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Us grad student here. The problem with most foreign grad students is that they do not want to work on their accent, or on English itself, for that matter. Many
by coreyp_1 11y ago
Us grad student here. The problem with most foreign grad students is that they do not want to work on their accent, or on English itself, for that matter. Many of them just congregate into their own groups, and rarely speak English except for when they have to. Then, they wonder why they get such low reviews when they give a lecture!
In a way, this is highly pragmatic of them. Most of them do not want to stay in the United States after they graduate, so they have no interest in the extra effort that it takes to learn an American accent. The extra time it would take actually pulls them away from their research, and is seen as a distraction. Unfortunately, those who do want to stay either don't know how to, can't, or won't practice a better American accent, and so are extremely difficult to understand, even when you are familiar with the subject matter that they are talking about.
I have met only I have a dozen or so foreign students that I did not were from another country until they told me so. It wasn't about the size of their vocabulary, but entirely based on their accent.
- bbgm 11y agoShould they? I can't tell if your comment covers any accent, or just very thick ones. English is my first language (I speak Hindi but am not very comfortable carrying on a conversation in the language). I have lived in the US for almost 20 years, and at no point have I ever felt that my accent was holding me back.
- coreyp_1 11y agoIMO, slight accents are not a problem. Very thick ones are (such as not being able to understand individual words because the vowels and consonants are so badly mispronounced). I am a native speaker, but I have a regional accent. When I teach classes, I consciously minimize my home accent because it is difficult for non-native speakers to understand my English if they are not familiar with its sounds. Why shouldn't an ESL speaker do the same? When I go to other countries whose language I have studied, I try very hard to mimic the national accent, and people appreciate the effort. I think of it as a way of showing respect to them, their heritage, and their culture. If I disregard it simply because I don't have time or can't be bothered, then I am being extremely rude. And so, yes, when I have gone to Mexico, Brazil, France, and Germany, I have tried to speak those languages as authentically as possible.
- ta0967 11y agoI have met only I have a dozen or so foreign students that I did not were from another country until they told me so. where are you from?