That must be what it is like to be born after the invention of the Internet, after having taken copious amounts of bugle powder and after jamming your head repeatedly between a door and the door frame...
In the early 2000's I signed up a football forum. I read and posted a lot on there and started to use those ridiculous spellings under the influence of the English posters. I was about 13 and although my English then was already much better than my peers', I had only been learning the language for three or four years, apparently not able to tell what was good and what was bad regarding the usage of the language/spelling. And a couple of years later when I joined cafc-fans, I used 'Curbs4eva' as my nickname
I must say Charlton Life is the most civilised online community I've ever seen concerning the language. My English has been improved a lot since I became a regular Lifer a few years ago.
In the early 2000's I signed up a football forum. I read and posted a lot on there and started to use those ridiculous spellings under the influence of the English posters. I was about 13 and although my English then was already much better than my peers', I had only been learning the language for three or four years, apparently not able to tell what was good and what was bad regarding the usage of the language/spelling. And a couple of years later when I joined cafc-fans, I used 'Curbs4eva' as my nickname
I must say Charlton Life is the most civilised online community I've ever seen concerning the language. My English has been improved a lot since I became a regular Lifer a few years ago.
Imagine if millions of people in China learned English under the influence of addicted2Charltob!
In the early 2000's I signed up a football forum. I read and posted a lot on there and started to use those ridiculous spellings under the influence of the English posters. I was about 13 and although my English then was already much better than my peers', I had only been learning the language for three or four years, apparently not able to tell what was good and what was bad regarding the usage of the language/spelling. And a couple of years later when I joined cafc-fans, I used 'Curbs4eva' as my nickname
I must say Charlton Life is the most civilised online community I've ever seen concerning the language. My English has been improved a lot since I became a regular Lifer a few years ago.
Jessie your use of both formal and informal English is incredible. It was already good when you first came here but has improved leaps and bounds since then using the correct phrases and word combination in the right places, you even seem to have mastered the dreaded phrasal verbs!
In the early 2000's I signed up a football forum. I read and posted a lot on there and started to use those ridiculous spellings under the influence of the English posters. I was about 13 and although my English then was already much better than my peers', I had only been learning the language for three or four years, apparently not able to tell what was good and what was bad regarding the usage of the language/spelling. And a couple of years later when I joined cafc-fans, I used 'Curbs4eva' as my nickname
I must say Charlton Life is the most civilised online community I've ever seen concerning the language. My English has been improved a lot since I became a regular Lifer a few years ago.
Your English is better than mine and I've lived here all my life.
In the early 2000's I signed up a football forum. I read and posted a lot on there and started to use those ridiculous spellings under the influence of the English posters. I was about 13 and although my English then was already much better than my peers', I had only been learning the language for three or four years, apparently not able to tell what was good and what was bad regarding the usage of the language/spelling. And a couple of years later when I joined cafc-fans, I used 'Curbs4eva' as my nickname
I must say Charlton Life is the most civilised online community I've ever seen concerning the language. My English has been improved a lot since I became a regular Lifer a few years ago.
Jessie your use of both formal and informal English is incredible. It was already good when you first came here but has improved leaps and bounds since then using the correct phrases and word combination in the right places, you even seem to have mastered the dreaded phrasal verbs!
How is your spoken English? I am sure it is good.
Thanks! I haven't had many opportunities to speak English in recent years. Can't say I speak more fluently than those who use it on a daily basis (like interpreters etc.) but I'm quite confident I only need a couple of hours talking to a native speaker to become totally fluent.
In the early 2000's I signed up a football forum. I read and posted a lot on there and started to use those ridiculous spellings under the influence of the English posters. I was about 13 and although my English then was already much better than my peers', I had only been learning the language for three or four years, apparently not able to tell what was good and what was bad regarding the usage of the language/spelling. And a couple of years later when I joined cafc-fans, I used 'Curbs4eva' as my nickname
I must say Charlton Life is the most civilised online community I've ever seen concerning the language. My English has been improved a lot since I became a regular Lifer a few years ago.
@JessieAddick Just listened. First off, I think the most important thing is that you can make yourself understood and you’ve got that sorted. Second, I work with a couple of Chinese girls and there are a couple of characteristics of their speech that I recognise with you: The main one seems to be a tendency to drop the last consonant of a word - a bit like a glottal stop, but noticeable because you do it with letters that we wouldn’t. For example, English people often replace a ‘t’ with a glottal stop (eg ‘butter’ becomes ‘bu’er’, ‘Idiot’ becomes ‘Idio’ ’), but rarely do we drop a p or a d. I’ve noticed with my Chinese friends and with your recording that words like ‘stop’ or ‘good’ become sto’ or goo’. It’s interesting because glottal stops are notorious for making native English speakers difficult to understand, so it’s bound to have that effect for a Chinese person too! Incidentally, another thing is pronounciation of letters - and it’s particularly interesting because some English people do these too - I’ve noticed my Chinese friends pronounce th as f (think becomes fink) and sometimes L as a kind of w, but only at the end of a word. I noticed this a bit in your recording too. An interesting word is ‘help’ because there’s a tendency to both drop the p at the end and also pronounce the l as a sort of w, meaning it gets pronounced “he-w” or something like that!
As I say, I could understand you perfectly, but these are just observations of common traits that I also recognise in friends. I think the little things like these sometimes contribute to misunderstandings. By the way, I’m no linguist, so if you find my observations patronising, inaccurate, rude or unhelpful, I apologise - it’s not meant to be. I think your English is astonishing and I am and always have been a bit envious of people like you who are able to master other languages. Keep it up!
In the early 2000's I signed up a football forum. I read and posted a lot on there and started to use those ridiculous spellings under the influence of the English posters. I was about 13 and although my English then was already much better than my peers', I had only been learning the language for three or four years, apparently not able to tell what was good and what was bad regarding the usage of the language/spelling. And a couple of years later when I joined cafc-fans, I used 'Curbs4eva' as my nickname
I must say Charlton Life is the most civilised online community I've ever seen concerning the language. My English has been improved a lot since I became a regular Lifer a few years ago.
Imagine if millions of people in China learned English under the influence of addicted2Charltob!
In the early 2000's I signed up a football forum. I read and posted a lot on there and started to use those ridiculous spellings under the influence of the English posters. I was about 13 and although my English then was already much better than my peers', I had only been learning the language for three or four years, apparently not able to tell what was good and what was bad regarding the usage of the language/spelling. And a couple of years later when I joined cafc-fans, I used 'Curbs4eva' as my nickname
I must say Charlton Life is the most civilised online community I've ever seen concerning the language. My English has been improved a lot since I became a regular Lifer a few years ago.
Jessie your use of both formal and informal English is incredible. It was already good when you first came here but has improved leaps and bounds since then using the correct phrases and word combination in the right places, you even seem to have mastered the dreaded phrasal verbs!
How is your spoken English? I am sure it is good.
Thanks! I haven't had many opportunities to speak English in recent years. Can't say I speak more fluently than those who use it on a daily basis (like interpreters etc.) but I'm quite confident I only need a couple of hours talking to a native speaker to become totally fluent.
@JessieAddick, the pronunciation is very good but the inflection and intonation are a bit off, although that's not surprising given you haven't had lots of chances to converse with native English speakers.
Edit. I've just seen romford's comments, above. He describes it more exactly.
Thank you all. @lordromford thank you so much for taking the time to write such a long and helpful analysis. Those problems are something I've never noticed before. I started to learn English at 10 at school and have never taken extra courses. So I've never been corrected by anyone. Your post is truly helpful (and also AddicksAddict's). I think there's still a lot room for improvement and I'll try to speak as much as possible in future.
Actually I didn't know what a glottal stop was. I had to look it up... I think I've probably listened to too many interviews with English footballers and managers and unconsciously picked it up in the wrong way!
Actually I didn't know what a glottal stop was. I had to look it up... I think I've probably listened to too many interviews with English footballers and managers and unconsciously picked it up in the wrong way!
Actually I didn't know what a glottal stop was. I had to look it up... I think I've probably listened to too many interviews with English footballers and managers and unconsciously picked it up in the wrong way!
It goes to show how good your English is that I assumed you would be familiar with the term!
Many years ago I had to meet the Earl of Poshness or somewhere - in reception of my work. I had to go with him in the lift to the appropriate floor and chatted away in my Sth London accent.
I finished with “so how’s it all going then?” He replied, “oh, you know, fighting a daily battle against elision”
I said “ain’t we all” (not having a scooby what he was on about).
In the early 2000's I signed up a football forum. I read and posted a lot on there and started to use those ridiculous spellings under the influence of the English posters. I was about 13 and although my English then was already much better than my peers', I had only been learning the language for three or four years, apparently not able to tell what was good and what was bad regarding the usage of the language/spelling. And a couple of years later when I joined cafc-fans, I used 'Curbs4eva' as my nickname
I must say Charlton Life is the most civilised online community I've ever seen concerning the language. My English has been improved a lot since I became a regular Lifer a few years ago.
Many years ago I had to meet the Earl of Poshness or somewhere - in reception of my work. I had to go with him in the lift to the appropriate floor and chatted away in my Sth London accent.
I finished with “so how’s it all going then?” He replied, “oh, you know, fighting a daily battle against elision”
I said “ain’t we all” (not having a scooby what he was on about).
Then I looked it up. Posh sod.
You should have asked him who his favourite philosopher was. When he asked for yours you could have said 'KANT!'
Comments
I must say Charlton Life is the most civilised online community I've ever seen concerning the language. My English has been improved a lot since I became a regular Lifer a few years ago.
How is your spoken English? I am sure it is good.
I just recorded myself reading a random article on the club's OS (too much time on my hands.... I've never done this sort of thing before
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5b3cedf5ee3d5/jake-forster-caskey-on-charlton-working-hard-in-portugal
Just listened.
First off, I think the most important thing is that you can make yourself understood and you’ve got that sorted.
Second, I work with a couple of Chinese girls and there are a couple of characteristics of their speech that I recognise with you:
The main one seems to be a tendency to drop the last consonant of a word - a bit like a glottal stop, but noticeable because you do it with letters that we wouldn’t. For example, English people often replace a ‘t’ with a glottal stop (eg ‘butter’ becomes ‘bu’er’, ‘Idiot’ becomes ‘Idio’ ’), but rarely do we drop a p or a d. I’ve noticed with my Chinese friends and with your recording that words like ‘stop’ or ‘good’ become sto’ or goo’. It’s interesting because glottal stops are notorious for making native English speakers difficult to understand, so it’s bound to have that effect for a Chinese person too! Incidentally, another thing is pronounciation of letters - and it’s particularly interesting because some English people do these too - I’ve noticed my Chinese friends pronounce th as f (think becomes fink) and sometimes L as a kind of w, but only at the end of a word. I noticed this a bit in your recording too. An interesting word is ‘help’ because there’s a tendency to both drop the p at the end and also pronounce the l as a sort of w, meaning it gets pronounced “he-w” or something like that!
As I say, I could understand you perfectly, but these are just observations of common traits that I also recognise in friends. I think the little things like these sometimes contribute to misunderstandings.
By the way, I’m no linguist, so if you find my observations patronising, inaccurate, rude or unhelpful, I apologise - it’s not meant to be. I think your English is astonishing and I am and always have been a bit envious of people like you who are able to master other languages.
Keep it up!
Edit. I've just seen romford's comments, above. He describes it more exactly.
I finished with “so how’s it all going then?”
He replied, “oh, you know, fighting a daily battle against elision”
I said “ain’t we all” (not having a scooby what he was on about).
Then I looked it up.
Posh sod.
I will nick that though.