Credit: RichVintage/GettyAnswer (1 of 19): It is possible. And heres why, even if you watch movies and listen to music like a crazy, youll be picking up various accents without noticing, but believe me, a person from New York will see that you pronounced a word in a way, and used a slang from another place.Researchers who are not fluent in English often face hurdles beyond learning a new language. Speaking like a native and not living in an English speanking country is nearly impossible.
This is also known as hyperbole, and is a skill you must acquire if you want to become a native english speaker. Speak Native English by Exaggerating the Right Way. Her English was eventually so fluent, that she sounded like a native albeit, she sounded 7. My step-mother-in-law was born in Sweden, and came to the US as a very young adult.
Learn English Like A Native Speaker How To Learn English
Flip to back Flip to front. In January, for example, a biostatistics professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, chastised students from China for speaking in their native language on campus.How To Learn English: A guide to speaking English like a native speaker: Snauwaert, Fabien: 9781453844151: Amazon.com: Books. Having a dominant language can streamline the process of science, but it also creates extra barriers and the potential for conflict. But whether researchers come from Beijing, Berlin or Buenos Aires, they have to express most of their ideas and findings in English. Because you can’t really be melting but you use this line to emphasize how you feel and how hot it really is outside.Science as a career attracts people from across the world.
However, it’s relatively uncommon to see Chinese or South Korean scientists talking to each other in their own language in an academic setting away from their home country. I’ve worked on many multinational collaborations, and I notice that European researchers often speak to each other in their native languages. But, as someone who was born and raised in China, I have my own perspective on what happened. The professor who complained about Chinese students speaking in their native language was rightly called out on social media. YANGYANG CHENG: A complicated issuePhysicist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.The incident at Duke University brought a lot of attention to a complicated issue. Learn more.Nature asked seven researchers with personal or professional experience of language barriers to share their insights.
When scientists come here from Europe or North America to conduct field research, they have a strong preference for employing English speakers. I work in the field of conservation. SNEHA DHARWADKAR: Have an open mindWildlife biologist at the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Bengaluru, India.I find that scientists in India often look down on people who can’t speak English. It would take a lot of effort. I don’t even know how I would give a talk about my work in Chinese.
The barriers can be hard to fathom for those who don’t face them.Science should reach local residents, and it should be beneficial to people beyond those who manage projects. We have the space to talk about ourselves. These locals understand the problem better than does a scientist who has never been to the area, and that knowledge matters whether it’s expressed in Hindi or English.I’m a member of a Twitter group that brings together herpetologists of different backgrounds, languages and orientations. Funding agencies could help by including clauses to encourage visiting researchers to hire local residents, even if they aren’t fluent in English. They end up hiring people from privileged backgrounds who have had the chance to learn English.There are so many people out there who want to contribute to science, but can’t because they don’t know enough English. Most conservationists in India are short on time and funds, and they don’t want to put in the extra effort.
My family and I were refugees who fled Hungary during the revolution of 1956. VERA SHERIDAN: It takes a partnershipLanguage and intercultural relations researcher at Dublin City University.I started out in life speaking another language. Scientists need to be open to all people who show an inclination towards science. We talk about their issues, and I learn a lot.
Without guidance, a student will just cobble something together that has no chance of being accepted.Institutions need to do a lot more to support and prepare international students. There’s an art to turning a PhD thesis into a journal article. It requires a partnership with their mentor and their institution.Mentors need to spend more time helping students to understand the conventions of scientific writing and the expectations of various journals. For those who don’t speak English as a first language, the challenge is especially daunting. I helped to compile a list of resources (see go.nature.com/2wx54tc) that are designed to introduce academic English to researchers from many parts of the world.Many academics assume that students come to them fully formed, but every student has to learn the culture of their discipline.
It’s not beyond the wit of the richest countries to make science more accessible. He rated the experience as one of the worst of his life.I doubt that there was a huge amount to correct. He thought that he had addressed the problem but it was rejected again, not for the quality of the research but for the quality of the English. Students also need assistance from scientists who can help them to write for their specific disciplines.I know of a case in which a researcher from India submitted a paper that came back to him largely because of language issues. Such specialists often have backgrounds in the humanities or social science.
Laboratories are becoming more international, so it’s helpful to be able to bond with people of different nationalities. Being from abroad has some advantages. Courtesy of Clarissa Rios Rojas CLARISSA RIOS ROJAS: Reach out for mentoringDirector of Ekpa’palek in Valkenboskwartier, the Netherlands.I’m from Peru and am a native speaker of Spanish. By keeping those gates closed, we’re missing out on a lot of perspectives and a lot of good research.Clarissa Rios Rojas says that scientists who are not fluent in English can benefit from being mentored in their native language to help them to adapt.
TATSUYA AMANO: Embrace linguistic diversityZoologist at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.As a native speaker of Japanese, I’ve struggled with language barriers. You can usually find native speakers of English, and they’re typically happy to help someone practise. If they don’t have access to the Internet, a common problem in Peru, I tell them to go to church. I encourage students to use some of YouTube’s many language tutorials. Almost all PhD applications are written in English, and most job interviews are conducted in English. Learning English is still a priority.
We found that 36% were published in a language other than English, which makes that information much less accessible to the wider world.The dominance of English has created considerable bias in the scientific record. In a 2016 study in PLoS Biology, my colleagues and I surveyed more than 75,000 biodiversity conservation papers that have been published in 2014 ( T. Consider the field of conservation, in which much research is still conducted in the local language.
So far, I’ve identified more than 600 peer-reviewed articles written in languages other than English. I’ve been looking for studies across the world that assess conservation interventions. That’s been a major part of my research at the University of Queensland. As a result, our knowledge of large parts of the world’s biodiversity is much less robust than it could be.We need to embrace linguistic diversity and to make a concerted effort to dig up scientific knowledge in languages other than English. In other words, biodiversity records are comparatively scant in countries where English is rarely spoken.