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Err no. I also know a fair share of people from Hong Kong, Singapore etc.
Even if you compare Singaporeans who speak fluent English, it is heavily accented. They just can't seem to get the accent right...
I'm not saying one ethic group is superior to the other, but rather the structure of the Chinese language seems to hinder pronunciation of English words and due to the lack of Chinese grammar, many students find it difficult to grasp that concept.
Korea is a small country and sees English as a "valuable" language to do business and open up to the outside world, hence, they study it pretty well.
You sound like a white supremacist.
There is no such thing as a 'right' accent. They are just accents. Singaporean accent is most certainly not harder to understand than extremely heavy Glaswegian accent for other English speakers, but I bet you don't consider the latter to be 'wrong'.
And Korea small? The Korean population is more than twice the size of Australia. I guess Australia is the size of a peanut then.
The phonology of Korean is very similar to some Chinese dialects (such as Cantonese), just without tones. And Korean has fewer consonants than Mandarin (though the syllable structure is richer than Mandarin). So I do not think the phonology of Korean helps them.
The phonology, maybe not, but the richer syllable structure does help. And having multisyllabic words, as Japanese does, also helps.
Certainly, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans all have trouble with unfamiliar phonemes and consonant clusters in English.
The more specific problems which the Chinese have in enunciating English, in my experience, are learning to pronounce multisyllabic words with appropriately stressed and unstressed syllables; in remembering to articulate word-final consonants (especially grammatical endings); and in the fluency and stress pattern of the entire sentence. I have found Japanese and Korean speakers have somewhat less trouble with these aspects.
For similar reasons, English-speakers have a harder time pronouncing Chinese properly than Japanese. I say Japanese rather than Korean because I don't personally know any English-speakers who have learned Korean.
Now, my thoughts on Singaporean English. The first time I met a Singaporean, I assumed from her fluent but heavily accented English that she had learned the language in school. Being interested in languages in general, I asked some questions about Chinese, and was surprised (and embarrassed) that she could not answer them, because her native language was English. I was ignorant, no doubt, but my assumptions were also understandable. Native-English-speaking Singaporeans sound like Chinese people who have learned English. There is no judgment implied. That's just how it is.
There is no such thing as a 'right' accent. They are just accents. Singaporean accent is most certainly not harder to understand than extremely heavy Glaswegian accent for other English speakers, but I bet you don't consider the latter to be 'wrong'.
And Korea small? The Korean population is more than twice the size of Australia. I guess Australia is the size of a peanut then.
well said.
A French/Italian accent is usually considered "sexy", while Asian accents are simply "wrong".
And I doubt he knew the population and economy size of S Korea. It has 50+ million people, larger than Spain, Canada, and not so much smaller than France/Italy/UK, and as you correctly pointed out, more than twice the population of Australia.
The phonology, maybe not, but the richer syllable structure does help. And having multisyllabic words, as Japanese does, also helps.
Certainly, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans all have trouble with unfamiliar phonemes and consonant clusters in English.
The more specific problems which the Chinese have in enunciating English, in my experience, are learning to pronounce multisyllabic words with appropriately stressed and unstressed syllables; in remembering to articulate word-final consonants (especially grammatical endings); and in the fluency and stress pattern of the entire sentence. I have found Japanese and Korean speakers have somewhat less trouble with these aspects.
For similar reasons, English-speakers have a harder time pronouncing Chinese properly than Japanese. I say Japanese rather than Korean because I don't personally know any English-speakers who have learned Korean.
Now, my thoughts on Singaporean English. The first time I met a Singaporean, I assumed from her fluent but heavily accented English that she had learned the language in school. Being interested in languages in general, I asked some questions about Chinese, and was surprised (and embarrassed) that she could not answer them, because her native language was English. I was ignorant, no doubt, but my assumptions were also understandable. Native-English-speaking Singaporeans sound like Chinese people who have learned English. There is no judgment implied. That's just how it is.
Most Chinese words are bisyllabic or multisyllabic too, with two or more Chinese characters, such as Beijing, zhongguo, yidali. However it is true most Chinese words are not long.
The syllable structure of Korean is not richer than that of Cantonese, Minnan, Hakka etc. Mandarin has a simple one.
The phonology, maybe not, but the richer syllable structure does help. And having multisyllabic words, as Japanese does, also helps.
Certainly, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans all have trouble with unfamiliar phonemes and consonant clusters in English.
The more specific problems which the Chinese have in enunciating English, in my experience, are learning to pronounce multisyllabic words with appropriately stressed and unstressed syllables; in remembering to articulate word-final consonants (especially grammatical endings); and in the fluency and stress pattern of the entire sentence. I have found Japanese and Korean speakers have somewhat less trouble with these aspects.
For similar reasons, English-speakers have a harder time pronouncing Chinese properly than Japanese. I say Japanese rather than Korean because I don't personally know any English-speakers who have learned Korean.
Now, my thoughts on Singaporean English. The first time I met a Singaporean, I assumed from her fluent but heavily accented English that she had learned the language in school. Being interested in languages in general, I asked some questions about Chinese, and was surprised (and embarrassed) that she could not answer them, because her native language was English. I was ignorant, no doubt, but my assumptions were also understandable. Native-English-speaking Singaporeans sound like Chinese people who have learned English. There is no judgment implied. That's just how it is.
A lot of native English Speakers seem to have trouble with the vowels, as Korean has a lot of distinct vowels that sound similar to many non native speakers.
Same word or concept in Japanese and Korean are often spoken longer than in Chinese. For example, Hello, Welcome, Thank You, Good bye are pronounced shorter in Chinese.
Japanese and Korean have phonetic writing systems while Chinese characters do not have. Chinese do people do not have problems with tones in mother tongue Chinese languages as Chinese children do not learn to speak Chinese properly by studying tones, they remember tones easily as they listen to the adults speaking Chinese.
Chinese sounds can be written in Japanese and Korean writing systems, but the tones have to be shown seperately.
Singaporeans of different ethnic groups actually have the similar accent. Singaporeans speak much more English everyday among themselves than almost all other people in Asia. English is the number one conversation and written language in Singapore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot
The phonology, maybe not, but the richer syllable structure does help. And having multisyllabic words, as Japanese does, also helps.
Certainly, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans all have trouble with unfamiliar phonemes and consonant clusters in English.
The more specific problems which the Chinese have in enunciating English, in my experience, are learning to pronounce multisyllabic words with appropriately stressed and unstressed syllables; in remembering to articulate word-final consonants (especially grammatical endings); and in the fluency and stress pattern of the entire sentence. I have found Japanese and Korean speakers have somewhat less trouble with these aspects.
For similar reasons, English-speakers have a harder time pronouncing Chinese properly than Japanese. I say Japanese rather than Korean because I don't personally know any English-speakers who have learned Korean.
Now, my thoughts on Singaporean English. The first time I met a Singaporean, I assumed from her fluent but heavily accented English that she had learned the language in school. Being interested in languages in general, I asked some questions about Chinese, and was surprised (and embarrassed) that she could not answer them, because her native language was English. I was ignorant, no doubt, but my assumptions were also understandable. Native-English-speaking Singaporeans sound like Chinese people who have learned English. There is no judgment implied. That's just how it is.
had a korean friend up in wisconsin. he spoke fine, but he could not for the life of him pronounce lasagna anywhere near correctly.
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