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ESL dictators - sm

Posted: Feb 08, 2010

Hey folks, I recently got put on an ESL, primarily Spanish, account at KeyStrokes. I'm having a very hard time with these dictations. Can anybody give me some tips for better skills understanding this accent? I've been doing ESL dictators of Indian and Asian accents without really any problems at all. However, these Hispanic ones are really giving me problems. Thanks.

a long "ee" sound is frequently an "i" - dc

[ In Reply To ..]
Just the first thing that comes to mind...Also bear in mind that the emphasis on various syllables may be way different (esoPHAgus instead of esOPHagus). Plus you probably already know this, but "y" often turns into a soft "j" sound. At least that's what I've noticed...anybody else?

I have the same problem - always wondered why

[ In Reply To ..]
I can handle most accents, but Hispanic and Arabic really make me struggle. I do notice that some Hispanic dictators prefix things funny like "especialty" instead of "specialty".

They do that because - Ann

[ In Reply To ..]
in Spanish, no word begins with the letters "SP"; there is always an "E" before the SP. Their brains and mouth muscles are conditioned to say "esp" not "sp", so they probably don't even realize they are doing it.

ESL/Spanish - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
There are several Spanish dialects. Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, etc., so there is no steadfast rule unless you know the region.

Also keep in mind that sometimes they pronounce the soft g sound as an H. For fibromyalgia, they might say fibromyalhia." Also, sometimes the CH sounds like SH. "Shest x-ray."

The syllABLE thing is a good point. Try it all different ways in your brain. I had one dictator (not Hispanic type) and he was saying skelATally mature. Really threw me.

ESL - MT Again

[ In Reply To ..]
Thought of another one. I think it's Brazil (not sure), but they make the Z sounds like a very, very soft TH sounds. Brathil. Soft, though, kind of like the word the instead of wrath.

Brazilians speak Portuguese, not Spanish. - Ann

[ In Reply To ..]
Portuguese has its own idiosyncracies, and those carry over when Brazilians speak English. Portuguese is very nasal, and Brazilian Portuguese more nasal still, so that is another element of Brazlian-accented English.

I have one who says "hyper ESS plenism" - deb

[ In Reply To ..]
for hypersplenism. He pronounces the "s" like it's a separate syllable. He also thinks that because of the way you pronounce diabetes, the person with the disease is a "diabeetic" LOL

adjectives are usually placed differently within a sentence sm - walkingdead

[ In Reply To ..]
Ex: "Girl is beautiful." would be, in spanish: "Beautiful is girl."

Something like that, adjectives after nouns. But that is their grammar vs ours, not accent.

Like, "She has also a history of whatever" instead of also has NM - deb

[ In Reply To ..]
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