my accent

[Noelia]

I need an honest answer here

Is my accent bearable when I speak (in English - I know in Spanish it's not hehe)

I've heard people in paltalk and even in person that makes you wish you had a gun to shoot your ears when you listen to them, and I would hate it very much to sound like them.-

So I'd like to know if it is pleasurable or at least bearable to listen to me when I speak?

Now's the time to make changes so please be honest!

[Robie]

Personally, I love your accent and have told you that many times but you don't want to believe me. I hear a lot of foreigners speaking english very fluently yet I still can't understand them. But with you, it's almost perfect. You work very hard to pronounce things right and, sure there are a few words that sound "funny" but only enough to know that you're speaking a 2nd language and it's not your native tongue. I want you to come teach english pronunciation classes to my Indian colleagues.

[Noelia]

GRacias Robie, todavía no puedo escuchar mi propio acento y no sé bien como se oye desde el oído nativo pero si, trato de mejorar dia a dia, a veces lo logro, a veces no, pero tengo... PACIENCIA! mwhahaha

[johnr]

La verdad es que no sé porque no te he oído hablar ingles salvo unas palabras sueltas o unas frases cortas. Pero la próxima vez que hablamos, hablemos unos minutos en inglés como prueba.

Pero me imagino que puedes hablar muy bien porque tienes un vocabulario muy amplio y he notado que este normalmente quiere decir que una persona domina el idioma y tiene un buen acento . Pues es mi teoria por lo menos.

[sendai]

I've only heard you speak English a few times, but no, your accent is not unpleasant at all. And I'm sure your accent has improved since I last heard it.

Since you asked for criticism and not just warm fuzzies ("Oh, Noelia, you're the best!"), I'll say the following.

I've pretty much only heard you speak English in group setting where you didn't know everyone and were probably nervous, so maybe that accounts for this: you have a sort of staccato delivery when you speak English. Actually, come to think of it, when you're speaking your natural Spanish (with your friends, for example) you speak like that too. Anyway, it's not really an accent issue, but smoothing out your delivery a little might make you sound better. But maybe that doesn't happen when you are relaxed....

Oh and by the way, you are the best.

[Noelia]

Thanks

Sí, me doy cuenta que uso muchísima entonacion de mi acento argentino-porteño cuando hablo inglés y estuve tratando de cambiarlo. Presto mucha atencion ahora a la entonacion que la gente usa al hablar y trato de imitarla, lo mas posible.

Me dí cuenta que gran parte de lo que causa el acento no es ni la entonacion ni la pronunciacion, sino un correcto stress de la palabra, tal como la "estresan" los hablantes nativos (esto supongo que se aplica a todos los idiomas, pero inglés tiene un stress especial)

Hablar en grupo me pone nerviosa en cualquier idioma, no me gusta. Pero sí, definitivamente no me permite concentrarme en cómo quiero decir las cosas, apenas puedo concentrarme en qué quiero decir y que salga mas o menos entendible.

Hay que seguir intentando.

[johnr]

Pues, acabo de hablar con Noelia y .. qué puedo decir. Ella habla fantástica, con fluidez y con un muy buen acento. Si algún día yo pudiera hablar español al mismo nivel estaría tan feliz.

Te felicito Noelia.

[Noelia]

Aww gracias, todos estos compliments se me van a subir a la cabeza!
No, no es cierto.

The reason I asked, is because yesterday, I went to this job interview, and I felt so intimidated. There were 4 people (3 guys 1 girl) all my age, sitting around a big table, each one facing his laptop and I was there, so tiny, being interviewed, in English. And as I spoke, some were listening to me, and some were examining my websites, I felt so exposed, and I was terribly nervous, but tried to keep calm and sound as fluent as I could.

Now I know I made lots of mistakes, and pronunced some words really wrong, but, it wasn't a class in paltalk, I had to keep on speaking without correcting myself because I know that's annoying.

But out of all this, i found out 2 possitive things:

1) I can perfectly face an interview in English - I understood each and every word they said.
2) I can understand John in English perfectly - so it's not all the british accents that I don't understand!

If only for these 2 things, I'm happy, I don't think I could have done this a couple of years ago!

[sendai]

I realized hace poco that English not only has stress on syllables but also on words within phrases. For example, in these three I stress the first word:

television set
alarm clock
picture frame
air conditioner

But if I say these, I stress the second:

dresser drawer
central heating
air conditioning

I have no idea why! But if someone doesn't use this same stress, it sounds odd. I hear that a lot from Argentines speaking English. They'll say a set phrase like "in the back beyond", but will stress "back" instead of "beyond". Or "you have to treat her with kid gloves" but stress the word "kid".

[Noelia]

En esas frases el stress está en la "cosa" y no en lo que la modifica.

En "central heating" lo importante no es que sea "central" sino que es "heating". Que sea "central" es solo un detalle.

Pero a lo que yo me refería es al stress de palabras, como por ejemplo (y son las únicas que se me ocurren ahora)

- Possible <--- La "o" tiene un tiempo mas que el resto de las palabras, como en música

- Common <--- acá no es tan obvio, pero me da la sensación que la primera "o" tambien tiene un tiempo mas

Y estas cosas son re-dificiles de escuchar si no sabés lo que estás buscando en la pronunciación...

[sendai]

Sí, en esas dos palabras ponemos el stress en la primera sílaba. Y es cierto, la sílaba que lleva el stress se pronuncia durante más tiempo.

[Noelia]

Si, y sabés como me dí cuenta de eso, por "el rey leon" porque en una cancion, cuando cantan, uno de los personajes dice "impossible" y el sonido de PO es mas largo de lo normal, ahi empecé a prestar atencion a los tiempos de las palabras.

Who dares to tell me TV is not educative!!! (Robie dares, ya sé, pero no importa!)

[johnr]

¿dónde pones el stress en la palabra 'hello'? ¿Cambia, no?

[Noelia]

mmm yo pongo el stresss en "llo" Donde lo pones tu? Nunca escuché "hello" con el stress en "he"

[johnr]

a ver mañana cuando hablamos.