American Accent

"...In fact, the more funny and â?oridiculousâ? those folks (some teens who comeback from the states but fail to adopt the standard American Accent) are, the more people, especially teens, should realize how important learning American Accent is..."
Quoted from Fight-to-death''s post
Definitely, you''re right. Vietnamese are quite fortunate when studying English because our native accent does not influence our foreign accents (just try listening to a Japanese or an Indian speaking English and you''ll see what I mean). That''s why obtaning a near native accent is quite possible even here in Vietnam. But it''s a pity that there not so many places in our country where the standard accent is taught. (that''s why we have to open this thread about American Accent).
However, I don''t quite agree with your let- it- "come- naturally" opinion because: first of all our English is not born English, therefore it cannot come naturally to us. Another reason is that most of us are not in America, which means the frequency of our being exposed to the living language is not very high (even though you might argue that we have access to the Internet and some cable TV channels, etc ... I think interaction plays a much more important role in a language learning process than one-way communication).
It is true that we are using English as a second language, or at least as a foreign language, many native speakers do not care if we make mistakes. That is exactly what I used to think when I began learning English. After all, we''ve tried so hard studying another language, which is neither fun nor easy. I also thought that what we said is much more important than how we said it. However, ever since I moved to a higher level in English, it is no longer what I believe. It does not really matter if we have a few mistakes when talking informally with native speakers. But when it comes to business, when what we say and how we say really affects our work, you cannot expect your foreign business partners to sympathise with you because English is your second or foreign language. I believe all of us have picked up English not just for fun. For sure, it will be an effective means of communication for our work in the future. Therefore, it is recommended that we take it seriously, and try our best.
I hope that Longarm will come back soon with more articles on American English.
Happy learning,

Just a heartbeat away

Hey captor_of_sin, I tried to see your point of posting such an article but I failed! Everybody here is extremely eager to discuss American Accent, I really have no idea why you have to post these non-sensical things (not only this post, I''m talking about the one you posted in can-do attitude as well) Why do you have to spoil such a good topic??? You know what, to me at least, all you''re trying to do is to attract people''s attention but in an absolutely ... negative way. You''re kind of straight-forward, so I''m just trying to be frank with you. Hopefully, you won''t be annoyed. If you wanna help those living in rural areas, where the facilities for studying are not enough, why don?Tt you open a brand new topic and wê?Tll discuss this problem seriously there? Here, what wê?Tre talking is all about Accent.
I spend a lot of time reading this helpful topic, and there''s nowhere ?o going to the United States for American Accent? is mentioned. Of course, exactly like Nathan said, if you live in America for a couple of years, American Accent will certainly comes to you naturally. He didn''t say you have to go there to have American Accent, did he? I don''t know if you misunderstand Mr. Longarm, Nathan, fight_to_death and Miss. Wolfy intentionally or you don''t really know what they''re discussing
Not everyone has opportunities to go and study in the US, we all do realize. Isn''t it obvious??? But in fact, we don''t need to be in the US to have American Accent, I''m totally sure you will definitely be able to make it once you try and have the right methods of studying. Let''s take a look at Can-do attitude, a really useful topic.
Last but not least, may I ask you a frank question captor_of_sin? Are you gallery_of_suicide and spinesplitter? If you are, you''d better use one nickname cause with your characteristics, therê?Ts need to use a lot of usernames to post articles. I''m just trying to be honest, sorry if I said sth rude to you.
Keep up your work, guys! I''m totally sure a lot of people are interested in American Accent. Thank Mr. Huck for posting this topic I?Tm looking forward to your coming back
As we go on, we remember all the times we had together
As our lives change, come whatever
We will still be FRIENDS FOREVER

Hey Nathan, did you mean that our English is not born English so we shouldnâ?Tt force ourselves to speak English with a native accent?
Letâ?Ts put it this way. You really want to master spoken American English (speak just like a native). Unfortunately, you havenâ?Tt seen any Vietnamese who can do that. So what your attitude?
1. Assume that foreigners are forever foreigners: â?oI can never have it â?" the so-called native-like accent..â?
2. Donâ?Tt wanna give it a try: â?oMaybe 1 out of 1000 people can do it and that one is not gonna be me.â?
3. Look for a place where I can make my dream a reality.
You can have your own choice. Enjoy the "quizz"!
Take it easy,

Dunno what the **** he is! In terms of life outlook and persona, he looks a bit like me, but he was given birth by another woman, so he can''t be me!
"The first Deicide record and the Once Upon the Cross, those two are just ****ing awesome!" - Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison (a.k.a #1)

Hey Nathan, did you mean that our English is not born English so we shouldn?Tt force ourselves to speak English with a native accent?
Let?Ts put it this way. You really want to master spoken American English (speak just like a native). Unfortunately, you haven?Tt seen any Vietnamese who can do that. So what your attitude?
1. Assume that foreigners are forever foreigners: ?oI can never have it ?" the so-called native-like accent..?
2. Don?Tt wanna give it a try: ?oMaybe 1 out of 1000 people can do it and that one is not gonna be me.?
3. Look for a place where I can make my dream a reality.
You can have your own choice. Enjoy the "quizz"!
Take it easy,
[/QUOTE]
Lets put it this way
Ask yourself this 2 questions:
- What is the purpose of communication?
- Why in the world do we have to speak English like a native?
The basic Idea of communication is to make people understand what you said. So if you can make a person understand what you said easily, does it matter whether or not you''re using the right accent?
Man can run very fast but he cant never beat the cheetah
Man can swim very well but he cant never beat the dolphin
Why? Coz those are not what man born to do.
Nếu thế giới này là một thế giới hoàn hảo thì con nguời tồn tại làm gì?

The accent you speak is not controlled by your brain but by your sub-conscious mind. And you can never force your sub-concious mind to learn to speak a different accent, because you have no control over it. It adapts to the environment that you live in. So, if you live in a Vietnamese Speaking Environment you will speak Vietnamese better than English and vice versa.
Maybe I have this thought because I''ve never really met a person who can speak both Vietnamese and English like a native.
If there are such people out there, I really want to get aquainted with them.
Nếu thế giới này là một thế giới hoàn hảo thì con nguời tồn tại làm gì?

nathan, should never be so positive about anything. That there are things you dont see/know does not necessarily deny them of their existence, does it not? I''ve seen ppl as such. Like to know them? Come with me to America.

Tiền bất kiến cổ nhân
Hậu bất kiến lai giả
Niệm thiên địa chi du du
Độc sảng nhiên nhi lệ hạ

This is an interesting quote. But we''re talking about Vietnamese''s ability to adopt American Accent. Remind you that Americans are humans just like Vietnamese while cheetah or dolphin are not. So sorry, but your analogy is not very good.

Thank you Sebastian, Wolfy, Nathan, fight_to_death, britneybritney and r_u_kidding for your conducive contributions to â?oAmerican Accentâ?. I can see that, most of you must have been to America or are living in English speaking countries and are so good at English. I hope our club members really learned a lot of you all. Please continue sharing your knowledge and experience with English clubâ?Ts members on â?oAmerican Accentâ?. Iâ?Tm coming back soon to join you guys.
Longarm
Have a nice day!

First off..^^;;
>.>
Tension. *shivers*
Anyhow. Seeing that Nathan is a new member, welcome. (Not that I am any older than you are, but your input is as always, very valuable, and I think is somewhat underated, which is rather unfortunate).
Second of all. I must be the first in here to say this, but I actually think that Brittish accent is ..more attractive and proper than American. (*drools over ***y Brittish guys *).
For me, the key to distinguish American and Brittish accent lie in the ''t'' and the ''a''.
Just try it. "Often" in American and "Often" in Brittish.
"Apple" and "Apple"
"Witty" and "Witty"
Keep up the positive debate, I just hope noone''s put into a position where their feelings get hurt. ^^
Take care!

Doi la bien kho..