Linguistic matters.

I am thankful that I can speak three languages. It certainly helps a lot in Malaysia, and it's relatively easy for me to communicate here in the States because I can speak English.

Here, though, my English doesn't sound like standard English. For one thing, I don't have the accent; for another, my rhythm, intonation and pronunciation is usually different from Americans'. I have to think twice every time I say "three" or "through" because all my life I've been enunciating those as "tree" and "tru". In case you're wondering, it's something like "thuh-ree", but smoother and quicker. Which is why I avoid saying it if possible - it just takes too much time to get right. Helpful synonyms include "a few" and "some". =P

The worst part is, conditioning myself to pronounce the "thuh" sound makes me say ALL words beginning with "T" like that. Sometimes I accidentally catch myself saying "Thooh" for 'two'. =.=

I particularly dislike how harsh my Malaysian English sounds compared to how a European-accented English sounds. I mean, Polish or French-accented English sounds elegant. So hypnotizing, so gentle, so rhythmic. Malaysian (Mandarin-influenced) English? Why la so rough, like looking for a fight lidat?

Speaking British English in a Malaysian accent in an American society doesn't really help either because I just sound wrong ALL the time. You say "egg-plan", I say "egg-plahnt". You say "dih-version", I say "die-version". It would be so much better if I also spoke in a British accent so that at least I sound like a VERSION of correct English, but nope, sometimes I don't even know if I'm mispronouncing things the Malaysian way or if I actually learnt to say things that way because it's proper British English. Go figure. By the way, I still don't know if "Duke" is supposed to be pronounced "diuk" or "dook". I used to think it was the former, but everyone here refers to it as the latter!

If you thought things couldn't get any worse, I've been spending some time with some other international spouses from China and Taiwan lately, and I realized my Mandarin has deteriorated drastically. Having barely spoken Mandarin in the past 7 months, I found myself unable to express myself properly and forgetting how to say words like "government" and "public transport". NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Add a Malaysian (English-influenced) accent to the Mandarin I speak, and you'll see why I despair.

I am a lousy polyglot. *facepalms*

Comments

  1. LeiraAugust 8, 2015 at 12:11 PM

    Btw, it's AH-LOO-MEE-NUM (fast) and not aluminium. Apparently, the American version doesn't have an "i" at the end so it's aluminUm. Also, FOTO-GRAF but FUH-TO-GRA-FEE. And BUT-UN, and not BUT-TON. Yeah. weird. hahahahaha. I feel your pain.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MayAugust 8, 2015 at 2:40 PM

    Thanks for the tips, I'll try to remember them. No wonder I feel weird when I say Fo-to-gra-fee here! So much cognitive dissonance going around in my head that I hesitate and trip over my words sometimes. =P

    ReplyDelete

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