Poles - don't fall into the French/Spanish trap re pronunciation/accent!

It's something that really bugs me - I speak reasonable French & Spanish BUT they are so unreasonable when it comes to pronunciation - especially the French.

I'm not accusing Poles of anything (yet) as my Polish is far too basic to elicit anything other than encouragement etc - which I get - but please, have patience and don't end up like our other western European neighbours!

I have absolutely nothing against the French or Spanish by the way - one of my best friends is Spanish - but this definitely is a phenomenon in my experience.

E.g. when practicing French with a native speaker, time and time again I hear "Yes, not bad, your French is quite good - but you need to practice your accent"

Except (descending into cliché for a moment) what he actually says is:

"Yeuus, note bad, your Fronch eez quat good - bat yo need to prokteese your aksont"

And imagine the same in Spanish.

I'm sure I don't need to explain the irony : )

Poles, don't do it - please!

Vell, mheybee he vas rite? Mheybee zer ys somesing vrong with your aksont?"

*jest vondering*

At least we try to learn foreign languages, unlike some of you English people who think you don't need to ;)

But i see what you're talking about. I'm always insulting the French TV sport commentators for the lack of effort ;)

Most British and German people have quite funny accents when speaking foreign languages. Obviously it doesn't matter which foreign language they speak.

But it's good that you are trying more and more, it will be better in the future.

Er, and most "foreign" people have funny accents when speaking English - this is my point!

Hmm. Just tell me how many different English accents exist throughout the world...
Which is one is 'correct'? ;)

I hear ya. That's one reason I never got further in French. As a child we had French speaking neighbors (at least the parents were). I learned a few words to impress them and instead of encouragement got a 15 minute lecture on how bad my pronunciation was (in very heavily French accented English).

Some years later I had a similar experience after reciting some song lyrics I'd learned (again from a Quebecois who saw nothing wrong with her very heavy accent in English). Another French speaker (Belgian) tried to encourage me and criticised the critic's French, mais le damage, shee was done.

I've never gotten anything but encouragement from Spanish speakers who, if anything, overdid the praise.

I've also mostly gotten encouragement from Germans (counterproductive my accent is good enough that they go ahead and use dialect with me that I have no hope of understanding).

With Polish it's a mixed bag. Mostly encouragement though again I remember visiting a friend's family and the father was initially impressed but less so when he realized I didn't understand esoteric literary references or plays on words.....

Can't really see what your problem is, everyone is going to have a funny accent when not speaking their native language.


Poles are no different, just listen to one asking "does the sheets need changing? or are you going to the beach today? ;)

But you could understand him, perhaps he was saying that no one will understand you if you speak French with that accent.

American. You're welcome.

Yeah OK : )

But certainly not the version spoken by the majority of French/Spanish/German/Italian/Polish - whoever.

Unless they want to officially add new dialects to the language or something ; )


But this is precisely my point - maybe I'm not explaining it properly.

The French guy in the example was oblivious to the accent that he had - but yet thought I should work on mine!


Again, no - he understood me perfectly. As I did him, I should add.

I guess that depends on where you live.


You should rather asked us to do it.You have to pronounce like natives otherwise you won't be understood.At least learn spelling in case they do "huh?".I used to ask people to correct me and now even though I still sound "Russian" to Americans they seem to understand very well.


Haha French.I used to work for a French company in Poland (I don't speak any French) and at the orientation one of them was speaking English and at first I was thinking "wow ,he is speaking French and I can understand someting."

Yes, pronounce, say all the letters as they should be said - as long as I'm understood, fine.

I'll always be a foreigner speaking Polish - and obviously so.

Only Mafketis understands my plight...

: )

I actually enjoy foreigners speaking (or trying to speak) polish but with their own accent. I think its cute haha

Foraigners are funny when they speak Polish.
...

All you need is a severe headache. ;)

msnbc.msn.com/id/39195151
Severe migraine gives English woman French accent

RAPHAEL G. SATTER
The Associated Press
A woman from a village in southwestern England says that a severe migraine attack left her speaking with what sounds like a French accent - a striking example of a rare syndrome that neuroscientists say can leave lifelong locals sounding like they come from thousands of miles away.

I'm sure she will be an object of desire for locals. It seems like men from all countries are into French accent or French women. I can't explain it. I'm not a man.

I personally think French accent sounds cute in a women, but when it comes to men I can't help it, but makes me wonder if the guy is homo.

And answering the original post, I think Polish people are usually so happy that anyone learns their forgotten language that they don't notice the problems with accent or mistakes.

I used to love to listen to my German "lektor" speaking Polish. She would talk like a robot and say things like "Studenci jadą w kafeterii", but I was so happy anyways that she learned my language.

fantastic :D

I have never had a problem with heavily accented English. To my ears it's like a form of music! :)

Ever since watching those adverts for Heyah, I've been challenging Polish friends to say through correctly! Sru! ;)

Oh, the Poles have their commonly pronounced words too. Vowels tend to present a problem for many. Batman becomes Buttman, sth like a Swedish pûrn ;) ;) They hear U like A. DrAg dealer, for example ;)

Let's not get started on sheep/ship and beach/bitch

Yep. It's my biggest problem when teaching. Note/not/nut etc.

The short U sound, like "uh" doesn't seem to exist in Polish.

nout / not / nat, no?


I don't have such problem. The only problem for me is with the word "the". Those I pronounce correctly though.

No : )

First one, as in NOte, second one is a very short "oh" and the third, the short "uh" sound, as mentioned previously.

Gnat would be pronounced nat.

So I do pronounce it in proper way! Hurray! :)

Poles like write to "oh" sound as "ou" because we hear this long oooo as if it was ending with £ :)

I'm not sure if we are on the same page here: the NO sound in the word NOTE should be pronounced the same as the word NO, but you may not pronounce NO properly :)

It should be a very strong O not short like stop or plot or not

But not OO either like pool or rude

It should be as in Romeo

yeah i know it. I think the problem is you are:


;)

But you can tell me about misterious shwa sound which in every word sounds in different way (a, e, y or something between)

I'm curious what's wrong with this sentence?

Poles often pronounce beach a bit like b1tch

And sheet a bit like sh1t too

: )


Sorry, don't know what you mean - can you give examples?

taken [teɪkən] I hear tejkEn (ɛ)
emotion [ɪ'məʊʃən] I hear imouszYn (ɨ) or imouszOn (o)


I should write "schwa", that is "ə" in IPA signs


So I don't get idea why the hell they named a sound which is not really one sound but it can sound like every other vowel!

Ah yes. Although it looks like EN it is pronounced like IN


Likewise with the first one. Depends on regional accent sometimes and also, words can often be overpronounced.

I think maybe the same happens with Pięć.

(Here we go again with Polish/English phonetics, but) it should be, as far as I know, pyench but a Pole told me that some Poles, trying to appear sophisticated may overpronounce as pyounch.


I know what you mean. English is wildly inconsistent re pronunciation. And again, a huge variety of regional accents doesn't help.

Take, in the SE of England can be pronounced TYKE

In the NW, as TEK in the NE as TEA-AK or even TAK.

: )