Moderator:kevin
Niniel wrote:There are very few people who manage to speak foreign languages really accent-free. Especially regarding English I must say that most Germans have a quite heavy accent speaking it
You're excluding yourself here, aren't you?
But I didn't just say that out of my own opinion. I've been having chats with english people and other foreign people quite often, and the English say that nearly all Germans (not bavarian and saxonies though) dont have a heavy accent .
And if talking to a frenchman or so hell say sth like "so, you like many germans dont have such a heavy accent" or so. But of course there are different english accents too, so there is no common english.
And I'll have to add that I've been talking so much to natives the last year, that I dont just sound like someone who has been taught at school by a german teacher.
So I hear the differences between my english and that of other germans who arent really interested in it.
But when I met a native for the first time I asked if my accent was strong and she said NO.
Niniel wrote:Of course here in my area, which is north west, we are talking standard German, and the english pronunciation is actually really good, as far as I can tell, but youll just have to goi to Bavaria or saxony, and the accent will be fatally strong.
Anyway, I think most speakers of Standard German don't pronounce English very well. Very many would pronounce "bat" and "bet" the same or "lived" and "lift" or "lies" and "lice" or even "of" and "off" and probably very many of those don't even know these words are pronounced differently
Saaropean wrote:The word "school" comes from Greek (where it's spelled with sigma-chi, thus SCH).
And other Englisch words with SCH usually come from Greek (schedule), German (schnitzel) or Yiddish (schmaltz).
RabidIrishGuy*from USA wrote:The first German I ever heard was in war documentaries that included Hitler's speeches. Needless to say, he has always been the first person that pops into my head when I hear "german".
RabidIrishGuy*from USA wrote:In short, it's all according to context. Regretebly, a lot of opinions are based on first-time exposure.
As for German pronunciation of English, at some points it is the WORST accent. It sounds very pitchy, and is difficult to understan.
bodhisatva wrote:RabidIrishGuy*from USA wrote:The first German I ever heard was in war documentaries that included Hitler's speeches. Needless to say, he has always been the first person that pops into my head when I hear "german".
Hitler spoke Austrian
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests