中國人的英語口音

Wang Fei: 大家好，歡迎收聽 Question and Answer of theWeek《你問我答》節目。我是王飛。今天我們要回答一個很多中國聽眾都很關心的問題：中國人的英語口音。Now let's hear thequestion from Clare.

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　　Chinese learners of English are more likely to speak English with aChinese accent. Iwould like to find out what these specific syllablesare, and what I should pay attention to when speaking?

　　Wang Fei: Clare 想知道我們中國人說英語的時候那些音容易出錯呢? 中國的英語學習者應該 在口語的哪些方面下功夫呢？Inorder to answer this question, I've invited a colleague who has livedand worked in China. Now let's welcome Alice.

　　Alice: Hi everyone. My name's Alice Castle. I work for BBC LearningEnglish but I lived and worked in China on and off for about two years.我愛中國。I love China!

　　Wang Fei: I love China too. Alice 在中國前前後後生活了兩年。所以非常了解我們今天的話題。SoAlice, which sound do you think is most difficult for Chinese learnersto pronounce?

　　Alice: Well, I've noticed that some people have problems with the sounds /?/ and /?/, as in "three" and "they".

　　Wang Fei: Hmm, so how do they usually pronounce them then?

　　Alice: "Three" becomes "sree" and "they" becomes "zay".

　　Wang Fei: Alice, the thing is that if a learner reads themincorrectly, he or shemight not be able to hear the difference either.So what's the key to pronounce them well?

　　Alice: Well, try this exercise. You have to try to put the tip ofyour tongue between your teeth. So there's /?/ and /?/. I think thesecond one is harder.

　　Wang Fei: Yes! 發/?/ and /?/ 的時候，要把舌尖放在上下牙齒之間，很多中國人發不好這兩個音，是因為他們沒有把舌尖放在上下牙齒之間。

　　Alice: These three brothers threw their things.

　　Wang Fei: These three brothers threw their things.

　　Alice: So, there are other sounds that some Chinese people finddifficult to pronounce. Let's hear from Liz Chiu. She's an Englishtutor at the Humanities Department of Imperial College in London.

　　Wang Fei: 下面的採訪來自 Liz Chiu, 她是倫敦帝國理工大學人文學院的學術英語教師。她發現她的很多的中國學生有一個音發不準。是什麼呢？我們一起聽一聽？

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　　We have got two ls, we've got the l at the beginning of a word andthe l at the end of a word, so if you listen to a word like 'little'you've got two different ls there. The first l is quite easy to say butthe last one usually causes difficulties. So instead of 'little' wehave 'litto' – like a vowel instead of an 'l', which is the consonantl. If you then put the word into a sentence, something like "all Iknow" it becomes "or I know" and that is quite difficult for Englishspeakers to understand.

　　Alice: She found out that if a word ends with an /l/, it's moredifficult to pronounce. So 'little' becomes 'litto', 'all' becomes 'or'.

　　Wang Fei: Yes. That's true. 我感覺中國學生十之八九都發不好這個音，這是因為我們漢語中沒有以 /l/ 結尾的發音。同時我們也很難聽出 little 和 litto, all and or 的區別。

　　Alice: But for British people "all" and "or" are too different words,aren't they?So the key to pronounce the ending l – an l at the end of aword - is to raise the end of your tongue to touch the place where yourfront teeth meet your gums. /l/

　　Wang Fei: 要想發好結尾是 /l/ 的音，你就必須在發音結束的時候，讓你的舌尖輕觸到口腔上齶靠近上牙齒根的地方，如果沒有接觸上，那你就肯定沒有發好這個音。

　　Alice: All the little girls called me into the hall.

　　Wang Fei: All the little girls called me into the hall. 如果你發不好 /l/ 這個音，那就試著練習這個句子。記著要讓舌尖接觸到口腔的上齶。

　　Alice: Let's hear from Liz again and see what other sounds Chinese learners might find a bit difficult.

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　　One lesson that I have to give again and again is for the sound /v/,the v as opposed to the w. I'm not sure why there's such a confusion.So it's important to make sure that, to make a /v/ whenever you have av in the spelling, you need a /v/ sound and if your teeth don't touchyour lips and vibrate you're not getting a v sound.

　　Wang Fei: Liz 說她不得不一遍又一遍地教她的中國學生如何讀 /v/ 這個音。因為學生總是被這個讀音所困擾。

　　Alice: Hmm. Some people I've met pronounce /v/ as /w/. For example, instead of 'invite' they might say 'inwite'.

　　Wang Fei: Alice, that's because in Chinese pronunciation we don'thave the /v/sound. We only have a /w/ sound. 所以很多中國人就聽不出來 /w/和/v/的區別。所以也就讀不出來了。那怎麼才能發好 /v/ 這個音呢？

　　Alice: Liz told us a very good skill to pronounce it well. Wheneveryou need a /v/ sound, make sure that your two front teeth touch yourlower lip and actually vibrate. /v/...

　　Wang Fei: /v/...

　　Alice: Very nice.

　　Wang Fei: 看來發好這個音的關鍵是你的上牙齒要咬到你的下嘴唇，然後發出顫音。/v/

　　Alice: The girl in white invited me to watch a video.

　　Wang Fei: The girl in white invited me to watch a video.

　　Alice: Perfect.

　　Wang Fei: Welcome back. 剛才我們說了一些中國人最容易出錯的一些輔音。下面我們來談一談母音。

　　Alice: I noticed one vowel sound that some Chinese learners finddifficult to pronounce. For example, some people read 'like' as 'lack'.

　　Wang Fei: Like not lack. 其實，我們漢語中有一個音和 /ai/ 很接近，就是「愛」這個音。但是「愛」很短沒有多大變化，而英文中的 /ai/ 是一個比較長並且有變化的音，包括了 /a/ 和 /i/ 兩個音。

　　Alice: I like riding my bike at night.

　　Wang Fei: I like riding my bike at night. 這個練習可以讓你讀好 /ai/ 這個音。

　　Alice: Now let's listen to Jim Hitch, an experienced English teacher in London.

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　　Chinese doesn't have as many vowel sounds as English does. And thisis also true interestingly with Spanish as well. So for example, wehave different sounds in the sounds been and bin. So, in other words, Ihave been to see the football match and I put the paper into the bin.Now many Spanish and Chinese would find it difficult to hear thedifference between been and bin.

　　Alice: Jim thinks one of the reasons that Chinese people find itdifficult to pronounce English vowels correctly is that Chinese doesn'thave as many vowels sounds as English has.

　　Wang Fei: 對。漢語中比英語中的母音要少。

　　Alice: He gave an example of been, b-e-e-n and bin, b-i-n. One islong /i:/ sound, been, and the other is short /i/ sound, bin.

　　Wang Fei: 一個長音 been, 一個短音 bin. 由於漢語中沒有長音和短音的區別，所以很多中國人就會覺得很難分清長音和短音。

　　Alice: And another example with a long vowel, the difference between fool and full.

　　Wang Fei: Fool 傻子；full 滿的，如果讀不準的話，就會讓聽者產生歧義了。

　　Alice: That fool put the beans into the full bin.

　　Wang Fei: That fool put the beans into the full bin. 這句話里有 /u:/ 也有 /u/, 有 /i:/也有 /i/. 你可以重複這句話來練習長音和短音。

　　Alice: And of course, there are many other sounds that Chineselearners might find difficult to pronounce. We've just looked at someof them today.

　　Wang Fei: 我們在今天的節目中講了一部分中國人比較容易發錯的音，是不是把所有的音都發對了，就沒有了中國口音呢？

　　Alice: This is an interesting topic, so let's hear from Liz again tohear about a problem she's found when Chinese learners try to masterEnglish pronunciation.

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　　So I teach them the sound and I find they can say it perfectly. Justone sound. Put the sound into words, suddenly that sound starts to movea little bit. Put the words into sentences and it can go anywhere. So,it's about trying to control the sound.

　　Alice: She said her students can say each individual sound perfectly,but if the sound is put into words, the sound starts to move a littlebit; their pronunciation of the sound isn't as good.

　　Wang Fei: 很多中國學生可以把每個音發得很好，但是放到單詞里就走音了。

　　Alice: And she said that if the word is put into sentences, it can go anywhere; it changes again.

　　Wang Fei: 然後把單詞放到句子里的話，發音就亂七八糟、找不到方向了。

　　Alice: So the important thing when practising English pronunciation is to try and control the sound.

　　Wang Fei: Control the sound. 控制發音。練習英語發音的重要一點就是如何在單詞和句子中控制好你的發音。我們在下期節目中還會邀請專家和大家談一談如何在單詞和句子中控制好你的英語發音。

　　Alice: I hope to see you next time. Bye for now.

　　Wang Fei: Bye bye.