Foreign Accent Syndrome

You guys out there had heard about many different accents right???....but do you know that there is such a disease called a foreign accent syndrome???...I actually got a shock when I heard that there was such a disease. I was so interested in it that i decided to check it out a little more....Foreign accent syndrome is a rare medical condition involving speech production that usually occurs as a side effect of severe brain injury, such as a stroke or a head injury, though two cases have been reported of individuals as a development problem.

To the untrained ear, those with the syndrome sound as though they speak their native language with a foreign accent; for example, an American native speaker of English might sound as though they speak with a south-eastern British accent, or a native British speaker might speak with a New York American accent. However, researchers at Oxford University have found that certain, specific parts of the brain were injured in some foreign-accent syndrome cases, indicating that certain parts of the brain control various linguistic functions, and damage could result in altered pitch or mispronounced syllabus, causing the speech patterns to have a different sounding accent.

So, to you guys out there, have you notice that maybe one of your friends has this disease??...go check n see. If you are "lucky", maybe you will find one in your midst. To see about this syndrome, go check out this video in youtube. URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4Z_WV_NE8Q
I apologise for not being able to upload the video.

Eye contact

A direct gaze on a person may be creepy, and annoying sometimes. We are not 100% gaze on a person's eyes when we talked, literally 100% I would say. I believe we still need another few glance on the other side when we are recalling memories, we tend to look at the right hand side. Yet the frequency of staring a person while talking can tell us how much we are focusing on that conversation or the intention of listening to the conversation. A daily life experience that we would encounter. We would probably talk to some of our family members while they are watching TV. If they reply us by turning their heads towards us, it shows a higher intention of continuing the topics. Whereas, if they are still facing the TV yet answering us, it is more likely to make us keep repeating our sentence, as they focus more on the TV show; or even they would ignore us.

I also noticed that eyes can actually give instructions! For example, move our pupils to left direct a person to look at the left side or maybe we are pointing on someone or something on our left hand side. And vice versa. We will play this part when we are not allowed to talk especially during exam or class. Lecturers may communicate with us by using non verbal communication so we won't disturb others. An often part is when we are trying to point at someone secretly, eye contact would be perfect since it is not easy to detect by others.

Communicating with different languages can lead to funny moments!

Foreigners who are on their first ever visit to Malaysia, can be very shocked when listening to what people say in the local coffee houses and restaurants in Malaysia. With all the different languages spoken in Malaysia, I can't tell you how many times I've had a good laugh watching how my foreign relatives have reacted to some of the words spoken in this country.

A good example is when my uncles from Australia was here to visit and we were in a local Chinese restaurant, my father, and almost every other customer, was calling the auntie who owns the establishment 'Aso!' which means 'auntie' in Cantonese. After my father had ordered the dishes, my uncle leaned slowly towards my father and asked "Why the hell do you keep calling that woman an 'asshole'?!". I overheard that and I laughed out loud along with my father and explained properly to him.

Another instance is with yet another foreign relative, from London, in yet another Chinese restaurant. After ordering chinese tea for the family, the waitress asked (in cantonese) "Oi Shuit moh?" (Do you want ice). Now, of course, my relative (who knows a bit of cantonese) quickly asked us after the waitress left "Did she ask if we want shit?!". The fact that he asked that with a complete british accent only made it funnier. In the very same dinner and my dad ordered 'Fu Kin chou' which is a type of noodle, and of course my relative, with his foreign ears, thought it sounded a lot like 'Fu**ing Chou'. XD

In the end, miscommunication and misconception goes hand in hand when it comes to communicating with people with different languages. Its notable that this happens so much that theres even a website dedicated to showing funny sounding foreign words and unintentionally funny mistranslated signs called www.engrish.com.