, but not pronunciating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heroicjanitor Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 You have a good accent, easy to understand. When I first saw the thread I was expecting a massive discussion on tom-ay-to tom-ah-to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergrunch Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 (edited) Being a linguist I have a lot to say on this topic. Detailed post coming soon. Edited October 9, 2010 by Supergrunch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The fish Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 (edited) Being a linguist I have a lot to say on this topic. Detailed post coming soon. TESOL teacher > linguist. :wink: What I've learnt is that the best method is as a teacher, to use your own, natural pronunciation as a model, and RP as a backup if a student really struggles. The goal for pronunciation is that they are understandable in conversation, not RP, or, indeed, an Anglo-sphere accent. Edited October 9, 2010 by The fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergrunch Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 TESOL teacher > linguist. :wink: What I've learnt is that the best method is as a teacher, to use your own, natural pronunciation as a model, and RP as a backup if a student really struggles. The goal for pronunciation is that they are understandable in conversation, not RP, or, indeed, an Anglo-sphere accent. Which is precisely what I was going to say. I was going to write more about what RP sounds like and its sociolinguistic status, and compare stress systems of English and Finnish anyway. Go forth and TESOLate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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