So you can be sure of my accent even without meeting me or speaking with me? The only info that you have on me is my age when I came to the US. And that is enough for you to make such conclusive statement?
Age is important but is not everything. I know a guy who came to the US when he was 6 but still carries heavy accent now (he is 45). He can speak English very fluently but still can't lose his accent.
I also know people who can speak perfect American English without even spending a single day in the US. I actually know 3 people who can do that, one girl from Mainland China, one guy from Taiwan and another guy from Switzerland.
To judge someone's language skill, you at least need to speak with him, yes? That's called being fair. And you are not in position to judge me.
I can't stop but laugh... You can assure me how I speak English without even meeting me and/or speaking with me?
It would be a complete failure on my part that I still need to "get closer to Chinese grammar" when I speak English...
You do realize that you are learning a foreign language in your home country, while I had to learn English in the US? To you, it's a hobby. To me, it's necessity. I hope you appreciate the difference.
I sincerely hope that you give others more credit when you try to judge them. I've spent most part of my life around foreigners, both when I was in China and when I came to the States. You don't think I understand the difference between foreign accent and ethnic accent? You don't think that I can tell the difference between an African American and an Italian American or an Irish American?
I find this sentence hilarious. How do you know that I "cannot understand"? Did I mention anywhere that human doesn't need tongue to speak? So in your mind, I am so stupid that, even after speaking a second language for over 26 years, I have no clue what the tongue is for? Didn't I say in my last post that I spent a lot of time correcting my tongue movement?
I will stop here. I don't need someone on a military forum, whom I've never met, to tell me how good my English is. You are welcome to insist on my "heavy Chinese accent". And while you are at it, you are also welcome to believe that I am dumb as rock. This is my last post on this matter.
I think you are guessing I have never been to the USA, but you are wrong, for starters, my family is from Chihuahua Mex, So my Grandmother was born in El Paso/Ciudad Juarez so my family`s presence in the USA goes back to 1890, since my Grandmother`s Family became Americans, i can tell my mother had Uncles, Cousins, Brothers in law who fought in WWI (in France), WWII (Pacific), Korean war in the US armed forces; Me well I have cousins who have been stationed in Germany, Japan, South Korea by the US army, and recently i have a nephew who is going USA Navy.
Do i need to meet you to know you have an accent? No i do not, The 5 years old limit is physiological, i did not make up. However I can guess you have a decent English with maybe very little accent but I am sure you are unwilling to accept you do have an accent since you said you were bullied
However once you learn a language below 5 years old, your brain and tongue get wired to your native tongue, thus any person after that age will develop an accent, in fact some linguists say babies in the wound already get train their ears to their future tongues in the womb.
Why there are accents? do you know why?
Well the main reasons are:
Fashion, it means people change intonation to get a social status thus Isolation will develop a particular trend and fashion in an area.
(this can develop in Gender related accent, or social class accents)
The other reason well is what ethnic groups join a group of Speakers, to give you an example, in Mexico the original Spanish from Spain, mixed with the phonetics of native American speakers.
In Cuba, the African slaves mixed the Phonetics of their original languages into the Southern Spanish phonetics.
In Argentina, The original Spanish of the Spanish garrisons was blended with the mostly exclusive Italian immigrants that arrived arrived in Argentina in the period between 1890s-1930s.
There are ethnic groups that have a particular accent even if they are native Speakers in Mexico, people who are ethnically native american have a particular accent, same is African Americans in the USA.
Thus you dislike it or not you have an accent by the way, I have lived in New Zealand and Canada too, and I have family in Texas. I tell this because even my American Family who were born in the USA have a Latino Accent even if they live in California or Wisconsin.
