How do you think about your accents?

FOB:"Fresh Off Boat" or "Free On Board"...It's use to describe people who doesn't speak English very good...

Remember last time there was one girl in my class accidently wrote FOB, and then this guy said, "hey, it's FOB..." Then everyone was starting to laugh...

And here is another one, there's two people, including me in my class have to take the English Proficiency Test, and this one girl, she's white, got a note, saying that she has to take this test, too. (Cuz she did poor on the STAR test. ) Then she whined, "hey, I am not a FOB".

Originally Posted by Latoof

Hi,

What FOB stands for?
I am Arabic and I try to cath the accent of British people through listening to what they say and then try to imitate them while reading books. This must be of cource in my own room when no one can lsten to me. I myself feel shy to copy others accent, because I think people are going to think me stubid and that I am trying to show of. I see that the most interesting thing in learning languages that you keep your own identity through the accent you have. The only thing you have to do is just to make your words clear that people can understand that you speak English. One more thing, don't worry what people are going to say about your accent. I think you have to see: "Yes I am ..."Arab, or Chinese, or whatever country you came from, and then you have to say "Don't you understand accents?"
I don't know if this will help, or will make you just laugh, but I feel about it like a signature you add at the bottom of your masterpeice that people can identify you. Its your identity so you have to feel proud of it.
I will not worry if people recognized me as "the person with accent." at all.

Well, at first, I didn't really care about my accent either. But after this presentation, my English teacher said, "I really admire your courage to stand up and read this with your Chinese accents."

Even though I know it is a praise, I still feel so embarrass, because they don't understand what I was talking about in the presentation.

[twostep]

Originally Posted by Ramid

Well, at first, I didn't really care about my accent either. But after this presentation, my English teacher said, "I really admire your courage to stand up and read this with your Chinese accents."

Even though I know it is a praise, I still feel so embarrass, because they don't understand what I was talking about in the presentation.

What makes you think they did not understand what you were talking about?

Well, during the presentation, my English teacher kept saying, "what?" ...."say that again"....

[Francois]

I really admire your courage to stand up and read this with your Chinese accent.

That's mean. It sounds like a comeback from a sitcom or something.

FRC

[twostep]

Originally Posted by Francois

That's mean. It sounds like a comeback from a sitcom or something.

FRC

An that the day Johnny Carson died ....

Please check your dictionaries - FOB is an age old business/shipping term - free on board. If you are talking about immigrants - they are fresh off the boat. As far as the cruel teacher is concerned - I would love to sit in on one of his classes. Meow!!!

I'm american and would just like to say that even though you may find it irritating that we can't understand you sometimes, almost all americans find foreign accents incredibly charming and are amused the quirks in your english (in a good way) this is probably because we consider our accents boring especially where i live, in california

[twostep]

Originally Posted by xbisoubisoux

I'm american and would just like to say that even though you may find it irritating that we can't understand you sometimes, almost all americans find foreign accents incredibly charming and are amused the quirks in your english (in a good way) this is probably because we consider our accents boring especially where i live, in california

In Alabama we do not need foreign accents for amusement. English is considered a second language y'all.