Cooked Rice English: Translate to Vietnamese

Monday, June 28, 2010

Translate to Vietnamese

You can translate this blog to Vietnamese using Google "Translate." These translations are helpful but imperfect.

1 comment:

Frank FerendoJune 29, 2010 at 4:06 AM
Brad, Hien and I are practicing our English and Vietnamese by translating your blog together. But, the translation is not good because we don't know each other's language very well.
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WHY MANY FOREIGNERS DON'T UNDERSTAND YOUR SPOKEN ENGLISH

The main reason foreigners don't understand your spoken English is because it is not "cooked."

Uncooked rice lies at the bottom of a pot. The taste is weak and chewing it will break your teeth. Uncooked rice is like words with the wrong sounds: it is difficult to eat uncooked rice and it is difficult to understand English words without their sounds.

SPOKEN VIETNAMESE IS POWERED BY VOWEL SOUNDS

First, Vietnamese is a tonal language: tones change the sounds of vowels and these changed sounds change the meaning of base words (e.g., "ngo"). Six different tones are applied to the vowel "o" of the word "ngo," changing it into six different words. To know which word is spoken, Vietnamese must hear which tone is changing the vowel sound. Vietnamese is a Vowel-Strong language. If the vowel sounds are wrongly toned or not toned, the Vietnamese is difficult to understand.

SPOKEN ENGLISH IS POWERED BY CONSONANT SOUNDS

English speakers more often hear which consonant sound is used to know what word is spoken: (e.g., "pay" / "say" / "day" / "lay" / "ray" are different words because of their different consonant sounds). If spoken consonant sounds are wrong, too quiet or missing, the English is difficult to understand.

VIETNAMESE TONGUES DISABLE ENGLISH CONSONANT SOUNDS

Second, Vietnamese tongue tips make most consonant sounds just behind the front teeth. This tongue position traps the breath and softens - even eliminates - the consonant sounds English speakers must hear to understand.

RECIPE FOR COOKED RICE ENGLISH

1) Train your brain to recognize English consonant sounds in others' speech and in your own speech;

2) Train your tongue and lips to make stronger consonant sounds (CoNSoNaNCe);

or

Train your tongue and lips to make accurate English sounds (PHoNeMeNoN).

3) Learn to recognize which letters make which sounds;

4) Learn to organize words with basic grammar (expecially

articles, verb tenses and prepositions);

5) Learn fluidity with consonant-powered word links;

6) Learn to organize spoken ideas with intonations;

7) Improve your understanding by reading English and watching English- language films and programs.

Simmer with tongue exercises, lip exercises, sound exercises, word exercises, sentence exercises, read-aloud exercises and free speech exercises until your spoken English is cooked (understandable to foreigners).

RECIPE FOR A COOKED RICE ENGLISH MEAL (CONVERSATION)

1) Keep cooked rice warm with daily tongue and lip exercises.

2) Blend questions and answers into free conversations;

3) Season with real situations from work, study and life.

YES, IT IS DIFFICULT

BUT SOME DIFFICULT THINGS ARE FUN

You have learned the grammar and the words. Now you must put them where your mouth can use them.

If you can't afford the classes, or if you want to explore English speech problems and solutions here, you are welcome. We will help you cook your rice. And I think we will help me improve my classes.

Brad Ness

HOW THE BEST ASIAN SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH PRACTICE

After ten years in four Asian countries - and not including my own students - the best non-native Asian speakers of English I've heard are those who spent countless hours listening to and mimicking English language film dialogue.

I have a practice method to recommend.

First, find an English language film that uses fairly simple English. Then google the film script (e.g., "The Lion King script") and download it.

Keep the film script available while you watch the film with Vietnamese or English subtitles. Have a notebook ready for writing. After 10 minutes of watching the film you will probably know what the film is about and who most characters are. Stop the film. Turn off or cover the subtitles.

Listen to an English speech or conversation. Try to write the English words you hear. Rewind and relisten to the speech - write down more of the words you hear. Rewind and relisten until you have written down all the words you can. Your writing might look like this. "...ate...English..............grammar.... ............ and.............walk sometimes."

Then, rewind and listen for the words you don't know. Rewind and relisten until you have written all the consonant sounds you hear. Your writing might look like this: "I..ate...English d.......l.........grammar...p..n..s...sh...n and...p..l.....l...walk sometimes."

Use the words you've written ("I..ate...English.. .grammar... and...walk sometimes.") to guess what the passage might be about.

Rewind and relisten until you have written all the vowel sounds you hear and try to connect them with your consonants. Make any other improvements you can hear. Your writing might look like this: "I...ate...English.. .the... ools.. .v...grammar......bronu.sey..shun and...p..leng..o.le..work sometimes."

Check your script: "I hate English. The rules of grammar, pronunciation and spelling only work sometimes.

Which of your written words are correct (e.g. I, English, the, grammar, and, work, sometimes)?

Which of your written words are similar (e.g. ate/hate, ools/rules, o.le/only, ) ?

Which of your written words are wrong (e.g., ate/hate, walk/work)?

Which words did you miss(e.g., pronunciation, spelling).

Look up all new words in a dictionary.

Rewind again and listen to the same speech: Listen for the close, wrong and missed words until you can recognize all words in the speech.

Then rewind and try to recite the speech. Yell the consonant sounds (e.g., HaTe... ..GRaMMaR...SPeLLiNG..).Do this as many times as needed until your speech sounds close to the film speech.

Relax by watching ten minutes more of the film with subtitles. Then stop and work on another speech.

Practice this way for as long as you like with as many films as you like. Gradually pay less attention to the subtitles and more attention to the English speech in the film. As your skills improve, you should be able to guess some words from the surrounding grammar.

Watching National Geographic and Discovery programs with Vietnamese subtitles are another way to get practice.

The skills developed in this practice include:

Listening;

Vocabulary;

Grammar;

Pronunciation/speech.

The weaknesses of this practice include:

There is no instruction or physical guidance on where and how to make English sounds (this is most effective for sound-talented learners): you must listen and mimic.

Many films present realistic English speech with poor pronunciation and grammar: you must learn to listen to this English but it probably is not the English you want to speak.

Please post your comments on this method's strengths and weaknesses.

I will be grateful to anyone who cares to translate this posting to Vietnamese.

Thank you,

Brad Ness

Purpose

Monday, June 28, 2010

Translate to Vietnamese

1 comment: