The English Trainer

As I taught English for many years in Germany, a student recently asked me to compile a list of mistakes that native German speakers often make in English. Here it is. 1)       Using make all the time instead of do . This is because their equivalents (machen/tun) are not equivalent at all. A common mistake being ‘make a party’. There are rules, but it's a hard habit to get out of. 2)       Using drive in situations where it is inappropriate – such as drive a bike, drive a train, drive on a scooter. Due to the fact that fahren seems to be ubiquitous in German. Remember, the only person who drives a train, is the train driver, the rest of you are travelling on a train. It is appropriate in situations about cars such as "I drive to work" meaning I drive to work in my car. 3)       Using until instead of by. ‘ I will give you the report until Friday’. Which is probably because dict.leo.org gives ‘til’...

I went to a fantastic free exhibition at the Verdant Works in Dundee yesterday. It is called 'Patterns of Migration' by Laura Darling and was inspired by her experience of working at the Dundee International Women's Centre. This picture in particular caught my attention. It is a native speaker talking to a non-native speaker and all the brain processing that goes on when you speak to someone in a different language. I recognise this process very well from my days of living in Germany and struggling with accessing services, speaking in formal situations and the 'mental load' which goes on all the time. I would constantly be translating and working out how to say things. I remember just getting to the point where I couldn't listen and take anything else in, my brain was full.  I liked this picture as it helps remind me, as a teacher, that this is occurring each day for my students, and really, how exhausting the entire process is for them. I liked it so much that ...

I was asked by a student to teach her better pronunciation, she wanted to sound like a native English speaker. I will correct students' pronunciation when it's hard to understand, but when a student is producing the target language correctly, and can be understood, then I don't interfere. Some people do have the goal of sounding like a native speaker, but the question is, which native speaker do you want to sound like? The Queen? Theresa May? Me? Essentially I think it boils down to accent , and which accent you want to speak with. My personal opinion is that I like regional accents, it reminds us of our origins and is an easy conversation starter when you meet someone now. I've never tried to change my accent, although it has changed over the years as I have lived in different places. So to change the accent of a student, more than merely helping them to say a particular word, I feel this is out of my remit and more for a voice coach to work on.