How we learn English and how you speak it?

I think the differences you’re noticing in pronunciation are simply due to accents. If you were in the US, the vowels would sound slightly different.

I say “back” with the same “a” as in “apple.” I believe it’s the short A sound – if I remember correctly from elementary school.

Oh, and apart from variations in accents, the speakers of a language never really speak like they teach in school. Learning Spanish in high school or even college won’t really prepare you much if you’re ever in Mexico, because they speak in a variation of Spanish that includes more slang that you’ll never learn in school. Teachers instruct on how to speak the language properly, but the language isn’t always spoken properly by native speakers.

English is spoken with a lot of different accents in the UK. People in England who have spoken English all their lives have trouble understanding what people in Scotland are saying. You will soon get used to the accent where you are living.

Wondering where you’re staying here in England to hear back as buck, sounds like a noise chickens make.

@ucme . . . Or the way a Scot would say it.

@Blondesjon Except the OP states they’re living in London & “everybody” pronounces it like that.
Now unless Scotland invaded London during the night…

Thank you for answering!

I know it wasnt a good explanation, i’m just not able to explain. I could explain with a german alphabet, we learned it like bäck and here its like back, but i think noone would get it :D Only people who are from germany but they cant answer my question cause they dont know.
I never heard a scottish accent, so i’m not able to say if they pronounce it like that, but even my teacher here is saying it different then i learned it. So im wondering…

We need @mattbrowne and @ragingloli.

I’m German, too, and I know what you mean. Everyone: In Germany, most students are taught to pronounce the short ‘a’ like the ‘e’ in ‘bet’. They say ‘kett’ when they want to say ‘cat’. We call that “Oxford English”, and it does not sound nice.

@BerlinRose Your teachers were wrong. Yes, there are different accents, but I have never heard any native pronounce words like “cat”, “that”, “but”, etc. as the German schools teach it. If you’re unsure about the correct pronounciation, have a look at this site

@longgone that’s it! Thank you a lot :)

Depending on the dialect, British English is often very slang infused compared to more international varieties (American, Canadian, Australian, etc.). The situation with British dialects is perhaps a bit like Germany, where local dialects have developed over several centuries longer than in Britain’s former colonies. I think some dialects may shorten the ‘a’ sound a little bit so it might be confusing, but I have never heard of “back” coming out like “buck.”

As far as I know, typical pronunciation would always or almost always be how @livelaughlove21 suggests. That would be similar to the first letter in German Apfel or the ‘a’ in Straße. The Dutch short ‘a’ like in maan (Eng.: “moon,” German “Mond”) is not so far off either. I doubt anyone would say you are wrong if you took the ‘a’ from either Apfel or Straße and put it in most common words that have a short ‘a’ in them: back, hat, band, hand, cat, ran. You are not doing anything wrong if you articulate the ‘a’ more strongly than native speakers. I think the ‘a’ in Straße as this guy pronounces it be closer. To my ear, the ‘a’ in Apfel usually sounds a bit more articulated, but both these vowels are very similar to an English short ‘a’.

Also to correct one of your sentences: I noticed that we learned English at our school very differently than the people speak it. It is a good sentence to practice that ‘a’ sound in different words. American students often confuse then and than.

Or a shorter sentence: A cat sat at the vat. Four of those words should rhyme, and in my dialect of English the the indefinite article is a short ‘a’ as well.

There are two things about English that are extremely difficult:

1) Past participles. If the verb’s regular, just add “ed,” such as work/worked. But, many verbs are irregular: begin/begun, drink/drunk, leave/left, ride/ridden, think/thought. There’s a very long list, and the only reliable approach is to memorize each instance.

2) Spelling. English is a Germanic language with 11th century French imposed on it. Spelling and pronunciation confuse even people who are native English speakers. Again, you need to do lots of memorizing.

Otherwise, English is fairly simple. Verb conjugation’s aren’t complicated. Unless you’re talking about a person, the language isn’t gender-driven.

I think you’ll find that someone who’s proficient with English can understand any English accent. So, if you’re learning English nearby London, you’ll develop a lovely voice that’s easy – even very pleasant – to comprehend.

@BerlinRose You’re welcome :]

How old are you? Where did you go to school? Berlin? Brandenburg? Hauptschule? Realschule? What were your grades in English? When looking at what you wrote, I’d say your level is Realschule 7. Klasse at best, Note 4 oder 5.

It could also be sloppiness. “Does everyone is saying it like” ? “then the people speak it” ? The problem doesn’t seem to be the quality of the English classes in Germany (which usually are quite good), it’s more about students paying attention. Being in England won’t fix the problem on its own. I’d recommend taking English classes in England with a strong focus on grammar. Pay attention to the details. Don’t focus too much on accent. There are dialects in England which differ from the Oxford English widely used by German teachers of English in Germany. You will get used to them. But grammar requires effort. A question starting with “Does” is basic stuff in 5th grade.

Use this http://dict.leo.org/#/search=buck

and click on the play button next to the word.

@Mattbrowne I’m 15 and I went to school in a Gymnasium in Berlin, 9. Klasse, Note 2 (last school report in grade 8). So I don’t think that it’s like I was bad in english.

And yeah, I know that questions are started with “does”, but I don’t know that there is a ”?” automatically behind the title…

@mattbrowne I strongly disagree with English classes in Germany “usually” being “quite good”. How do you figure that? I’m an English tutor, and I have yet to see evidence of this.

The OP did not ask how to improve her grammar…she merely wanted to know why her teachers speak a kind of English that is not spoken in English-speaking countries. We posted the same link, but the typical German school teacher sounds nothing like that. Are you saying the audio examples on leo could be described as Oxford English? I use leo when teaching, as an example of how it should sound.

The OP strikes me as someone very interested in learning English, there is no reason to assume she has been inattentive. When learning a new language, self-confidence is said to be quite important. I’m sure it was unintentional, but your comment could be perceived as pretty discouraging…

I am sorry. My previous post sounded a bit harsh. I applaud your effort to improve your English. You can do better and create posts that reflect the 9th grade Gymnasium level. Check what you wrote and correct it, if necessary. Do and Does require the infinitive form. Does everyone say… Do you go… and so forth. Believe me that’s basic stuff long before the 9th grade. I have two children who grew up in Germany and got their Abitur. I grew up in Germany and I know what I’m talking about here. Perhaps a better explanation is a really bad teacher. Or even a really bad school. I work in Germany at a large international company and Germans here frequently have to speak English. We also deal with French, Spanish and Italian people, for example, and their English is worse. So usually, the English education in Germany is in fact quite good. Perhaps not everywhere in Germany. It’s also true that the English education is better in the Benelux and Scandinavian countries.

No problem.
Yeah our English teacher in grade 5 to 7 was a bit… Ehm… Difficult. I cannot remember one English lesson in which we really made English and everybody knew that she was corrupt. So not really great conditions. She had to leave our school in grade 8 and we got a better teacher. Yeah, that’s called teacher shortage! .
But I’m not worse in English. I had bilingual history and geography lessons, that only one third of our class got (maybe you know).
We went to a class trip in England last year and believe me, there were Italian guys with us and we hadn’t understand a word. We also met guys from Belgium (we were in the same host family), they were 17 and they spoke English as… as… I don’t know, as someone who never ever learnt English. They understood us, but we didn’t understand them so we spoke french together. So you cannot tell me that the English education is better in the Benelux!

@mattbrowne We’ll agree to disagree, I may just have higher standards. Thank you for clarifying!

Germans seem to speak excellent English to me, though sometimes I feel like it’s falling off a little with younger generations.

Good point, @bolwerk. What could be the reason? Exposure to the English Internet? When I look at how some of the younger generation Americans converse on the web (other than Fluther), I wonder if they are able to pass an English exam of the German Abitur (university-entrance diploma)... It might be a general problem.