Do you speak another language?

[agua.]

I try to teach them British English as that is "true" English example Mum not mom and also the spelling in British English. Unfortunately next semester I'll have no choice as the Govt here is enrapture with all things US and as such are changing the course books to an American one.
I can actually put on a rather posh British accent to help with pronunciation for the kids, but sometimes they still repeat words back to me sounding like Aussies then I have to go syllable by syllable.
Most of the older kids (years 11 and 12) now say "g'day Paul how you going?" in the morning instead of the robotic "Good morning teacher Paul, How are you today sir?" they they have had drummed into them for so long.
If they are going to enter the world to work, they need conversational English, not some crud the learn by rote that doesn't fit into any conversation what soever.

Haven't you had a conversation using " the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" recently ? :biggrin

 

[Paul1965]

Nah, mate, I use "the sneaky yellow dingo slips under the rusty barbed wire fence" Doesn't use all the letters of the alphabet, but hey I like my dingoes. :D

 

[evenifigoalone]

Well... I can't count yet but I can pronounce what you said!

I can pronounce like the first five, I think.

 

[Claudya]

Claudya, there is an app I was using a little bit - one called Japanese (flash cards) and another called learn Japanese. Another way is to talk to someone who is Japanese. You can also get Japanese pen pals - so many of them really want to learn English.

Good idea!

Pen pals are easy to find thanks to the internet nowadays.
There are also a lot of exchange students in my town, there are probably Japanese people among them, too.

 

[farouk]

Aussie English is incredibly hard to understand. Reading it is obviously easy, but listening comprehension of Australian English is impossible. Not even the Scots and the Texans are that hard to understand.
It should be considered a language of its own.

So, Australian English is haaard?

Anyway, you'll tell an Australian from a New Zealander because the latter may say 'fush and chups' instead of 'fish and chips'.

 

[farouk]

Finnish, Swedish & English

A true Finn indeed...

Whoever calls Aaland 'Ahvenamaa' (or however you spell it)...

 

[AIR]

A true Finn indeed...

Whoever calls Aaland 'Ahvenamaa' (or however you spell it)...

ahvenanmaa is part of Finland but the funny thing is that most of there are speaking Swedish and they don't have to go to mandatory army service either. They are more like swedish than finnish even Finland owns that

 

[farouk]

ahvenanmaa is part of Finland but the funny thing is that most of there are speaking Swedish and they don't have to go to mandatory army service either. They are more like swedish than finnish even Finland owns that

I think there are lots of Swedish-speakers in Turku, also, right? (Aabo).

Interestingly, during the Cold War, Sweden deported back to the Soviet Union ethnic Swedes from Estonia, who managed to escape across the Baltic.