Comments on: English Intonation http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/nafis/2009/02/12/english-intonation/ Just another EnglishClub.com ESL Blogs weblog Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:00:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Belajar Bahasa Inggris http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/nafis/2009/02/12/english-intonation/#comment-3089 Belajar Bahasa Inggris Fri, 22 May 2009 07:10:10 +0000 http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/nafis/2009/02/12/english-intonation/#comment-3089 For work reasons, I have to communicate - on a daily basis - with English speakers of many different countries: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, Russia, India, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, China, Korea and Japan. There, I name them all! These are the people I work with everyday, 5 days a week. Their English level is far more than what I’d call advanced, perhaps near native (grammatically). It’s been nearly 3 years now, but there’s just one thing I can’t still get used to: the accent! Imagine you go out for a drink with eight or ten people of different nations to whom English is his/her second or third (or even fourth, especially for Indian who speaks so many local languages) language and each of these people has a really strong accent when they speak – and combine that with the intonation that comes out differently with each of the accents! It’s really challenging to catch what they are saying - and of course funny sometimes. If I had the choice, I’d rather chat via Skype or MSN as much as possible – but wouldn’t it look weird to chat via Skype at a bar with a friend of yours who is actually sitting right next to you? By the way, don’t get me wrong! My colleagues are very cool and fun people! So I personally think that, perhaps, the correct steps to learn to speak English as naturally as possible are as followed: - learn the English grammar - train your accent (accent reduction) - and then practice intonation This is of course just my two cents. For work reasons, I have to communicate - on a daily basis - with English speakers of many different countries: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, Russia, India, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, China, Korea and Japan. There, I name them all! These are the people I work with everyday, 5 days a week. Their English level is far more than what I’d call advanced, perhaps near native (grammatically). It’s been nearly 3 years now, but there’s just one thing I can’t still get used to: the accent!

Imagine you go out for a drink with eight or ten people of different nations to whom English is his/her second or third (or even fourth, especially for Indian who speaks so many local languages) language and each of these people has a really strong accent when they speak – and combine that with the intonation that comes out differently with each of the accents! It’s really challenging to catch what they are saying - and of course funny sometimes.

If I had the choice, I’d rather chat via Skype or MSN as much as possible – but wouldn’t it look weird to chat via Skype at a bar with a friend of yours who is actually sitting right next to you? By the way, don’t get me wrong! My colleagues are very cool and fun people!

So I personally think that, perhaps, the correct steps to learn to speak English as naturally as possible are as followed:
- learn the English grammar
- train your accent (accent reduction)
- and then practice intonation

This is of course just my two cents.

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