to find it hilarious that my daughter is ranked lowest in class for her accent by her language tutor?

[WestieMamma]

She is outraged. I can't stop laughing. She's just started training to be an English teacher here in Sweden. Her tutor says she has the worst, least authentic accent in the class, despite being one of the only native English speakers .

The top ranked is the other native speaker. He's a geordie. Apparently the fact that none of the Swedes can understand a word he says doesn't matter, it's the fact that he's consistent .

[SummerRain]

I grew up mostly in cork and after 10 years still struggled to understand the accent at times Like another poster said, it's not so much the pronounciation as the sheer speed they talk at sometimes.

The west of Ireland accent is tough to grasp at times too. It's a very contagious accent though. My father finds it hilarious when I lapse into mayo speak with all the random sh sounds.

[Dontwanttobeyourmonkeywrench]

My Japanese dad speaks English with a Japanese accent when in Japan and a Kenyan accent/cadence when speaking to my Kenyan aunt (who speaks fluent Swedish with a Kikuyu cadence). My experience of Japanese schools is that they have a heavy leaning towards American English (in terms of pronounciation/ grammar/spelling) but conversation classes are lead by different nationalities and accents.

[ToysRLuv]

I tend to unconsciously tailor my accent according to which nationality I speak to, and start to mimic the speaker (even down to dropping words and speaking in grammatically incomplete sentences). I've found it a bit weird and embarrassing, but then learned that it was normal and a way of being courteous and wanting to "meet the other person half-way" when speaking. Nobody has so far thought that I'm taking the piss, thank god!

[ToysRLuv]

But that particular aspect in my speaking would make me potentially a pretty shit teacher!

[SomeTeaPlease]

Students have multiple foreign language teachers, right? I've had 4 Spanish teachers and professors. None were from the same region! I managed fine despite "inconsistent" accents.

3 were native speakers, and one in particular had a very strong accent when speaking English. He was perfectly fluent and understandable (most of the time). We did have a few rather hilarious misunderstandings though!

I rather liked all of the exposure to different accents. I feel it helped me pick up on the subtleties of the language.

[ToysRLuv]

Depends what level and age "students" are. I only had two different English teachers at school and they both had the same roughly American accent. Uni will of course be different, but I would have thought that the basic accent will have been acquired in the language before going to uni?

[ToysRLuv]

So, the inconsistency doesn't matter that much then (not that I think it does anyway, unless somehow very pronounced).

[ToysRLuv]

Ah, I don't know. I feel for the OP's daughter, though. What a weird situation.

[worldcitizen]

burberry your average student cannot even hear the difference an American/English/Irish/etc accent, let alone reproduce it

^^^^ Sorry, but this is totally rubbish!!!!

[Thumbwitch]

ToysRLuv - I have the same problem! When I was in Germany on a school exchange, I started to speak English with a German accent - all the other English girls took the piss mightily, but the Germans understood me better because the rhythm and cadence of how I was speaking matched theirs better.

I have to try really hard in Australia not to lapse into Australian - and do fail, quite frequently! I still sound mostly English, I think, but catch myself pronouncing some words in a more Aussie fashion now.

It used to drive my Mum mad when we went up from London to visit my grandparents in Yorkshire and I'd end up with a Yorkshire accent (except for the short 'a', never did that) - I don't know why she was so offended, but she was!

A friend once told me it's due to having a musical ear - I don't know whether or not that's true (but I do have a musical ear as well).

[Bertrude]

I've lost count of the number of times people here (Dubai) have said to me on the phone, 'Ma'am, you speak Hindi/Tagalog/Arabic (delete as appropriate)? I no understand your bad English'.

I'm Manc.

I have, however, been asked to translate for a Yorkshireman in a meeting as he was presenting and nobody could understand him. My colleagues have now got used to my accent, but can't understand Leeds one bit. We also had a Scouser in once - that was fun.

[EmmaBemma]

ToysRLuv and Thumbwitch I do this too. I hate it! It sounds horribly ingratiating, but it's completely involuntary and I can't seem to stop myself doing it.

[EmmaBemma]

It's almost as if I sometimes forget what my "real" accent is.

[DropYourSword]

My husband is Australian. So used to his accent now it just doesn't even register .. to the point when we're in England and people comment about him being Australian I have found myself thinking "... but how do they know"!

[OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly]

If people cant understahd a yorkshire or manchester accent, they cant speak english very well snd have had poor teaching that has nothing to do with accent.

[LittleBearPad]

Your poor daughter. The teacher sounds a bit crap. I would find the outrage pretty hilarious too.

Quint if you're still reading. If people are correcting your pronunciation like you say then they are just being bloody rude. Who cares if you say 'barth' or 'baath'. Both are equally valid. I wouldn't consciuosly change my pronunciation from nondescript SE England to Yokshire if I moved to Leeds. If I tried to I would sound ridiculous.

[worldcitizen]

^^^^ agree

[worldcitizen]

Was agreeing with onthebottom

[ToysRLuv]

Oh -I have a musical ear, Thumb! And can learn languages and adapt to them relatively quickly, having been basically trilingual from birth..

I love it that I'm not the only one here with this, Emma and Thumb! I always though I was a real weirdo for that. Yay, shall we travel somewhere abroad and see who's the worst for it?

[NomDeClavier]

I don't think it is 100% poor teaching. It takes time to acclimatise to an unfamiliar accent. It's easier for a native speaker because they can work out a lot more from the context and do that faster, but some people really do struggle to understand other accents (even native speakers). If you're on the phone to someone for 3 minutes you don't have time to familiarise yourself with it and with the best will in the world you can't teach students every accent they're going to come across.

Add to that the grammatical and vocab variations in dialects (bread roll/bap/cob/

[NomDeClavier]

Bother pressed post!

Anyway many names for a small round bread thing and it gets confusing for learners especially!

[ToysRLuv]

I agree with you Nom. Although teaching should still include wide range of accents (through listening to tapes, guest speakers or whatever), so that at least you don't literally shit yourself when a Glaswegian talks to you for the first time.

[OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly]

of course it can be difficult to acclimatise to different accents, but its the using that to justify an opinion that english teachers must have RP or mild home counties accents that I am objecting to.

[Beastofburden]

Toysrluv- me too, and it has been quite embarrassing sometimes. I honestly dont mean to do it, but I copy both accents and vocab within minutes. I genuinely dont know how people manage to keep their birth accents going if they live elswehere- I would forget what I used to sound like!

Am also a musician and have a degree in French and German so we have a theme going here.... but my mum used to go all Devonian on the phone to her mum, and she is a crap linguist and tone deaf

[lljkk]

lol, I'm a native English speaker with like a million words published in English so my English skills should be fairly reasonable. But lots of times I don't understand spoken English from certain accents. I sometimes think I have a mild dose of that APD thing (Audio Processing Disorder).

Some Spanish-language accents I'm fine at & others throw me completely, too. It's all down to lack of practice, I suppose. hence why I think diversity is a Good thing.

I'm about to go to a pan-European conference in English and I will literally be the ONLY native English speaker there. That should be interesting! I make a huge effort in emails to not use idioms and sometimes actively pigeon up my words.