[I.said.hi]

Someone please give me advice.


So ever since last year, I met a friend who is very fluent in both english and Korean. Thus, since I started to hang out with her, my korean speech has improved magnificently. However, I've noticed that slowly my english is deteriorating, and that I tend to stutter, not be able to put together words, and have a hard time speaking ENGLISH!!!. I was born in California and have lived here ALL MY LIFE.

I want to believe that the reason why my english speech has become horrible is due to the fact that I speak Korean more often. If you've noticed, I am perfectly fine when I type or write in english. However, whenever I speak, I can't seem to put the right words together and all of a sudden I have this horrible FOB ACCENT when speaking English.


I want to blame this speech problem due to my use of English & Korean, but that does not explain the suddent 'stuttering' that I tend to have when speaking either english or Korean (mostly english.)

This has horrified me for I have never lived in Korea longer than a month. Whenever I participate in class at school, or whenever I need to speak english in front of the class, I sound as if I've only lived in the U.S for a few years, which in reality I've lived here all my life.


Help me.


Does anyone know why this is happening? Is it due to my sudden boom in using Korean? (I'm not perfect in Korean either.)



Thanks.

[secretlyjustyours]

oh wow that has been happening to me too!
-.- i stutter alot now, because i've been speaking vietnamese and chinese. its annoying.
but i don't know if its due to being bilingual.

[~ BunnyliciouS ~]

Yah, it's not abnormal,
After using one language for too long, you have to train your brain again in order for it to remember the other language.
I'm from Indonesia, English is my 2nd language, I've been living in US for about 9 yrs,
I can't speak in Indonesian very well anymore 'cuz I rarely talk in Indo.
When I'm talking to my parents, I always mix Indonesian with English because I already forget how to say those English words in Indonesian.

[x0_saturn_0x]

Wow, that happened too me too =0 especially when many of my friends are kinda on the fob side ><
I just stumbled a little bit though.. but I'm alright now lol
I think the best way to get rid of your "speech problem" is to just speak English more
Find people to communicate in english with and have a convo with them
or talk to yourself in english more? lol
hmm
dont worry, you'll be ok =]

[CitrusFlower]

i can hardly speak vietnamese but my chinese and english are o.k

[<3goesDOKIDOKI]

hmm. thats kinda odd since you still live in CA right?
im assuming you use english in everyday life at least a good 6 hrs of it at school...
its kinda hard to start picking up a fob accent when you already knew how to speak english perfectly beforehand.

maybe you're overthinking things a bit too much?
or maybe subconsciously mimicking an accent?

[apple_]

OMGGG ME TOOOOOO!

ive lived here practically my whole life and lately ive been having trouble speaking in english .maybe cuz me and my mom have been trying to get along better this year and i started hanging out w/ more fobs.

and when i talk at school sometimes i say wrong grammar and I cant really find the right words to explain stuff.... and I experience the same stuttering.. its so embarassing..

....... I dont know what to do except maybe practice talking more.

[PDURRR]

i've had that
i think your just tripping yourself out
the more you think about it
the more it'll happen

[Mandu]

Ah, I have that right now D:
I get so mixed up with my words, I think it's because I have so much to say and it just comes out all at once really fast and I'm like, "Bleh!" Yeah...because I rarely speak Korean xD

[prettycrimson_]

I get what you're saying. It's difficult when you're trying to speak both with the correct accent. But in the end, there's always a strange American accent to my Vietnamese and a Vietnamese to my American. It pretty much sucks.

[kimchii]

i can relate completely!

this past summer i was in Korean for 2 months...
and when i came back, i found myself stuttering a lot in English (i speak fluently in English) and misprouncing some words on occasion (so embarassing)!
and trying to explain things became (even) more difficult to me, retaliating stories and things to friends...
what hit me worst was my french ability! I forgot the simplest verb conjucations in french! uggghhhhhh
I think going to JAPANESE school in Korea 3 days out of the week studying Japanese LOL was kind of the "problem" lol and also by being SURROUNDED in Korean! didn't help me much with korean either, which is strange, i still stutter majorly .

[Squirrely]

hahaha, i so get that : p
my first language is chinese, but i now speak english more fluently because i live in english-speaking environment (california, too)
my chinese gets rusty as most of my chinese friends here are abc/t, don't speak even one word o-o`` how sad... ahaha ^~^``
but every time i go back to china, my chinese goes back to it`s original state (LOL weird wording) and when i come back to the states i cannot speak english properly at all hahaha. i stutter, use chinese words instead of english words, can't figure out the correct word, etc. and i have the fobbiest accent ever. (i like it , ahahha : p)

lately i keep in touch with my chinese friends more, so i find i have troubles speaking english right now .__. it's kind of odd, i get what you mean, but it's nothing to worry about ~

[pekkles]

Sometimes I get that too, when I'm talking to people with an accent in English, I'll also have an accent although I speak perfectly the rest of the time >_> but if you speak regularly enough and concentrate on English, it should go away. The problem would then probably be your Korean @_@ it's hard to stay proficient in several languages at once for most people, I believe.

[mizswtifee]

omg that happens to me too.
its really frustrating if you have like an interview with a perfect english person, and then you start to speak
and words gets mixed up.

what i tried to do to fix it was that if i spoke anything other than english for that one day, someone gets to hit or i will have to cough up a dollar.

hey it works

[mZ.tEE]

Happens to me too.
English is my 2nd language, so it's not as good as my Vietnamese. I stutter a lot, and sometimes I have to think for a while to get the right word. But my Vietnamese isn't perfect either. I use English words when talking to my parents sometimes.

I don't find it embarrassing though. =]

[crystallizedtear]

i stutter speaking in Chinese sometimes =SS its cause i use English so much more often.
when you get used to another language...your brain kind of processes the language you use less...a bit slower
don't worry, practice makes perfect

[butterflyeffect]

I totally get what you mean and I lived in CA my whole life too. I stutter as well.
Random, but last year in Spanish class I answered the teacher with Korean. x_x

[cookiieDough]

its okayy,, i stutter a lot too =]
especially when im nervous XD
im sure you're fine
i don't think you can develop a fob accent thatt easily o_O

[brian032]

I read something about this in a psychology and language article. I forgot what it's called, maybe "fall psychology"? Not too sure. I'll try to find out though. Basically it's where you have your mind in a state, whether it be a language or math, and you've get to the point where it's taken up such a majority of your day/time that it dominates every aspect and thought of your brain. Almost putting you into a trance or hypnosis.

While I was doing German studies over Christmas break (6 hours or more a day) I had a similar experience with my English. Pretty strange really. It's all a mindset. Get yourself out of the "Korean mindset" and more into a "hey I'm an American" mindset and you'll be alright. Personally, I think something in you wants to stay in that Korean mindset and is probably the reason you feel like your English is deteriorating. I could be completely wrong.

[chocopocky]

That has happened to me before so yeah, I know what you mean. :x