SmellyTofu

原帖由 fm9610 於 2007-12-30 00:48 發表
Actually I think the guy in the video was speaking Singaporean/Malaysian English. This is what I usually heard from my colleagues who originally came from there.

I think Hongkong English is actually ...

Yes, that is a typical Singlish accent... it does get annoying sometimes but I can put it on when needed.

Accents can be a trained thing but it's one that takes years before you actually start fixed on one without even trying. Now I've been in Australia for 20+ years and whilst I speak English with an Aussie accent (no, not talking Paul Hogan or Steve Irwin type), I do tend to pick up on some accents with people I hang around with. I started out with Malay coz some of my high school friends were Malay... so you speak like this la.. you know what I mean la!... then now it's the British one at work which I love anyway.. so some words come out like Jamie Oliver... just not as animated as he is... and the girl that speaks on the MTR trains... ohh... sorry.. she tell me to stand back from the doors all night long.

But seriously, I think you've got to speak rather than listen/watch TV. Hang around the people you want accents to be. Talk and talk and talk. Practice can only mean one thing.. perfection.. well, close to it. For vocab, grammar and context of phrases and when it's appropriate to use them, try TV but if you want to get even better, do just the radio. Talk-back radio (not sure if you call it that up there.. but stations where people call in and talk about issues) will really get your ears tuned into listening and understanding each word or everyday chatting. Just remember though, these sorts of mediums will be in the colloquial setting most likely so of course some phrases you just don't use in different situations. The same way you don't use too slang and informal words in formal settings in Cantonese.

[ 本帖最後由 SmellyTofu 於 2007-12-30 13:02 編輯 ]