<p>yeah. i've been in US for few years, and i guess my english has been improved (i am taking Senior English Honors)
but i still have very strong accents (i'm a korean)</p>
<p>how can i do better ??
what kinda strategies r u guys using ??</p>
<p>When I first came over from China, I had an accent. I improved my English by watching lots of American sitcoms, talking with older American folks such as the neighbors, etc. Now people actually think I'm an ABC. Practice makes perfect!</p>
<p>ppl think I am a CBC(Canadian Born Chinese, not Canadian Broadcast!)
anyway, just watch like 5hrs of tv a day, practice singing in english (i would highly recommend joining the songs at the churches)
they helped me a lot</p>
<p>HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA! singing LOL!
yeah i think that'd work too
lol newby
wHEN i read that, I just thought about that chinese guy on american idol who sings ricky martin!</p>
<p>(i thought that American Idot guy DID sing pretty well. :-)</p>
<p>I, in fact, do talk to lots of american people, watching lots of movies and TVs(not 5 hours tough;;).
not because i want to improve my pronunciation, but cuz it's fun i guess.
yet that have not really helped me. my accents are horrible T_T</p>
<p>do i need do something while i am watching tv and talking to folks? in fact, i have never really tried something to be improved
i mean.. for an example, i am just watching Friends and I love 80s cuz i like it.. but i am just sitting down with some pops and .. watching .. -_- am i missing something here??</p>
<p>fuzzy and newbyreborn, how long have you guys been in US ??
and do you guys did specific stuffs for pronunciation and those kinda stuffs??? entailing would be nice</p>
<p>when my sister and i watch tv together, we copy peoples accents (its really fun) like in commercial breaks..sometimes. Like, aftr watching 1 hour of corination street (its so boring), my sister fully excels in irish/scottish/weird english accent. And also, after watching Finding Neverland, she talked the whole night in the accent Johnny depp had. if I try to copy an accent like that frm watching tv, it's hard (for me) . I havent fully mastered the amerian accent even though 90% of tv shows here are american.</p>
<p>is your accent so horrible that people cant understand you? There's this indian guy in my english class and he has such a strong indian accent that I only catch like 2 words from his sentences. If your accent is like that, lol try the singing thing.lol singing</p>
<p>oh people understand me without much difficulty, .. i think :P</p>
<p>any "wow-that's-so-easy" tactic??</p>
<p>yeah! Is there any easy way u can make urself sound a little less pretentious? Cause when I speak, it seems so made up! thts what the listeners say!</p>
<p>oh man thats tragic :D</p>
<p>I have a different problem. I sound like a thesaurus...I feel empty unless I use atleast 3 synonyms for a word when I'm speaking...:p</p>
<p>
[quote]
There's this indian guy in my english class and he has such a strong indian accent that I only catch like 2 words from his sentences.
[/quote]
I am outraged :mad:</p>
<p>Personally, though, I find korean/japanes english accents harder to understand than Indian (what's so wrong with it anyway?).</p>
<p>merc I hate to point out the obvious but you can probably understand Indian accents better since youre an Indian yourself</p>
<p>i think british accent is the best. british people always speak VERY clearly and more slowly than americans. british english rules! (and yet, i'm applying to US colleges, heh.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am outraged
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What are you "outraged" about? Theres a guy from India in my bio class. Out of everything he's said since the beginning of the year, the only thing I could understand is "Hi My name is". That's just the truth.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What are you "outraged" about?
[/quote]
That's tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, dude :p</p>
<p>and indonesian accent is the hardest to understand...</p>
<p>Actually, rather than talking about hard to understand accents for non-native english speakers, we should answer the OP.</p>
<p>It's sad indeed how the rest of the world needs to learn English to do anything of a semi-global nature. Has anyone heard an american speaking Chinese or Hindi or Indonesian? How good an accent will that be to a native speaker of that languge?</p>
<p>For more formal help there are private accent coaches available, although those tend to be aimed more at actors and business professionals rather than students. A little more affordable are the many English as a second language classes taught at local colleges, often in the night school program. Those usually feature pronunciation and accent coaching.</p>
<p>duh: do you have call center training institutes in the US? Over here we do and they are actually quite good at it. You can't tell if it's a bonafide american speaking or an Indian.</p>
<p>Why do so many people find foreign accents hard to understand? I don't see why Korean/Indian accents are notoriously difficult, they sound fine to me!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why do so many people find foreign accents hard to understand? I don't see why Korean/Indian accents are notoriously difficult, they sound fine to me!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>They dont. They just like to make big issues out of nothing :p</p>