How is your Asian colleagues' oral speaking?
I am an international student so I'm very interested in knowing how you think of your Asian colleagues' oral speaking. How does accent prevent you from fully understand what they mean? Whether it would be more difficult to connect casually with Asian workers given the language and culture?
Especially during interview process, what do you think of the oral speaking of international students? Will you have an initial bias towards international students during phone interviews?
I have heard the major problems for international students is the intonation and thythm, rather than the pronunciation. (we can speak each word with currect IPA, but still cannot speak fast/sound native because we pronunce each word evenly without stress and reduction).
What do you think are the major oral problems of Asian workers?
They have no accent whatsoever. There are a few awkward pauses every now and then when having conversations, and they might use some words that sounds slightly off to us. But accent-wise, perfect.
I think you pretty much nailed the major problem. Pronunciation is fine, but there's a certain something there that makes you sound not native. I can provide a slightly more unique experience. My parents grew up in India, but we (me and my sister) grew up here. As kids, I remember that my dad's language skills were mostly fine. However, what he struggled with was those little nuances that indicated he was a native. He struggled with understanding idioms and cultural phrases. It was very difficult for him, I've seen him get quite frustrated over it. To make things worse, my sister and I used to make fun of him for his accent sometimes. I look back on myself doing that now and I hate myself.
Believe me, the majority of people will respect you. Not only are you trying to pick up a new language, you're trying to ensure you can sound like a native. On top of that, you probably know multiple other languages. You're leaving your family behind in another country and trying to start a new life here. Everything is new and different for you. I truly believe that the majority of people will respect you for that and admire everything you're putting yourself through. There might be an initial bias towards international students during interviews, but if someone continues that behavior, you didn't want to work there anyway.
Anyways, I know didn't really answer the question. But be proud of yourself dude, don't let yourself ever feel like you're second to anyone or undeserving. I've never met you and I'm proud of you. You've got this, go get em.
Thank you so much. I have been training my american accent (follow youtube tutorial) since March. But I found my oral still sounds unnatural and slow during networking calls so I am afraid they would feel disappointed. Now I am working on intonation. Than you for your encouragement.
No need to train your accent, sounding like yourself is completely fine. If you look at Zoom CEO (Chinese immigrant) he has a thick accent and no one cares.
As a person who comes from a non-English speaking background, much better than mine. Even after years of being a fluent English speaker, it is still very hard for me to disguise my strong original accent - people seem to like it a lot though.
The Asian people I have met (mostly from S. Korea, China or HK) had indeed a great accent.
I'm a 2nd year at BB M&A group in NYC and there are around 20 internationals in our group's analyst/associate bunch.
I'd say there are largely two groups of Asians here: Indians and SE Asians(China, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong) My Indian colleagues all seem to have a very distinct Indian accent, but their English is perfect which is understandable considering that it is almost their second national language.
SE Asians on the other hand all seem to have learned perfect American accent - so no, none of them seem to have the problems you've listed. But their English is not at 100% native-level. They often sound a bit off/unnatural to a native English speaker's ears. Sometimes it's the vocabulary they use. E.g. I've noticed that Asian people use the word "offline" quite a lot, where as native English speakers would almost always the term "in-person". Sometimes it's the difficulty of coming up with words when speaking. Even so, their English is still good enough to work together, and I'd say their English is on par with my European(non-British) colleagues.
Singapore is the only SEA country in that list dude...
lol that is your only takeaway?
my firm is based out of Europe. Asia is by far our biggest business partner and market. my colleagues and I frequently speak to people in Taiwan, HK, Singapore, Malaysia, India, etc
The best accent is from people who at some point had an English education in either the UK or the US (or Australia). when you go there at age 10-15 or so your English will improve significantly. But even if you don't do that you can learn a lot through courses and through the job.
What I found is that nobody from abroad sounds like a native speaker, regardless of location. They may be fluent, but never sound like someone who was born/raised in an English speaking country. This is normal. It doesn't mean you can't work with them, but it does mean these business contacts are also native in another language. It makes sense to have them in these locations because we would be lost without them.
If you or others are intl. students in the US, UK or elsewhere it would make sense to put a lot of effort into accent training - but I doubt it would be possible to sound like a native just through those courses. It also depends on the job you are aiming at. If your plan is to work for an IT company that is based out of India, I don't see why an Indian accent would be a problem. If you, however, would like to face high-profile IBD clients in London it would be useful to sound like the people around you. (this does not mean you won't be getting either job with a different accent, just an observation).
Also, English is technically the same language in multiple countries - but it does have different words, intonation and other facets depending on location.
And I believe that humans in general are biased, not just towards intl. students. Not just in interviews, but also within family, the job, circle of friends, (..) - most people have a group of values and ideas they would like to see in the people around you. I have never interviewed an Indian/Asian candidate, so can't say whether an accent alone would be enough to be biased. We also have no Asian colleagues in our department in Western countries. we are too small of a company to have them. I am sure other users on here who work for the BBs have Asian colleagues.
Another point to add: Human communication is not only verbal, but is also conveyed through our bodies and social cues. A recent immigrant to any country would not only face language barriers, but also a different body language, and "a new way of how things are done". This may go beyond cultural values, sometimes faith, gender roles, tone of voice, accent, emotional intelligence, and a lot more.
Honestly, you can't do much about your accent at this point. Rather, focus on your fluency.
There are vocal coaches, and accent reduction training. Actors do this all the time, it takes a lot of effort and time - but it is possible.
Question is - why would you want to?
We work in finance, not as an actor or voice-over professional.
As an asian international student who successfully went through recruiting this past year, I think the accent doesn't play as big of a role as we think it does. In my cohort itself at a non-target, all 4 international students (which included Asians) had accents, and all of us placed successfully at top firms. As long as you can communicate clearly, that's all that matters. The only problem I faced was that I inherently speak very fast, so I had to slow it down a bit but other than that I don't think I ever got dinged for my vocabulary/accent. So, just make sure you are understandable, and you should be good to go.
Definitely better than ur oral.
Can tell that they are from Asia just like how people can identify a southern accent. No issue with understanding them or anything, all went to school stateside and speak fantastic english.
^ This.
do you mean like an asian american accent? just like how on the phone you can tell if someone has an african american accent?
Yeah pretty much. So many of them are from overseas so it might be thicker than someone raised here but it's not anything crazy. Their english is fine. I have more trouble with european accents when I talk to people in the EU speaking english (mainly France) than I do with even people in China, Japan, etc.
L
Their oral skills are amazing
All of my Asian colleagues have perfect American/British accents. I don't think having an accent will automatically get you dinged in an interview, but I can't be sure because I've seen no such case yet. However, if your accent and conversational fluency are both off, I do believe your chances will be very slim even if you ace all the technicals.
Nothing worse than getting on a deal team with senior bankers with bad Asian accents. When they bark comments to me over the phone, I usually just keep saying "ok" "yes" "will do" even though I understand like 50% of their English. Don't care if the book looks bad, winning a pitch with them would be hell.
I think the more important thing here is not using "oral speaking" but "spoken English".
F*** the accent. If you're constantly making grammar mistakes while we speak, I will for sure ding you.
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