They say that to learn a language without an accent, you have to have started at a very young age so that your mouth and tongue can learn the motor skills for that language's phonemes and imprint them.
Why not create a serious of nonsense songs containing words made up of (ultimately) all of the phonemes in all of the world's languages? (There is a fairly small, and limited number)
Teach them to kids at an early age, and then as they grow up they can choose to learn any language there is, and they would have a better chance of having no accent.-- zigness, Feb 18 2004 Mairzy Doats http://www.rienzihi...ING/mairzydoats.htmA little Bing Crosby croon to begin your collection of phonemes. This rendition published by the Merry Macs. [jurist, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004] Category Changed... that was an error.-- zigness, Feb 18 2004 I quote hip hop artist Missy Eliot:
Iffy kiffy izzy oh Musi ques I sews on bews I pues a twos on que zat Pue zoo- My kizzer! Pous zigga ay zee Its all kizza Its always like Its all kizza Its always like Na zound! Wa zee! Wa zoom zoom zee!
Perhaps we can use this as a place to start working.-- Laughs Last, Feb 18 2004 The rine in spine falls minely on the pline.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 18 2004 [laughs]... I think you're on to something here.-- zigness, Feb 18 2004 No kindergarten teacher currently alive would be able to sing this song with completely correct pronounciation. But you could teach it from a recording of spliced together phonemes.-- robinism, Jan 16 2005 I think these should be songs with video, so that children could see the lips, and how the words are pronunced.
It is much more difficult to learn a nonsense if one doesn't know the meaning. Maybe these songs could be associated with various objects with nonsense names, and all this would be shown by TV in a creative way...-- Inyuki, Jan 16 2005 Have you thought about the 'click song'? It is a song sung to children from the bushmen. The african bushmen use a click in their vocabulary (moviesuggestion: "The gods must be crazy"). I am against this idea for two reasons: 1) why complicate things by trying to teach children in advance something they may not need in future? 2) Already children at a young age are showing signs of adult stress (e.g. burnout). Some studies have concluded that children nowadays are pushed too hard to learn too many things.
incidentally: the Click song is a nonsense song. The words don't have actual meaning but helps the children to reckonize the Click and later use it. For children, hearing is learning. Reckognition comes later.-- Susan, Jan 16 2005 There are simlish songs now
It would be wonderful to have a sims language option that did this teaching-- beanangel, Oct 03 2007 halfbakery