How to improve English?

[KepongPower]

Sometimes, ppl with only english speaking background are brought up thinking (maybe not instilled by parents but by whatever??) that the english language is superior--maybe that is why the whole looking-down thing happens. For the not-so-fluent-in-english-but-so-good-in-chinese-that-they-can-debate-in-chinese ppl, when they are "discriminated" they created a term BANANA !!! hee hee :P

i actually find that whole issue interesting :?: :!:

Back to the main topic...

How heavy are the Americans' accent?

well ... depends on where in the states you are in. In the south ... you can expect some cowboyish ( this is the best description that i can think of) accent
In Philly and Chicago, they have certain slangs that they use but no worries, by the time you settle down, you would have picked it up yourself!!
But other than that, if you cahn understand American movies without the *note* ENGLISH subtitles, you will be just fine !!

I am in NC right now... the ppl here have a combination of EVERYTHING!!! cool huh ??? 8O

[topdog]

Originally Posted by KepongPower

Sometimes, ppl with only english speaking background are brought up thinking (maybe not instilled by parents but by whatever??) that the english language is superior--maybe that is why the whole looking-down thing happens. For the not-so-fluent-in-english-but-so-good-in-chinese-that-they-can-debate-in-chinese ppl, when they are "discriminated" they created a term BANANA !!! hee hee :P

i am sick and tired of this stereotyping of bananas. what, you think only bananas are capable of acting superior? as if chinese speakers are the epitome of humility and are not capable of hau lian-ness. my ass! if you have a chinese face but don't speak a word of chinese, try buying something from a typical chinese taukeh and see if you are made to feel inferior!

that is why i wrote:

i think those who ridicule others for not speaking a certain language well are plain jerks.

language has no bearing on one's ability or intelligence. some people are good at languages but nothing else. some are great mathematicians but can;t spell to save their souls. some are great orators/debaters but can't count for shit.

judge someone by his/her ability, not by how well he/she speaks a language. english is overrated. if you want to employ an engineer and have 2 candidates, one with broken english but better engineering credentials, and another with perfect english but can't do the job, will you take the perfect english speaker just because he sounds good？same goes for other languages.

of course, if the job demands that you have perfect english, like an english teacher, then it's a no-brainer that you should have perfect english. otherwise, we are overrating english (and all other languages for that matter) and missing the woods for the trees.

[KobeBryant]

what is Queen's English ?

[ElansarGelmir]

i think Queen's English is the sort of English English with high quality accent...? I think it would be some sort of very formal spoken English with those 'high standard' intonation. Used by the officials of the British colonials and royal families... Hmm... yes or no?

[topdog]

haven't you guys heard of wikipedia. or google?

Queen's English

you're welcome.

[KobeBryant]

Originally Posted by topdog

haven't you guys heard of wikipedia. or google?

Queen's English

you're welcome.

sorry , i haven't heard of wikipedia....
is it very famous ?

[weich]

Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia...getting pretty popular now =)

[trishotiwuth]

Originally Posted by topdog

if you're in petaling st, you shouldn't speak english at all!:D

Hm...why not leh? You know, I always find it easier to bargain in Petaling St when I use English rather than BM. Of course if you can speak Chinese that's better!

[budakkerek]

the queen's english is what known as Received Pronunciation (Standard English accent of the BBC and of Southern Britain). it's considered the best english laa...so if you speak like real posh with no grammatical mistakes, then heh..you're already using RP.

[budakkerek]

hmm...reading bout Bananas, right..same thing happens to us Malays (at least to me, dunno bout others) There are some Malays who seem not to like English...

Examples:
Once, i spoke english w a friend and some guy, like came up to me and said, "awak org ape?" so i was like, "melayu laa" with a real puzzled face. "hah, habis tu, ckp laa Melayu,"he said, and then he just blah... So i was like WT..?

2. a gurl told me," ape yg ko bangga sgt dgn BI tu? tu bhs penjajah laa. buat apa nak ckp ckp BI nih?" and some other crap laa..

so, i guess the prob lies not in the race, but in the mentality of ppl, who are afraid@refuse to allow other languages to be used. Many reasons why they think that way, afraid that culture might be lost, language will be forgotten, ppl will start behaving like the Americans or Brits...i dunno..my 2 cents. You guys?