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Trellum, you made me laugh because I can totally relate to everything you're saying! I fall into that category too, I have an accent that's not easy to lose. I too have listened back to my voice recording and thought wow, I didn't think it was that strong! Nonetheless, I do try. But I'm not joking, I've heard people who don't try one little bit, a lot of them are in my country. For instance, I feel that most of it comes from the men, it's almost like they have to show they're proud Africans by overemphasising the African accent. Some of these people used to speak with a more neutral accent, and as they've got older, their accent has progressively got more and more African. Sometimes it's even an accent that's nothing like the Botswana accent, but rather a West African; two very distinct accents! Clearly these people are very skilled at manipulating their accents lol

You make some very valid points. It'd be interesting to know where you're based because they seem to be a lot harder on you than most. You need assurance rather than to be made to feel you're wrong all the time! That's probably going to give you a complex! I have an accent, most of us do. All I'm saying is, some people seem to not even bother at all. I too would like to be in the category of people with accents, but who at least try hard. I mean, picture this; someone with an American accent speaking Italian with a totally American accent (just an example, of course). I just think we all ought to put in more effort, as difficult as it is

That's exactly what I mean! I know that our native tongues will obviously influence our pronunciation, and we'll struggle to speak exactly how the natives speak their language; but some people just don't even bother. It can even sound like they are actually speaking their own language. I find it very frustrating!

It may, it may not. Some people may feel that they're at a certain level, and being put in a lower level may knock their confidence and even hold them back. It may be detrimental to their learning process as their classmates may well be far behind them in terms of proficiency, resulting in a much slower learning process for them. I can imagine this being very frustrating. I absolutely agree with takibari classes are ok to divide according to the level of proficiency, but it's imperative to separate the written and oral aspects. Students should certainly be tested as a means of placing them at the right level. I could be wrong, but I'm almost certain that this is how they do it in the UK for Modern Foreign Languages.

I often hear people speaking foreign languages in their own accents, with a lot of them not even attempting to get the accent right. I know we can't always get the foreign accent spot on, and our own native language will influence the way we pronounce other languages. But I feel that it's important to at least try to move away from your own accent and speak a foreign language how it's spoken by the natives as much as is possible. In my opinion, it goes a long way in helping the natives speakers understand you better, among other things. I welcome any thoughts on this. TIA

I'm comfortable and confident speaking English as I've spoken it all my life. English is also the official language in my country. Most of us even speak it amongst ourselves, even when there's no foreign person among us. It is the language of choice that we all feel at home speaking. My native language is very complicated and tends to around the houses, even for us natives speaker. It's often easier to speak in English. However, there are times when I'm angry or upset that I just want to revert to my mother tongue. Has anyone here ever had this sort of experience?

Same here, I'm alright with just the basics. The minute they want to go a bit deeper; I find that I clam up, my heartbeat quickens, clammy palms....the lot lol! My friends tell me all the time to relax, it's just them and apparently my French isn't half bad. But I don't like mispronouncing anything, and panic before I've even said a word. I think I overthink it, too.

Hehe I know what you mean! I feel super self conscious even though the person can't see me! I don't know what's worse; being face-to-face with the person or over the phone!? But your English is good, so you probably have nothing to worry about

I much prefer neutral, but posh accents. My 2 favourites are the English and American posh accents, not dialects. In fact, I recently saw an article stating that a recent survey had found the English accent to be the most popular/attractive accent in the world. I think the American accent featured within the top 5, too

I don't think I'd be very good at Spanish, not that I've ever attempted to learn it. When I listen to people speaking Spanish, it just sounds so complicated. I don't know what letter produces the sound akin to the lisp, but that's what I'd struggle with the most. I''m able to say it in isolation, but I'm not so sure I'd be able to say it in a sentence!

A French friend likes to call me and will sometimes break into French. She knows that I understand a little French, but feel a lot more comfortable writing it than speaking it. She feels that I write a lot better than I think and ought to try practicing spoken French more. I know she's right; but because she speaks English and she's my friend, I'm not very comfortable with it lol Have you ever attempted to conduct a telephone conversation in a foreign language? If you haven't, would you do it, given the opportunity?

This a huge factor for me too, @elenamarie! But if you think about it, it's just silly lol I always find that native speakers are easily impressed and very eager to guide you along. But still, that self conscious thing ALWAYS creeps in!

I think it depends on the individual, really. Take for instance this girl in my French class at uni; she learnt to read, write and speak French fluently in a matter of months! She had a fantastic accent, too. Some of us were lagging way behind :cry: Personally, I'd want to go and live among the native speakers who ideally barely speak English so as to be forced into practicing all the time. I feel that if I did this, I'd be able to watch a whole movie in whatever language in about 8 month to a year. I say this because I could speak passable Italy after living in Italy for 3 months. I was surrounded by non-English speaking Italians.

When I started studying French at university, every single person in my class had NEVER learnt it. We were all starting from scratch. However, I remember this one girl who seemed to take to it like a duck to water. Before long, I'd say in a matter of a few months; this girl was speaking French very confidently and fluently while some of us were still grappling with verbs, nouns, conjugation etc I mean, she even had the accent nailed! Does anyone know why it seems so much easier for some people to pick up languages than others?

I often wish I'd had the opportunity to learn foreign languages at a very young age. But I didn't get my first opportunity until I went to university, where I was able to do French as a Minor for my Linguistics Degree. After all, it's been proven that the younger the child; the stronger the ability to learn languages simultaneously. What are your thoughts on this? If you'd been given a chance, which languages would you like to have picked up? What age do you think is best to start teaching children foreign languages?

This is so funny because we were discussing this very topic only yesterday! My husband is English and he has some American cousins. His mum and dad often go over to visit the American relatives and the stories they come back with, around confusion brought about by the differences you find in British and American English....hilarious!

When you're writing, you also have the luxury of going back and correcting mistakes. When we speak, once we've put it out there we can't take it back! Like Petrushka said, chances of making mistakes are higher when we're speaking as opposed to writing.

That's so true! I actually feel slightly sick and get sweaty palms, sometimes. I'm not so bad on a one to one basis. But when I used to take French at uni, and I had to do an oral presentation; I used to really hate it. Granted I'm not a good public speaker anyway. Now combined with speaking a language I'm not so confident speaking; lethal combination lol

I think that's a better position to be in! You're so lucky. I'd rather be better at speaking than writing, to be honest. -and you're right; it's partly because I feel self conscious and don't want to make mistakes. But people (native speakers) are usually impressed and don't judge. They just like to hear a foreigner making an effort to learn their language and are always eager to help with corrections. So I don't understand why I let it get to me so much!!

I love all things Italian, including the language, so that's why I wanted to learn Italian. French, for some reason I grew up fascinated by this language! I'd see books in French and wish I could speak the language. I vowed to learn to speak it as soon as I could afford it, and eventually got to do it at uni.

First off, if I didn't know them it's a resounding no; I wouldn't do anything of the sort! It just wouldn't be good etiquette LOL I mean, you're not even supposed to hear or make it known you're listening to their conversation. I see no reason to feel embarrassed about it, they probably didn't even notice you. But if you were in a social group with friends and friends of friends, that's acceptable.

Dialects and different versions of English can be confusing, yes. I speak and write British English, and sometimes American English is like a slightly different language! I recently sat English test for an online job, and I flunked it. It was a grammar test, which I usually excel at. As it was American English, sometimes I didn't even understand what they were on about, I wasted time and in the end scored 80%. Not a bad score; but I was very disappointed as it was a very basic test and English grammar is usually my forte!. I definitely would have scored a lot better had it been British English!

I totally agree with you ladies. The understanding of each other's language and cultures is so vital in the improvement of race relations. I just wrote this somewhere else; explaining that where there's understanding, there's less suspicion and hate, which usually hinder smooth and harmonious race relations.