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Subject: Accents
Than I believe you're German knowledge is too basic and I don't believe you do both at the same time. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that you first read German and than translate it to English, not at the same time. My German knowledge is also basic and I do the same. I'm fluent in two languages (Frisian and Dutch) and I'm also a proficient English speaker. I never read in another language than which there actually is written. If I don't know a word I'll look it up, but I don't translate the other words. I remember when I was three that while learning Dutch I had to translate everything to Frisian and when I was 13 I translated English words into Dutch (study books were in Dutch). Now I don't translate it anymore, because it takes too much time.
Back to accents. Accents are, I think, always fluently used by the ones which use it. The difference between an accent and a dialect is that a dialect has different words, an accent a different pronunciation which often is used consequently (for example the consequent difference between American and Brittish 'a'). For example the word 'me' means the same in both English and Dutch, but is pronounced differently. A Dutchman would not think: "hey this is also an English word, let's pronounced it with an English accent", but he applies Dutch pronounciation rules to that word. Another example is this great song about accentual differences. Americans and Brittish read words which are written the same in a different way, they are translating it to their own accent, but when a non-native proficient second language speaker sees a word in his second language he won't translate it to his own language. A dialect is a combination of different accent and different vocabulary. In a Frisian dialect, for example, they say 'sneon' for Saturday while we say 'saterdei'. I do not translate this word when I'm reading it, but I don't use it neither when I'm talking or writing to someone speaking that particular dialect.
To answer your question: when you're purely talking about accents I'm quite sure everyone will read things with his/her own accent unless words are used which are unfamiliar to him/her.
(edited)
Back to accents. Accents are, I think, always fluently used by the ones which use it. The difference between an accent and a dialect is that a dialect has different words, an accent a different pronunciation which often is used consequently (for example the consequent difference between American and Brittish 'a'). For example the word 'me' means the same in both English and Dutch, but is pronounced differently. A Dutchman would not think: "hey this is also an English word, let's pronounced it with an English accent", but he applies Dutch pronounciation rules to that word. Another example is this great song about accentual differences. Americans and Brittish read words which are written the same in a different way, they are translating it to their own accent, but when a non-native proficient second language speaker sees a word in his second language he won't translate it to his own language. A dialect is a combination of different accent and different vocabulary. In a Frisian dialect, for example, they say 'sneon' for Saturday while we say 'saterdei'. I do not translate this word when I'm reading it, but I don't use it neither when I'm talking or writing to someone speaking that particular dialect.
To answer your question: when you're purely talking about accents I'm quite sure everyone will read things with his/her own accent unless words are used which are unfamiliar to him/her.
(edited)
Yup, that makes sense. And i think you're right about it's because my German is basic; perhaps i maybe read it as i see it, then try and translate to English so i understand better.
I agree with luuut. My English has always been OK being my native language but there was a point when I was learning Portuguese that my brain flicked over to not translating any more, no matter how quickly. After this point I read in the language I was reading without translating anything. Curiously, now I am learning Italian, it seems to be taking a lot longer to get to that point, I guess that is because I am not speaking it every day...
Je parler un peu francais. Or(or ou) je ne parler pas le francais. Two phrases that you should never forget.
Oui, but keep them handy, they may come in useful.
woops. parler is the infinitive but they are pronounced the same.
I do not need to translate those sentences because I know them very good. My knowledge of French is very very basic.
Not really, actually. The -e at the end of parle is pronounced in an other way than the -er at the end of parler.
There are a few of us! ;-)
Languages are important in my family as my Grandfather spoke Spanish, Romanian, Hungarian and Turkish and my dad speaks Arabic and Mandarin.
I must admit, it is nice to speak to Johnny Foreigner without just shouting and adding an 'o' to the end of all the English nouns! ;-)
Languages are important in my family as my Grandfather spoke Spanish, Romanian, Hungarian and Turkish and my dad speaks Arabic and Mandarin.
I must admit, it is nice to speak to Johnny Foreigner without just shouting and adding an 'o' to the end of all the English nouns! ;-)
I don't think the English are as linguistically challenged as popular conception would have it. I share a house with three other people and each of us has a language degree. Mine is probably the least generally useful - Norwegian, but the others have German, Italian and Spanish.
Vive la Différence. Innit. Like.
Vive la Différence. Innit. Like.