foreigners learning english

[mollykins]

do they get confused with pronunciation such as dancing/darncing barth/bath. surely they must be taught that some people say it one way and other the other. But i went to a cafe the other day and a foreigner couldn't understand someone that was saying words the northern way. (not being mean but it ws quite funny and the person gave up and started talking in a southern accent)

[SuDFB]

Even english people struggle sometimes understanding different accents from the UK.

[Lil O'lady]

This is the purpose behind being able to use a standard form of English. It enables you to communicate well but also allows to you avoid preconceptions that may be detrimental to you. I feel that any child who leaves their education without learning this has been failed by the system.

[coccinelle]

Foreigners are usually taught Oxford English (some however prefer American English if they're going to have more contact with the US). It's only after spending some time in a certain area that they'll pick up the local accent. I know many French people who speak English very well but can't understand a word in Ireland say, but I also know many English people having the same problem!!

[WhiteBears]

Imagine learning English in Liverpool =)

[abstibus]

Try this one aloud, and then you'll see some of the problems learners have with pronunciation:

Pronunciation Poem
I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
on hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
to learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
that looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead -- it's said like bed not bead --
and for goodness' sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

A moth is not the moth in mother,
nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose --
just look them up -- and goose and choose,
and cork and work and card and ward,
and font and front and word and sword,
and do and go and thwart and cart --
come, come I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Man alive.
I'd mastered it when I was five.
(Author not known, unless someone can correct me)

[Whickerman]

Oh that's good! I will be copying that if you don't mind.

In any case - it happens quite often that the silent 'r' in some English accent causes difficulty even in the UK. It's only this week that someone on here reckoned that the Stalk brings babies. Similarly, how many people actually think they're saying 'I should of...' rather than the correct 'I should have...' because that's how they pronounce things? Any wonder people who learn English get confused?

[TCL-MUMPING]

Reading through the poem, dose,rose and lose rhyme for me.

[tamborine]

We need secrecy in communication, hence dialects, slang and cockney word rhymes.