cantonese english accent accent, cantonese, english

jake123

Don't know where to post this, so if this is the wrong place, please move to another forum.

Ok, I came to Van when I was like grade 3 and I've been here for a lil more than a decade. I still have a strong cantonese accent when speaking english. I'm just wondering what I can do to minimize the accent and what do people think of it(well I'm pretty sure I know the latter).

juicyjojo

Here is what I do:

1. borrow some English books from the library
2. get your voice recorder ready
3. read the books out loud and record
4. listen to the recordings and see what kinds of words or phrases in particular that you need to improve on

Since you have been practising English for such a long time, I am pretty sure that you could tell from what is a good accent or bad accent.
you can also do it without recording, just keep reading to yourself- practise makes perfect.  

ACooperFan

my coworkers who are caucasians say my english has a hint of a cantonese accent but when i went back to HK, ppl said my cantonese had a hint of an english accent....oh well....

siumaibb

there are books with software out there for you to improve your spoken english.

Ultraman

Honestly, why bother to have any accent? But in fact, you should be glad and it's actually an advantage to speak bilingual (English and Cantonese, or English and Mandarin) or trilingual (English and both Cantonese and Mandarin) or even quad-lingual or more tim la! Which not many Caucasians are able to do that!

Caffie

原帖由 maanmo 於 2008-1-1 15:13 發表
if the speaker's first language is cantonese, then he may still be using
the contonese rhythm, intonation, and loud _ soft patterns when he speaks english

Hmm... my first language was Cantonese... I started speaking English since kindergarten and now I sometimes feel that my Cantonese has a bit of English accent O_O

maanmo

the issue we should think about is what could  a non native speaker of english  difficult to understand .

  if the speaker's first language is cantonese, then he may still be using
the contonese rhythm, intonation, and loud _ soft patterns when he speaks english

  the english speaker then  has to filter out these cantonese linguistic color before
he can get to the message

  this important part of learning english for cantonese speakers has been neglected
in english teaching and learning

  the chinese language radios in vancouver should really have a 10 minute segments
several times a day , in which volunteer listeners of all ages will learn to
speaker english  without the cantonese rhythm, stress, and intonation
with a language coach

then we will begin to understand the issue,
its not a matter of practicing speaking with english speakers,
its not a matter of being proud or not proud of your accent
  it is a matter of understanding  the difference between english and cantonese
and then acquire the skills to speak english with english rhythm stress and intonation

jake123

lol i am still in univ.

i live in east van, but there're enough chinese ppl so all i hang out w/ are chinese ppl(not cbc), although I do speak english w/ half of them.

yiujun

did you live in Richmond? haha

Guy

just wondering jake

where do you usually hang out, and with what nation of people?
what company do you work for?

but it's all okay, because you live in richmond.