English and its problems in pronunciation

You guys might not like it, but English is a very complicate language. It all came from the history of English language. Unlike many others, English is a combination of many other languages. Back in the old time, Britain was attacked and occupied by many invaders, the Normans, the French, the Vikings, etc. Each time these guys came, they made changes and influence to the language. As the result, English is the combination of Latin, German, French, and some others. Please correct me if I''m wrong. This is what I remember from high school; and I do have a very sloppy memory.

Anyway, because of all these things, English is not a phonetic language. That means that you cannot look at a written word and know how to pronounce it. For example, the 7 words below look similar but they pronounce very differently:

1. though (like o in go)
2. through (like oo in too)
3. cough (like off in offer)
4. rough (like uff in suffer)
5. plough (like ow in flower)
6. ought (like aw in saw)
7. borough (like a in above)

(source from englishclub.com)

Now you guys feel lucky because your first language is Vietnamese right? For our language, if we look at a written word, we''ll know exactly how to pronounce it. And if someone reads a word, we''ll know to correctly spell it even if we don''t know the meaning of the word. For English, we must learn to read and write every single word.

Anyway, as Britain became an empire in the 16th century, it colonized many lands like America, Australia, India, Singapore, etc. As time went by, English language in these countries evolves and assimilates to the local people. As the result, English spoke by an American today is very different than an Australian.

I have experienced many different kinds of English speaking since most of my professors came from other countries. The one gave me the most problem was a professor from Germany. I had to drop that class because I couldn''t understand anything he said. I guess you guys must have encountered some foreign English speakeres, either as your co-workers, professors, friends, or tourists. Please share your experience and tell us the English speaker in which country you find most difficult to understand.

It ''s very good topic and writing. Go ahead ( I go to find a column to lean and listen)

Quite interesting topic...
For me ,the most difficult to understand is to listen to Indian speaking English. coz they speak so many "r r r and rip rip" , I though they spoke Indian...
Comparing to another country, really Vietnamese pronunce English not as good as others when our language is single word, not linking sounds...So when we speak English most of time we speak word by word...
Last time, one of my friends corrected my pronunciation, he suggested :when we speak English try to speak as soft as we can..just stress on the some specific word needed...I got that problems while stressing too much what do you think ?
but King,,,For me German''''s speaking English is better than the others..Listening to French speaking, their tones always go up, too high lá lá ...lá
but now,I have to get along with South of America English is not easy...
Được gatihon sửa chữa / chuyển vào 13:23 ngày 28/04/2006

Trời ơi, tiếng Việt người ta kêu là ngôn ngữ đơn âm tiết, tức là chữ nào cũng có 1 âm thôi, bà gà kêu cái gì mà single work nghe quê mùa quá (monosyllabic language )

Bro Tao_Lao : I made mistakes like that all the time too . I know the word but I just can''t remember what it is. That is such a distress. Most of the time I just use the simple definition of the word like Ms. Gatihon did. Well, at least people understand what I want to say.
Gatihon: Like Vietnam, U.S. has three major, distinct accents from three different regions: the NorthEast (ex: New York, Boston), the West (ex: California, Washington, Oregon), and the South (ex: Texas, Florida, Oklahoma). The NorthEast is like North of Vietnam, its accent is considered to be the most accurate, well-spoken style of English speaking. Because there are many Latinos living in the West, its accent is somewhat influenced by the Spanish language. The South is like the Central of Vietnam, it has "nhà quê" accent affected by the black people. So Gatihon, try not to speak like the South. It''s baddd

cho King 67
taolao...tui hông biết thôi,.,,ông làm gì mà nhảy cẩng lên vậy...tui viết sai chinh tả work,phải sửa lại...
Moving out of this place as soon as I can....not everyone understands those features...

Hí hí...tui đâu cỏ nhảy cẩng lên đâu bà gà, chỉ nhẹ nhàng nhắc nhở : bạn gà ui bạn nói sai rùi.
Phản đối King nói cách phát âm của miền Bắc là chính xác nhất nhé, đó chỉ là 1 kiểu hiếp dâm phương ngữ của dân miền Bắc thui