Accents

[idun]

What is it with foreign accents which appear to please some people. I almost get someone speaking english with a french accent as it can sound quite pleasant sometimes, but not always.

But an english person speaking french with an english accent, well, I do not understand how it can sound in any way nice. And yet I have had said to me that my accent is mignon  or  joli, even adorable and it isn't.  I have heard such comments made to others too. What am I missing?

What does please me is when people can communicate, but accents, can't say they 'do' anything for me at all.  

 

[andyh4]

Well I cannot avoid speaking French with an English accent and I also have been told that my accent is adorable.  Cannot think why.

[idun]

Maybe it is just 'you' that is adorable?

I have started to wonder if people 'like' me rather than my accent. I could understand that more than the accent bit being 'nice'.

[mint]

Our French teacher always complimented my OH on his "accent", saying that he didn't have any.  What she meant was that he, being Welsh, did not have an English accent when speaking French.

By "accent", I knew she always meant an English one.  She said it was too "choppy" and I could understand that...without enough "flow" and liaisons that are not smooth.

She said my accent was excellent except that I didn't use the back of my mouth and tongue for words like croissant.  She used to get a French friend to come and read to the class and this lady could really make prose sound like poetry and OH said he'd happily listen to her reading the telephone directory.

[idun]

My OH hasn't got an english accent when he speaks french. They ask where he is from, with me, it is a statement that I am anglaise.

French is certainly spoken from the front of the mouth, and I do, only it still sounds like I am english. I'll never rid myself of it. These days I put TV5 on and repeat what I hear on the tv to try and improve, probably a futile excersize, lost cause/ vache espagnole comes to mind?

[sid]

I've had compliments (never "adorable" [:$] ) and people comment about the lack of accent, but I'm a Northerner and maybe they think I haven't got the "posh" English accent?!

I've reached the conclusion that they are just being polite and in reality I'll never know how poor my accent is! Perhaps just as well!

[mint]

We have Scottish friends who are forever being complimented on their French accent!

So, Sid, it might help; I mean your being a northerner.[:D]

[sid]

Aye, lass! Ay-up! [:D]

[mint]

Sid, thought you might have said "by goom, lass"!

[idun]

I'm a northerner too, but it doesn't help with my accent, husband also northerner and as I said hasn't got a defineable accent, certainly not an english one.

How can't you hear your own accent, must say I am sat here with a silly smile on my face, as I thought that we all 'knew' how we sounded, obviously not.[Www]

[mint]

Hm.....just been thinking about putting stresses on certain words and I am now appealing to all TEFL and ex TEFL teachers.

Did you ever come across a little dialogue that you use to teach "foreigners" where the stress is put in English?  I believe it started with "Pendlebury's coming when he can" and ends with "Poor Pendlebury"

Can't for the life of me remember the 3 or 4 sentences in between.  Can anyone remember?[:D]

[suein56]

[quote user="idun"]... as I thought that we all 'knew' how we sounded, obviously not.[/quote]

How we sound to ourselves is not how we sound to other people. When I first heard my recorded voice I was horrified and thought 'Is that really how I sound ... how awful'

Sue

[idun]

Yes, I know we, well me, doesn't know how I sound to others, but isn't it like singing when hearing one's own voice from the inside of our head, that we can still detect off notes.

I am always surprised when I hear my voice on the message machine, know it's from my 'region' with the flat vowel sounds, just not that it is me, but I never think it is awful though.

[andyh4]

We were once asked by an Australian whether we thought she had an accent.  After we had all finished laghing and had got back into our chairs someone said, Strewth cobber, I thought that was a wind up.  But it was a serious question.

[Patf]

I think it does help with spoken french if you come from the NE of England or Scotland. Mostly the vowels but also the geordie gutteral "rrr", which is prevalent around here.

But I stick to my theory that a good french accent is linked to having a "musical ear". ie you can hear remember and mimic sounds, rhythms and emphasis in speech.

Which is something like you wrote SW17.

[mint]

And you know what, Pat, when I try to explain to British people how the French "u" should sound, I think about your example from the marseillaise when they sing "Mugir ces féroces soldats"?[:D]

I can do the "u" on its own but still can't always get it when it's "r" followed by "u" as in "rue"......still, I keep practising![geek]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

There's never a day that goes by where I'm not complimented on my English accent, or is it Australian, because Americans think the English and Australian accents are very similar.

I'm from dahn sath, so my accent (to me) is as boring and as neutral as it can get.

Still, I'm not complaining, but my girlfriend brings me down a peg or two when the ladies ask me to talk by calling me Harry Potter :)