Shashank Rao
Accents: Can you choose?

I was wondering what other people think about this topic. Given that there are always different regional accents for different languages, I have to wonder, "Are you allowed to choose?" I get some funny looks when I use European pronunciation for Spanish, because what we learn in school is the Latin American version. I typically only use it outside of class, really because I'm still experimenting. What am I supposed to do? You can't just say, "Use the Latin American accent," because that's really broad and blurs the distinctions in the way people speak in Latin America.

 

But what do other people think? The point of learning a language to fluency is to be able to imitate and emulate native speakers. But what if there are several different kinds? Can you pick and choose?

Sep 23, 2014 5:17 AM
Comments · 15
2

lynne you wrote: ..."ppl have different accents too,u can't choose accents,cos its not their offical language,when communicate with others, we mainly wanna make sure that our statement is clear and understandable,and native speakers they can understand all accents"

That isn't true if you have a private teacher of exemple German you can speak like one, the problem is the sounds of your native language, how much sounds your native language have more easy is for you learn another languages. A native of Spanish or Italian or even Portuguese brazilian have more problems in accent when learn another languages than a Portuguese or French and I watched a video of a Brazilian girl speaking 5 languages with a native accent, tha mean HARD WORK...

 

And about accents in a lot of countries the TV's put subtitules when the persons from some zones speak, so maybe in China you are avaible to understand all accents, but if you go you Quebec, countries in Africa where they speak Portuguese, Portugal or even Brazil you will have problems even if you are native of Portuguese of French, that change person to person.

September 24, 2014
2

The actors do it all the time, you just need practice and speak with the natives of the accent you want :) I wish you lucky, I'm sure you will do it.

September 24, 2014
2

Yes I can choose, but now in every languages. I'm sure if you work a lot you will have the accet you wish :) Most important is you speak clear and fluently but if you allready have a good level and people understand what you speak you can start try work in the accent.

September 24, 2014
2

Whether you can chose an accent really depends on your skill level. Robin Williams could do it brilliantly. Arnold Schwarzenegger has problems to create a normal English accent.

September 23, 2014
1

In my opinion, I think that spanish from Spain is antique (don't misunderstand me, I say this with a lot of respect). They use "vosotros" that means "you" in plural, in LA we say "ustedes", but in spain they also say "ustedes" to say "you" in a very respect way, so, what I think is that we stop saying that word and its conjugation to simplify spanish (It wasn't our native language at the begining), this is a link that explains this (in spanish)

 

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustedeo

 

But in terms of accent (though I think spanish accent from spain or from any LA country should be mixed with its grammar) I think this doesn't really affect, in LA an "s" sounds the same as "z", in spain those vowels sounds different (again, I think we delete that somewhere in the timeline to simplify the language). I like how we speak, and they like how they speak, I think it is just what you like the most.

September 24, 2014
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