American accent, but wait, I love my Aussie accent!

[felicity booth]

Hi.

I'm an Aussie teaching here in Japan. At times, my students cannot understand my Aussie accent. Even simple things such as "What is your name?" and "Where is your home?". But as soon as I change my pronunciation to that of an American, then they understand straight away.

I wonder.... should we be teaching students always with the American pronunciation, or should we use the pronunciation we were born with? It gives me a headache when trying to mimic Americans. and I don't like it too as I'm proud to be Aussie. Not that I have anything against Americans though, don't get me wrong. They have great movies!

One of the biggest buzzes I get is when I hear my 3 year old student say the days of the week using the Oz pronunciation. It's GREAT!

[harold h]

If I were you, I would speak with your Australian accent. Student's and in particular their parents need to realize that for successful communication, students should get accustomed to the many different accents of native English speakers.

If students only learn American English, then what happens when they travel abroad to other countries? They will then have a hard time!

As a native English speaker, I have difficulties at times understanding the Irish. But after I while, I did get used to it.

[cdevine]

But I think for complete beginners we should teach them with an American accent. That way they don't get confused. Once their level improves, then you can start introducing another country's accent.

Have to treat beginners with care!

[Bell Bird]

I think certain words and phrases you need to use the American pronunciation. When going over the alphabet, it's best to pronounce the letters like an American.

[Hypiereon]

First off, I love the Australian accent, but what makes it so loveable is the people who use it.

My advice - be yourself. Look - even Americans have accents. I was born in the north and raised in the south, I've heard it all and ended up with no discernable accent. The Chinese love listening to me, but like the other poster said, they may not be able to function in the real world as easily.

Hit 'em with your Australian accent, but then clarify with your Aussie accent, and most of all, be yourself! They'll love you for it. Really!!

[felicity booth]

Just to ask the simple question "What's your name?" to my children students leaves them puzzled. It's so much easier adapting to sound like an American at times.

I suppose if I always were to speak with an Aussie accent, then it would take about 8 lessons for students to get used to it. I'll try tomorrow with my first class and see how goes.

Funny, as the other day I called the States and tried to spell my last name. They even got confused with the A's and the I's. Aussies pronounce A as ay and I as eye. This confuses many.

[vare2]

G'day mate! haha couldnt resist. Actually even as a English speaker sometimes I had problems deciphering the Aussie accent, esp those with extremely heavy ones like steve irwin*poor dude* I believe the thing for you to do is not to use an American accent, but to tune down your Aussie accent, also speak slower so students can catch your words better=D just my 2 cents

[borea]

hi,

im leaving soon to go over an teach in taiwan. i have a south african accent, i dont think i would even know where to begin pronouncing words with an american accent, we also pronounce i as 'eye', how do americans pronounce it?

anyways, unless the school says i should i'm gona stick to my own accent

cheers 4 now

[Dexter Jambles]

Mate, I can sympathise completely!

My flatmate runs a school placement service for overseas students and through that we get a constant stream of short-term boarders staying with us who are in Oz to study english. In the past year this has included Brazilians, Koreans, Japanese, French, German & Columbian.

Despite the diversity one thing they all have in common is when they first move in they really struggle understanding some words I say, & I often find myself having to rephrase the sentence & speaking very slowly to enable comprehension.

Nevertheless, give them a few weeks and not only can they understand me more but their english noticibly improves. It's always good to see the development between the time someone moves in & when they leave.

[Motivated]

I totally understand your plight - being an Aussie I face the same accent problem everyday. But I've found a happy medium - sometimes i'll throw on a bad Yank accent to make a word clearly understood eg 'river': instead of saying 'rivah' (aus speak) i'll say 'riverrr'.

It really gets my goat when students complain to school directors that they aren't learning correct English simply because they don't get a teacher from the USA. Since I first encountered this problem I now make a point of explaining to all new students that English is an INTERNATIONAL language and that there are countless variations. I've also found that it works in my favour to explain that because there are so many variations of English, the onus is on the student to work extra hard at their studies.

I also like to point out to students that they are extremely fortunate to have teachers that aren't from the USA; they get to hear American accents on TV anyway, and hearing a different native English accent can only be a bonus. Good bit of psychology