okay,to start everything,im 19 this year.
im not living with my family in singapore (my family is not in singapore).
actually im not a singaporean as well.
my friends at class keep mocking me when i speak english.
i have problem with the vocab. (for eg. unobservant/inobservant) and pronounciation.
what should i do?sometimes i can still take it that they are (kind of)joking, but sometimes they just go out of the line.like it's quite embarassing when they mock me in front of others and i look stupid there.
moreover,most of the students in my school speak good and perfect english.how?
please please help me.
what should i say when they mock me,so that they can stop mocking me?
Originally posted by generation90:okay,to start everything,im 19 this year.
im not living with my family in singapore (my family is not in singapore).
actually im not a singaporean as well.
my friends at class keep mocking me when i speak english.
i have problem with the vocab. (for eg. unobservant/inobservant) and pronounciation.
what should i do?sometimes i can still take it that they are (kind of)joking, but sometimes they just go out of the line.like it's quite embarassing when they mock me in front of others and i look stupid there.
moreover,most of the students in my school speak good and perfect english.how?
please please help me.
what should i say when they mock me,so that they can stop mocking me?
If you are serious to improve, go for phonetic class and listen to people speaking good English with good pronounciation. Watch or listen to BBC. If you can, go British Council for class, they are really good.
Just watch Phua Chu Kang...
after watching the 10 season... u will speak english like them!
Originally posted by Fantagf:If you are serious to improve, go for phonetic class and listen to people speaking good English with good pronounciation. Watch or listen to BBC. If you can, go British Council for class, they are really good.
yeah im serious to improve. im trying to read more novels.
thanks for the suggestion. i'm gg to listen to BBC from now on. :]
but any suggestion to tackle them back when they mock me?
Originally posted by [J]erry:Just watch Phua Chu Kang...
after watching the 10 season... u will speak english like them!
wey, don't sabo him lah. he sounds sincere to want to improve
Originally posted by generation90:yeah im serious to improve. im trying to read more novels.
thanks for the suggestion. i'm gg to listen to BBC from now on. :]
but any suggestion to tackle them back when they mock me?
tell them your English is not perfect, you are still learning and even some British don't speak perfect English. My ex boss from UK (I think he is an Irish) spoke broken English - he said "my one".
Originally posted by Fantagf:
wey, don't sabo him lah. he sounds sincere to want to improve
ha ha yeah
Originally posted by Fantagf:
tell them your English is not perfect, you are still learning and even some British don't speak perfect English. My ex boss from UK (I think he is an Irish) spoke broken English - he said "my one".
yeah maybe. thanks (:
actually, i think speaking perfect english is over-rated, lol. I use broken english alot, not that my english is bad, i'm actually highly educated, just that sometimes i find language is only a means to communicate a point across. Assuming you're head of a company, and you have to ask the workers to do something, you speak in an english that you're proud of, and turns out towards the end of the project, the client did not get what he wanted, because the workers thought you wanted it another way and ends up everyone is pissed. Not saying that speaking well is bad obviously, just saying that it's simply over rated. It's just about being efficient I think, getting things done, that's simply more important in work and in life.
my english aint perfect either.
try reading up newspaper daily & watch news.
Originally posted by generation90:but any suggestion to tackle them back when they mock me?
why bother.
show u don't care, they'll get bored
im not very good at mocking..
but yeah, i think kopiosatus right.. just dont care bout them :D
i.. ii .. speeek . purfack .. eengrish ..
Originally posted by generation90:yeah im serious to improve. im trying to read more novels.
thanks for the suggestion. i'm gg to listen to BBC from now on. :]
but any suggestion to tackle them back when they mock me?
Sometimes we can't really stop or control other people's action. Just ignore them or walk away from them. They do that just to get some reaction from you, when they don't get any reaction back, they will get bored eventually.
To improve your language, you need to be brave to speak it even when people laugh at you. Practise makes perfect. Try to read more too to improve your vocabulary.
Good luck and I am sure you'll be fine as long as you don't give up. Have confidence in yourself!
Originally posted by generation90:yeah im serious to improve. im trying to read more novels.
thanks for the suggestion. i'm gg to listen to BBC from now on. :]
but any suggestion to tackle them back when they mock me?
just ignore them.
speak english more often... watch the news... dont know a word too well?? look it up in the dictionary to be sure
No need to worry too much. I was in your situation years ago. Believe me they will get tired trying to mock you, if you just keep mumed about it. A more effective way, is to tell them off politely.
The most important thing that you can do is trying speak good English. Do not worry about the accent. I have difficult time understanding my Singaporean friends during my first year here as well.
Be proud of yourself. Eventually you will get recognition and respect by your friends.
To improve your vocabulary, read Reader's Digest. It is a very powerful vocabulary improver. I read it once and was stunned i managed to learn words that seemed bombastic to me in the past.
For grammar, read newspaper, novels and magazines. When i say read, you actually silently read out the words to yourself. Moving your tongue will do, no need sound effect.
Please do not read tabloid newspapers, novel and magazines. They are full of 'unwanted' contents that will tarnish your command of any language you want to learn or improve. For me, i read National Geographic, Straits Times.
Oh yes, to improve further, write. This is very simple--Try writing compositions or essays about the things around you. This will be very easy for you, i believe.
As you write, read to yourself again. This will reinforce the usage of the language. Do not use bombastic terms unless you really know them. Try explaining it in simple terms--your readers will understand what you are saying.
Last but not least, record yourself when you are pronuncing some words. From there, you will know how to pronuce the words
Keep up the effort and inspire those like you
when they mock you, just laugh along with them. or you could clear your throat, puput on a serious face and re-try pronoucing it the way it's uspposed to be in a really exaggerated way (it helps if you screw your face up a little in severe concentration).
basically if you inject some humour into it, chances are people will be too busy holding thier sides and laughing and will forget about the whoe incident. better yet they'll lay off you the next time. or just "tease" you in the fun friend-ish way. not mock.
when i fell down the stairs, i used to turn all red lunge at my scattered belongings and then hurry off in embarassment. (with all the random people raising their brows at me skeptically) then there was this time when i just burst out laughing (dont ask why. guess i was sick of the turn red and rushing off thing) and suprisingly people actually came up and offered to help me up.
so yup.
oh and just recently i read this article off Oprah (the magazine) and they were talking about how laughter/ humour helped elevate sticky situations.
and god luck in your quest to speak "perfect" english.
which by the way there is none, given that they're all more or less acented.
:/
when they mock you, just laugh along with them. or you could clear your throat, puput on a serious face and re-try pronoucing it the way it's uspposed to be in a really exaggerated way (it helps if you screw your face up a little in severe concentration).
basically if you inject some humour into it, chances are people will be too busy holding thier sides and laughing and will forget about the whoe incident. better yet they'll lay off you the next time. or just "tease" you in the fun friend-ish way. not mock.
when i fell down the stairs, i used to turn all red lunge at my scattered belongings and then hurry off in embarassment. (with all the random people raising their brows at me skeptically) then there was this time when i just burst out laughing (dont ask why. guess i was sick of the turn red and rushing off thing) and suprisingly people actually came up and offered to help me up.
so yup.
oh and just recently i read this article off Oprah (the magazine) and they were talking about how laughter/ humour helped elevate sticky situations.
and good luck in your quest to speak "perfect" english.
which by the way there is none, given that they're all more or less acented.
:/
Btw, where we can watching movie in internet??
and for who cant speak english well then which movie should they watch??
give some suggestion leh..
Originally posted by biqi:Btw, where we can watching movie in internet??
and for who cant speak english well then which movie should they watch??
give some suggestion leh..
watch those brit movies.
OP
Tell them to read expatsingapore forum. Your classmates will soon learn their English is pretty sh*t compared to Westerners, and that Westerners think Singaporean English is c.r.a.p.
The difference between you and local Singaporeans is that you are honest. You know your English is not perfect and are trying to improve it. Singaporeans, on the other hand, actually think they can speak it. I've seen a Singaporean actually try to correct Asians from overseas by teaching them Singlish, when the Asian was actually speaking fluent English!
Just last week I was at McDonalds and asked for a large Coke Light for my meal. The Singaporean guy was teaching a girl from China. The girl from China keyed in my order, and the Singaporean told her off telling her she was wrong.
Lo and behold, the Singaporean guy gives me a small normal Coke, and large French Fries instead of normal fries and large Coke Light. I then tell the girl in mandarin that she was right. Singaporean's English is not very good and her English was correct, and not to doubt herself.
So OP- be brave and perservere! Tell your oh so smart classmates to go and talk to a group of Westerners and see if the Westerners think their English is good.
I was corrected on my inklish so often, especially in a conversation....its getting just boring.
in sg it is pretty difficult to speak good English. When one speaks good English those around him or her will either don't understand or don't like it.