The very first thing I must tell all of you is not to forget about the sentences and words you prepared for to-day's class. I'm afraid I didn't count on spending so long talking about the novels - guess I just got carried away [to become so enthusiastic about something that one forgets something else; to let one's emotions overflow] and the discussion just naturally led into the part of the class I had prepared for today.
However, we will definitely listen to all the new vocab. words you found next week...which is why I only gave you reading homework and not anything else to prepare. I'm sorry if anyone was too disappointed.
To-day's class was about the different kinds of English that are spoken. Not only does each country have their own accent (and informal words) but people from different regions also have different accents just as they do in China. Because English is not your first - or even your second - language you probably can't recognise these different accents so well yet. Instead, you might get into conversation with a foreigner and be rather let down [disappointed; sad] because you find you have trouble understanding what they are saying.
Don't worry. Did you know that some people in the South of England have trouble understanding what people from the North of England are talking about? If you find you are having a bit of trouble it's quite o.k. to ask the person where they come from. Often you find they will laugh and tell you that you are not the only person to have trouble understanding. They will then usually speak more slowly and take the trouble to explain some of the words they use which are not Standard English. But if they don't know you are having a problem they will continue to speak as if you can understand and you will not really understand very much of the conversation.
For this reason students of English are usually taught Standard English. Yes. Even people whose first language is English. People are aware when some of the words they use are not part of Standard English (e.g. in England alone some people would call jeans... keks; trews; drawers; pants; while some Americans call them bluejeans; and still others just use the brand-name Levi's) but are so used to using their "hometown" word that unless you tell them you don't understand they will just think you do.
I know its very hard for Chinese people to ask a question about a particular word and that they always assume it is their own lack of knowledge that causes them not to understand. Just remember that foreigners don't think that at all. People who don't speak a Standard form of English to others are often asked to explain what they mean by other English speakers. Its quite common, so don't always think that it is your own poor understanding that is causing a breakdown in communication.
Those who mix with a lot of foreigners soon learn to recognise different accents. As we saw: French people - just like Asians - have trouble with the "th" sound which does not occur in French. They make a "z" sound instead so that "I saw the things that Theo bought" would sound like: "I saw ze szings zat SZeo bought".
A German accent is rather more guttural [there are lot of sounds made in the back of the throat]
and they tend to pronounce "v" as "f" and "w" as "v". So the sentence "I have won" would sound like "I haf von".
Also, the word order in a sentence is often different to the way a born English speaker says things, so that a German person might say "I have the present given" while Standard English would be "I have given the present".
We spoke more about Australian English because most of the books I handed out were Australian books. So that you are not always running to your Dictionaries - where a lot of these words would not appear anyway - I explained a few things: The word "mate" - which just means "My friend" - is used a lot by Australians to both strangers and friends. Australians like to make long words shorter and to end them with either "o" or a y sound which can be written "ie". I'll include some of these in the vocabulary section. They also use a lot of "swear" words or words that some people (mostly Americans) find rude or impolite.
Australians English uses a lot of metaphor and simile so often a person says "Don't look at me LIKE a stunned mullet". (remember the word "like" means it is a simile). A mullet is a very common kind of fish and the verb to stun means to knock unconscious -as fishermen often do to fish they have just caught to stop them flopping around. So the sentence means "Don't look at me as if you are not aware or able to understand what I am saying." Also an Australian person might describe a young girls as being "the town bike". This does not mean that the person IS (remember "is" signals a metaphor) a bicycle. It means rather that she is a a very immoral person and that everyone in town has used her.
Most of the difference in accents though, is found in the way people pronounce vowels. People from New Zealand, for example, pronounce "i" as "e". For this reason people are always asking them to say Fish and chips" (a very common take-away meal) because it sounds like "Fesh End cheps". (New Zealanders get very tired of people asking them to say this so I would not advise you to do it!).
Americans use short "A" vowels where others use long vowel sounds so that the word tomato in Standard English sounds like tom-art-toe and in American English like tom-ay-toe. American English still uses the word Fall which Standard English replaced with Autumn about two hundred years ago and the American way of continuing to use the word School for University which has been adopted by China confuses many foreigners!
However, none of these little differences are too important: the business of language is to enable us to communicate with each other which is why I don't spend a lot of time correcting grammar or pronunciation. One does not have to understand every single word a person says...its a great achievement to be able to converse in another language fluently even if some minor errors occur. Actually the grammar of the majority of native English speakers is often pretty bad.
However, we will spend some time on those sounds which can result in people misunderstanding. Saying s instead of th, for example, leads to misunderstandings as does transposing [changing around] the letters l and r. Also it is imperative [vital;absolutely necessary] that vowel sounds are clear. (Actually, as we saw, in Standard English long vowel sounds are actually diphthongs [made up of two different sounds] )
To-day everyone practised saying:
"Red lorry, yellow lorry"
four words that every one of my past pupils will recognise straight away!.
Vocabulary:
lorry.....truck
stud farm...a farm where animals are bred
bull...a male cow
bang...a loud noise; to have sex
mate...friend
simile...to say one thing is like another
metaphor...to say or talk about something as if it is something else
clown...a funny person in a circus or show - like the one outside MacDonalds
diphthong...sounds like a single sound but is actually two sounds e.g. long A is actually Aye Eee
novel...a fictional story
Australian words:
arvo...afternoon
servo...service station: where cars/trucks fill up with petrol
sarmy...sandwich
cossie/cozzie...a swimming costume
dunny...toilet
Chazza, Bazza, Gazza - the given names Cheryl, Barry & Gary respectively
G'day...greeting (Good day)
Aussie...an Australian person (pronounced Ozzy)
Oz...Australia
However, we will definitely listen to all the new vocab. words you found next week...which is why I only gave you reading homework and not anything else to prepare. I'm sorry if anyone was too disappointed.
To-day's class was about the different kinds of English that are spoken. Not only does each country have their own accent (and informal words) but people from different regions also have different accents just as they do in China. Because English is not your first - or even your second - language you probably can't recognise these different accents so well yet. Instead, you might get into conversation with a foreigner and be rather let down [disappointed; sad] because you find you have trouble understanding what they are saying.
Don't worry. Did you know that some people in the South of England have trouble understanding what people from the North of England are talking about? If you find you are having a bit of trouble it's quite o.k. to ask the person where they come from. Often you find they will laugh and tell you that you are not the only person to have trouble understanding. They will then usually speak more slowly and take the trouble to explain some of the words they use which are not Standard English. But if they don't know you are having a problem they will continue to speak as if you can understand and you will not really understand very much of the conversation.
For this reason students of English are usually taught Standard English. Yes. Even people whose first language is English. People are aware when some of the words they use are not part of Standard English (e.g. in England alone some people would call jeans... keks; trews; drawers; pants; while some Americans call them bluejeans; and still others just use the brand-name Levi's) but are so used to using their "hometown" word that unless you tell them you don't understand they will just think you do.
I know its very hard for Chinese people to ask a question about a particular word and that they always assume it is their own lack of knowledge that causes them not to understand. Just remember that foreigners don't think that at all. People who don't speak a Standard form of English to others are often asked to explain what they mean by other English speakers. Its quite common, so don't always think that it is your own poor understanding that is causing a breakdown in communication.
Those who mix with a lot of foreigners soon learn to recognise different accents. As we saw: French people - just like Asians - have trouble with the "th" sound which does not occur in French. They make a "z" sound instead so that "I saw the things that Theo bought" would sound like: "I saw ze szings zat SZeo bought".
A German accent is rather more guttural [there are lot of sounds made in the back of the throat]
and they tend to pronounce "v" as "f" and "w" as "v". So the sentence "I have won" would sound like "I haf von".
Also, the word order in a sentence is often different to the way a born English speaker says things, so that a German person might say "I have the present given" while Standard English would be "I have given the present".
We spoke more about Australian English because most of the books I handed out were Australian books. So that you are not always running to your Dictionaries - where a lot of these words would not appear anyway - I explained a few things: The word "mate" - which just means "My friend" - is used a lot by Australians to both strangers and friends. Australians like to make long words shorter and to end them with either "o" or a y sound which can be written "ie". I'll include some of these in the vocabulary section. They also use a lot of "swear" words or words that some people (mostly Americans) find rude or impolite.
Australians English uses a lot of metaphor and simile so often a person says "Don't look at me LIKE a stunned mullet". (remember the word "like" means it is a simile). A mullet is a very common kind of fish and the verb to stun means to knock unconscious -as fishermen often do to fish they have just caught to stop them flopping around. So the sentence means "Don't look at me as if you are not aware or able to understand what I am saying." Also an Australian person might describe a young girls as being "the town bike". This does not mean that the person IS (remember "is" signals a metaphor) a bicycle. It means rather that she is a a very immoral person and that everyone in town has used her.
Most of the difference in accents though, is found in the way people pronounce vowels. People from New Zealand, for example, pronounce "i" as "e". For this reason people are always asking them to say Fish and chips" (a very common take-away meal) because it sounds like "Fesh End cheps". (New Zealanders get very tired of people asking them to say this so I would not advise you to do it!).
Americans use short "A" vowels where others use long vowel sounds so that the word tomato in Standard English sounds like tom-art-toe and in American English like tom-ay-toe. American English still uses the word Fall which Standard English replaced with Autumn about two hundred years ago and the American way of continuing to use the word School for University which has been adopted by China confuses many foreigners!
However, none of these little differences are too important: the business of language is to enable us to communicate with each other which is why I don't spend a lot of time correcting grammar or pronunciation. One does not have to understand every single word a person says...its a great achievement to be able to converse in another language fluently even if some minor errors occur. Actually the grammar of the majority of native English speakers is often pretty bad.
However, we will spend some time on those sounds which can result in people misunderstanding. Saying s instead of th, for example, leads to misunderstandings as does transposing [changing around] the letters l and r. Also it is imperative [vital;absolutely necessary] that vowel sounds are clear. (Actually, as we saw, in Standard English long vowel sounds are actually diphthongs [made up of two different sounds] )
To-day everyone practised saying:
"Red lorry, yellow lorry"
four words that every one of my past pupils will recognise straight away!.
Vocabulary:
lorry.....truck
stud farm...a farm where animals are bred
bull...a male cow
bang...a loud noise; to have sex
mate...friend
simile...to say one thing is like another
metaphor...to say or talk about something as if it is something else
clown...a funny person in a circus or show - like the one outside MacDonalds
diphthong...sounds like a single sound but is actually two sounds e.g. long A is actually Aye Eee
novel...a fictional story
Australian words:
arvo...afternoon
servo...service station: where cars/trucks fill up with petrol
sarmy...sandwich
cossie/cozzie...a swimming costume
dunny...toilet
Chazza, Bazza, Gazza - the given names Cheryl, Barry & Gary respectively
G'day...greeting (Good day)
Aussie...an Australian person (pronounced Ozzy)
Oz...Australia
I wonder that how many countries have you been?
ReplyDelete:)Joy
I feel surprised that some native speakers' grammar is bad
ReplyDeleteJoy,
ReplyDeleteTo tell the truth, I don't actually know how many countries I've been to - its certainly more than 25 but I lost count.
Yandy,
The average grammar of native speakers is appaling! It is used as a social marker in English-speaking countries: the better one's grammar the higher up the social ladder one is. So some people actually use bad grammar on purpose to show that they support equality!