Let's speak English!

Hi hi everyone, today I would love to start an English thread  

American, British, non-native speakers ( ), what got you into this language? Do you have anything interesting to tell us? What is the most difficult word to pronounce?
Psst, the most difficult word for me... it's pro-nun-shee... "pronunciation" itself   what a joke!

Hello polkaDotBrain, 
I learned English while i was living in England. It was not long, just 1 year but a really great year indeed.
The most difficult word to pronounce for me is "registration".

Well, i must said that my pronunciation is probably ugly, because I mostly deal with English in written form. So I read it in my bad accent, and I understand myself. And it seems to me that the native speakers have the wrong accent, for example in films.

English is very usefull if you want to play to Magic The Gathering or videogames.

Hi. I couldn't stand the crapy french translations of the old video games. Well. And i had to read technical documentation in english, also.  Like Luc, i only deal with written english. No idea how to pronunce it. I didn't even knew that one could do that. I have nothing off interest to say. Usually it doesn't stop me. Yet i don't feel comfortable enough with english. To say nothing with eloquence. I guess. Yeah. I have seen other threads along those lines also. Hard to keep up.

@odalisque Registration Indeed, sounds a bit difficult with both Rs and that -tion ending. Also, staying in another country is cool, wish I could do the same with Japanese.

@Luc/stauk I thought I was the only one who had to deal only with written English. Technical documents or tech stuff -specially on Open Source, usually comes in English, and nothing else.

@~dell'Artyul I've never played Magic, but has anyone ever heard of Final Fantasy Type-0? (quite a long name!) The fans translated it from Japanese to English, and it was taken down by copyright issues.

Bonus video: hearing 24 accents

well ...
why English uh ?
I guess because of friends ... my dad's best friend was British and I couldn't stand listening to them without understanding every single words !!

Hi Polka !
Still here ?
I'm interested in speaking English
Are you English yourself ? Which accent have you got ? American one, or Scottish, or or or ?

hello ^^
i started learning english when i was two. Once a week with other children. We used to watch tv in english,  to take part in activities in which we had to speak english, ...
I went on with lessons after school (primary school). Afterwards i had lessons at school (secundary school). I passed the Cambridge FCE when i was seventeen.
I really don't know which word is the most difficult for me to pronounce. I don't think any is.
I'm 22 and i'm losing my vocabulary skills.
I had english lessons last year. It was based on medical issues and the vocabulary was bound to it.
I succeeded easily but i know i lost a lot and the feeling of not having accomplished what i was able to is difficult for me to handle. (i hope i didn't make mistakes)

I came back from england where i have passed two days.
You you you you.

How to know... About our mistakes I mean...
We need a native from an English speaking country
He or she would tell us how to say it better

Supercalifragislistisexpialidocious is the hardest word to pronounce for me !!!

How lucky you are MEPUB !
Where were you ? In London ?
Did you visit places or just pubs

MEPUB :

my lovely Ise a écrit:Supercalifragislistisexpialidocious is the hardest word to pronounce for me !!!

I'm Here!
Someone calls me?
Just try to say it 10 times
I don't speak, but I baragouine a lot.

Une !
I suppose you did not do it on your own : watching tv in English when you were 2 y.o.
Your parents are wonderful !!!
I remember when my 2 sons were younger I should have shown them all the Walt Disney in VO, but I didn't

Two years ago my younger son was doing nothing at school... So I got in touch with a friend who leaves alone in Devon... I took him there during 2 months, in an Enclish school, and now he is ok with the language... Not so bad hey ?

Hey My SuperCalinew how do you do Honey ? LOL

Sorry we are not allowed to speak nor spit while working

I was gone to Dover. White clims, castel, etc, ect, etc... kids sing Queen in a park.
And punk attitude, very good trip.
England is a jail with open space.
I like it !!!!

Did you take your son with you mepub ? Wasn't he frightened when he saw punks ?

Hey Indiana ! Can you be our teacher then ?

IndianaJoan a écrit:when you're born, the brain is not attached to any form of language. Until 5 years old, the sound will be recorded, whatever language it comes from, and you won't have difficulties to pronouce it back, ever years later.

I did not know that... Very interesting...
Do you mean we all have "l'oreille absolue" during 5 years ?!!!

I think you are bad or good at lenguages, like in music... concerning pronunciation at least.
As for reading I do agree with you... But I would add it is important too to know the culture of the country, not only the lenguage...
For example the importance of drinking tea in England can be compared with the way we used to drink coffee. And the way they drink tea is very different from the way Chinese people drink tea...

Good to know Jones!!!
when do we meet?

Of course Ise, culture is as important as language to have the whole understanding. I totally agree about that ^^
(The example of drinking tea is relevant : tea is sacred within my family We don't drink coffee as many french people)

Concerning children, that's why it can be interesting to make babies hear nursery rythms in foreign languages. ^^

@salty : you have the answer, right now counting the days :p

Nursery poems in English are beautiful ! I bought an old book once...
I'll try and find it to tell you

Time to sleep
Go ahead
Time for dreams
Lay in bed

Let's

I got to learn English quite early, as I had a few games solely in that language. Later on, I found useful to search on the Internet with something other than French. English-written websites are far more common and better informed.

Plus, English fan-translations for the weekly manga publishing are released earlier, and are of better quality than most french ones ; at least, it was the case, back then.
That's what you read when you're frustrated with "Run !!!" being translated into "Allons courrir !!".
Aaaand that's what you get when your weekly fix is translated from English translations, not from the original language.

I almost never got to practice my speech, so my accent is nothing short of outrageous. And un-localized. Not having a perfect accent's not as troubling as it is in French, though, because english-speaking folks are used to hearing news reporters from many nationalities speaking with sometimes thick accents ; joke aside, they have a lot more accents than we do, anyway, since the area it's spoken in is huge.

I wrote lEnguage instead of lAnguage

Hi Tesla, I noticed indeed that my English friends don't mind accents at all

For example I asked them do you say naïzer or nizer for "neither"
They answered they said both ... depending whom they were with

@Ise
So cute ! My grandma used to tell me something like this when I was a little girl! (and also "And now it's time to go to bed, because tomorrow morning, you have to get up early to go to school" in school nights) Even if I didn't know what it meant, at that time ^^


(My english accent is not as frenchy as natives expect, usually. When I learned English properly I had a kind of Oxbridge accent   Now, by watching movies and talking to people who learned English watching american movies, my accent is more americanized. My sentences as well : less English structure than American.)

I'm having a real good time reading all your stories.
I've been asking myself questions about the accent. and indeed i believe that the English area is far more rich than the French one.
What I still cannot explain is having been told that I have a British accent since I learnt English with French teachers, books and american movies. I guess I've seen movies with British accent and that's the one I've been trying to reproduce because I like it better ...

Most of you say that people don't mind your accent. Still, I've always noticed that if you dont stress a word correctly, or your sentence correctly as well, then ... people won't understand you at all.

That's true, salty! Concerning some words about pronunciation as well
When you say "I'm thinking" and you pronounce it as "I'm sinking", nobody could tell if you're actually thinking or if you're on a boat (not to talk about the difference between "beach" and "bitch", or "beaten" and "bitten" X) )

Stressing properly is quite a difficulty to French people, for we don't really have to, speaking French. (We have the same problem in Spanish, you know that, salty )

I used to live in the States : 1 year in Washington, DC in 2008 then 2 years in New York City in 2009-2010. Unfortunately I had to go back to my French headquarters since the US subsidiary was lacking cash by end of 2010. I miss NYC although I do not miss the States.

I've forgotten to tell about my accent^^ a strictly british one^^
Yes Ise i think it's a gift to be immersed in the culture so young even if it's only one day a week. I've heard people speaking with truly traditional accents so i could kind of register their voices and i still remember Amy's one. She was about twenty i think and english was her mothertongue. When i see a word i think it's like a french one in my head. It's easy to understand sentences even if there're some words i don't know yet. I understand the meaning by guessing it immediately. (it's the same in German but i really suck speaking it)
On the other hand i have never studied so my level is kind of stagnating
A few months ago i went to "Fnac" and i asked for a book which was written in english but i was sure i've read it in french... we looked after the french version... it doesn't exist....

Yes Jones, I know !
Still, the difficulties with Spanish are quite different I think.
You pronounce all the letters that are written.
anyway I cannot understand how I learnt English and Spanish. How I came to speak and think in both languages.
How do our brain work??? How is it that one morning you get up and you exclaim something in a language that's definitely not your mothertongue.
I wish I knew a bit more on the subject so that I could be a better teacher to my pupils.

PolkaDotBrain a écrit:What is the most difficult word to pronounce?

Mine would be "what else".
Don't even know why! It's not that hard, for crying out loud!

SylvaNau a écrit:I miss NYC although I do not miss the States.

Why is that? Tell us what you don't like about it. Is it the country? The people?
The awful coffee ?

Hi

My english is not that good, I understand more than I can speak or write.
Btw, I lived in New Zealand, and now, I'm in Saigon, I have to speak every day in english for my work

I have to roommate (one Us girl and a colombian) and my landlord are a couple of a vietnamese and an indian guy.
We all speak together in english too.

That's pretty good.

I started to learn english just 3 years ago

How inteersting !

SylvaNau, if you don't mind could you tell us how expensive it is to rent a flat un NYC ? Is it cheaper near Washington ?
Where did you live exactly in NYC ? Which parts of the city did you prefer ? Did you go out a lot ? Was it just for drinks or did you visit ?
One of my friends lived in San Francisco during 3 years, and I think I might love it as much as in NYC...

Hey Noum how lucky you are ! I have always loved lenguages, and before I met my husband (boyfriend at the beginning ) I thought I would study and live in different countries during all my life. Which I did not. I married, had children, a job... Too bad

Spoiler:

What is your job ?

I'm a graphic designer

Waw ! Congratulations
Can you show us something you did ?

Ise --> go and chek on what she's already posted

As Salty said or you can find it on my profil

http://www.noumenie.com/

Hi! I got into this langage as I love travelling (can save in many situations!), american and british humour, as a scientist I need to be able to read articles and also because I can't stand movies in VF!!! My pronouciation is not that bad and most of the time I hear "really you are french?". But in general french accent sounds sexy for most foreigners as long as "TH" is not pronounced "ZZZZZZZZZ"!! And also I like myself speaking english, the joke I can make, maybe I feel more confident when I express myself in english because it's ok to make mistakes as it's not my mother tongue!

Good afternoon everybody
I'm in euro english class

Good evening
I tkink I am an alien, a sweet alien, with a candel in my hand....
Let's have fun my friends because the night is my friend, my beautiful friend, my only friend...
Let's talk about the hours that will come.
At the end of the day, at the end of the night, let's bring our souls, let's bring our hearts across the black of the poverty, across the call of the midnight.
Run sweet love, crie my angel, upside down, terrible end cool night...

I would like to wish everyone a good night, today was an exciting day: I went to a "gift hunt", before Christmas No peeking at the big box before 25th!

Hi everybody,
I started learning English seriously in the late 70s at high school (in France). I read and wrote it properly during the next 30 years but listening and speaking was a problem. In the 90s I worked a few months in Bosnia where I picked up an Eastern European accent that was upsetting my American uncle. He used to say I was sounding like a silly gangster.
So when I arrived in New Zealand 8 years ago it was a bit of a challenge to adapt, in particular to the tonic accent. But I succeeded after a couple of years and people were not asking me anymore where I was coming from. Many people think I'm from Germany or Scandinavia when I speak in English.
Nowadays I understand almost any English accent but I still struggle with some UK accents (especially Eastern London).
Unfortunately since I'm back in France my English is getting rusty.
I know there is one word that causes me troubles but I cannot remember it at the moment. Will come back later when I get it.
Cheers mates.

Could we organise an irl where we would speak english ?

Do it in the right section ?

Yeah, we are all spread over the World. An online meeting would be easier.

Easier ? with time difference ? Let me lol ?

Well, when we speak at the same time with several places, it's always possible that some of us make an effort to stay awake at night. Provided it doesn't happen too often.