Vilinthril — I'll have you know that New Jersey's Local Meat Sandwich is extraordinarily tasty. And they'll even make it for you if you can't fake the regional accent, which most people get wrong anyway.
Living in Shanghai, I hear from time to time that I have a really good Chinese accent. I don't think it's possible to take this at face value; the fact that it receives comment at all broadly indicates that it attracts notice, which isn't really what an actual good accent would do.
One guy, unprompted by me, elaborated on why he said my accent was good: "you distinguish between s and sh".
I don't think it's possible to take this at face value; the fact that it receives comment at all broadly indicates that it attracts notice, which isn't really what an actual good accent would do.
Yeah, that's what I've always thought. If people comment on your accent, then you probably don't sound like a native. If someone really sounds like a native speaker, you assume they are one and don't ask any questions.
@ Bean: I saw a woman wearing a burka a few weeks ago at a Middle Eastern shop/restaurant where I live in America. The minute she opened her mouth I could tell she was a native speaker of English, so I didn't compliment her on her accent. Her husband, on the other hand, was wearing more "American" clothing, but I could tell almost immediately that he wasn't a native speaker of English. I'm pretty sure I would only compliment someone on their English if they had an accent, strange as it may sound. I mean, if someone told me that they were born and raised in Japan in perfect American English, I probably would compliment them on their English. But that's never happened.
It does depend a lot on the country, of course. My spoken Japanese is fairly good — good enough anyway to have been mistaken occasionally for a native speaker when getting a cold call. (Though I'm not sure I ever managed to keep up the highly gratifying pretence for longer than a minute or two.)
But it's a different matter face to face. I have been in the company of other white people whose Japanese was much better than mine (fluent Osaka-ben, for example), and the compliments they received (or were plagued with) were more frequent and more effusive than mine.
Vilinthril said,
May 14, 2015 @ 4:33 am
FYI, SMBC now also has mouseover text jokes (like xkcd):
“Yes, I would LOVE some more Local Meat Sandwich!”
Chris C. said,
May 14, 2015 @ 3:44 pm
Vilinthril — I'll have you know that New Jersey's Local Meat Sandwich is extraordinarily tasty. And they'll even make it for you if you can't fake the regional accent, which most people get wrong anyway.
K. Chang said,
May 15, 2015 @ 1:14 am
I've been told, when I used to live in Texas, that I have a good Texas accent.
Never heard such after I moved to California.
So either my accent stayed in Texas, or Texas hear everything as Texas accent. :D
Michael Watts said,
May 15, 2015 @ 12:24 pm
Living in Shanghai, I hear from time to time that I have a really good Chinese accent. I don't think it's possible to take this at face value; the fact that it receives comment at all broadly indicates that it attracts notice, which isn't really what an actual good accent would do.
One guy, unprompted by me, elaborated on why he said my accent was good: "you distinguish between s and sh".
John D. said,
May 16, 2015 @ 10:42 pm
Yeah, that's what I've always thought. If people comment on your accent, then you probably don't sound like a native. If someone really sounds like a native speaker, you assume they are one and don't ask any questions.
Bean said,
May 19, 2015 @ 6:42 am
@ John D.: I disagree… sometimes you don't *look* like a native, but you sound like a native, and that can trigger the accent compliment.
John D. said,
May 19, 2015 @ 10:55 am
@ Bean: I've never seen that happen in my entire life.
Ralph said,
May 19, 2015 @ 11:17 am
@ Bean: I saw a woman wearing a burka a few weeks ago at a Middle Eastern shop/restaurant where I live in America. The minute she opened her mouth I could tell she was a native speaker of English, so I didn't compliment her on her accent. Her husband, on the other hand, was wearing more "American" clothing, but I could tell almost immediately that he wasn't a native speaker of English. I'm pretty sure I would only compliment someone on their English if they had an accent, strange as it may sound. I mean, if someone told me that they were born and raised in Japan in perfect American English, I probably would compliment them on their English. But that's never happened.
NickM said,
May 21, 2015 @ 4:50 am
@ John D.
It does depend a lot on the country, of course. My spoken Japanese is fairly good — good enough anyway to have been mistaken occasionally for a native speaker when getting a cold call. (Though I'm not sure I ever managed to keep up the highly gratifying pretence for longer than a minute or two.)
But it's a different matter face to face. I have been in the company of other white people whose Japanese was much better than mine (fluent Osaka-ben, for example), and the compliments they received (or were plagued with) were more frequent and more effusive than mine.