Fluency in English

I agree. Only more and more are still coming our way...

 

if you tried to touture them they would make it touture room or some reality proggramme

 

:lol: yeah.
got to admit, you're probably right.

 

I couldn't get a mortar at my base when they started the third version of Big Brother here.
That would have been a program with good audience

I can't stand those programs. "Telebasura" (junk tv) we call them.
That's why i pay cable tv.

 

it will be better trash tv :lol:

 

i do not really like english.
in mexico we get english in secundaria ( junior high) and in preparatoria ( high school)
when ii was at the university one of my firends ( an american citizen) force me to talke and speak english to him, cos he said i will need it in the future.
in my family, my dad speaks english, my mom french, my older bro 5 languages, my sister 2 and my little bro english
and in my home we all speak english and my little girl french also

 

Yes, but even so it's not strong enough for what we have to watch...
:lol:

 

Neither can I. The only reality show that I like is "Cops", which sends a camera team along with police officers as they patrol whatever city or county is their bailiwick. Seeing what they have to put up with is a real eye opener. Like the woman who was pulled over by a sheriff's deputy and was discovered to have not only her children in the car but also a backpack with drugs and a gun--she actually had one of her kids sitting on the backpack!

 

I feel that the real jobs of real people should not be interfered with by some camera crew. Plus I don't really care what they do all day, and the worst thing is the way in which those reality programs present it.

 

Sometimes it makes you wonder whether those shows are staged or not. Its quite hard to function normally when theres a TV camera following your every move.

 

has anyone else noticed that europeans in general who are fairly fluent in english but dont use it as their 1st language, now speak with a terrible pseudo american accent?

this wasnt the case twenty years ago is it to do with how it is taught in schools and american television? if u got 2 china or japan or anywhere in the far east they all have what i call a bbc english accent.

 

Very true. That's why I try to talk british rather than American English.

 

Most Chinese and Japanese persons can hardly speak English at all, even university (masters degree) students.

Obviously, the accent will be influenced by everyday life, so if a majority of people watch US television, the language will form accordingly. Nevertheless, in my oppinion, it doesn't matter which accent is used.

There are still some English teachers (in Denmark, at leat), who will not accept US accept or spelling, and thus if an American would attend classes, they would get worse grades than the other students. That is appalling, to say the least - that the teachers personal preference go before the education of the student. The main focus should always be to learn the language first, and then focus on the details later - that is the most effective means of learning a language (which can clearly be seen from the fact that most people here only speak sporadic German after having it for five years, because these five years are spend teaching the students grammar, rather than the language itself. My college German teacher even told me directly, that I shouldn't make complex sentences until I master the German grammar to perfection, even though most Germans don't).

Christian

 

I usually throw them together a bit, and adapt my English to the audience. But I don't get to speak a lot of English and anyway, when facing native speakers my language skills drop to frightening depths for some reason.

 

Scenic fear? :roll:

 

What's with that anyway? , how come the europeans on this forum speak english so good. :-? I can understand British people speaking english(allthough it sounds quite different from north american english) but what about europeans from other nationalities in europe ?

 

Have you read the thread?

Christian

 

Even the native language has become Americanised, sorry, Americanized .
When I learnt French at school, 30+ years ago, 111 was cent-et-onze. A couple of years ago I went to an engineering conference at Aix-Les-Bains (not far from David Lehmann) and when I asked for my room key I was corrected to cent-onze (one hundred-eleven, rather than one hundred AND eleven). I also got a few funny looks because when I get back into French mode I speak with a Montelimar (Midi?) accent. It's murder in Paris (English people think Geordie in Somerset :lol: )
Oli

 

Dutch uses more and more words from American; it has become almost impossible to express yourself without resorting to American words or sounding utterly stupid. However, I do feel this is a better solution than the French, which is to invent a French word wherever people tend to use an American word (such as e-mail, what was that French word again?).

We are also taught to write "honor", "humor" and "rumor".

 

We say 'e-post' in Norway, 'post' being the Norwegian word for 'mail'. I think it works fine, and sounds a whole lot better than 'e-mail' in a Norwegian context. I try to avoid foreign words as much as I can, simply because I imagine that it sounds as ridiculos to mix in foreign ( usually English ) words in Norwegian as it sounds when I hear English words mixed in with other languages ( as for example Dutch ).