This is an article I wrote about the importance of accent in language learning from my experiences teaching in Brazil. I hope you find it interesting!
It's a hard thing to teach, isn't it. I think that submersion is really the only way that one can truly adopt an accent. I took spanish in high school and college and while traveling in Mexico I received many compliments on my accent. I had a leg up though, my grandparents on my mothers side are mexican. Though they didn't speak much spanish around us, their english had a mexican accent and I was able to pick up a spanish accent from my grandparents english. Question for you: Your say Best of luck in your teachings and traveling. I looked at your Yahoo bio and it says you are a Parkour athlete. -Any chance you've written about this? I'd love to read up on it.A Good Accent Improves Clarity
-This is true. This is also why many people enjoy forums like this one, they can be from all over the world and as long as we pick a common language to communicate in, accent is irrelevant on the internet.If you want to truly master any language, not just get by, it is worth it to start working on that accent!
-Anything less is just laziness.If you go to another country and speak fluently with a good accent, it shows people that you cared enough about their country and culture to learn all aspects of the language, not just the words.
-I agree with this. There are those within our culture (US) that have a major problem with immigrants not taking the time to learn English, or if they do it is just enough to get by. What are your feelings about this? Is it disrespectful? We have no "official" language in the US, do we need one?
Interesting insights, guys! I personally feel that having an official language in the USA would be a great step forward. It's not that one language is better than others, but Americans should be able to communicate and share ideas easily. When we don't understand each other, it creates isolated groups. I've written one article on parkour, geared towards women, and I'm in the process of publishing another :) I love writing about it, and there are too few resources out there for the amount of interest in the discipline!
You should post a link to the parkour article. I'd love to read it and I'd bet others would too. I was unfamiliar with parkour prior to cW introducing me to it. He writes a bit about it here. Sounds like it would bring out the child in you. I can recall being a kid and not wanting to touch the ground because we were pretending it was lava ;-)
That's a great article! Yeah, parkour definitely gives you a feeling like nothing else, and the community is really fun-loving and energetic! I did the same thing when I was a kid. :) It's great to be able to stay in touch with that side of yourself, and parkour is a perfect way to do that! I'm going to submit a post to my parkour article now. Hope you enjoy it!
Glad you submitted the article! I'm headed off to read it now. I'm looking forward to it. Top Tips For Becoming a Parkour Girl