Acceptance and potential linguistic challenges!

[a piece of bread]

Hey all,

Yesterday I received an e-mail from a Professor saying that I am unofficially admitted to NYU's joint PhD program in history and middle eastern studies with a funding by Henry MacCracken program for five years. I met and told this Professor my research topic at a talk she gave last year in Turkey.

It means I will come to the US anyway. I don't know if I can receive any other acceptances but living in New York already seems fantastic. NYU was among my top-three picks.

The main problem of mine is that I have never been in the US. Although I study at an English-speaking university, I speak English only at class and when I meet international students. I don't write in English without having an obligation to write an academic paper. Getting a good score on TOEFL or GRE, I think, means nothing. To be honest, I did nothing for TOEFL, and only summarized lots of words that I now cannot remember for GRE. I got good scores, even in the verbal section of GRE. I feel like a Chinese

Anyway, I need your advice on improving my linguistic skills. I have been learning English for a long time but I feel like I am not moving forward fast enough, at least not faster than the other languages I am still in learning process. I always thought I will have a better English soon after I went to the States, then realized this is not going to happen like a miracle! The good news is that the program structure requires students to work as TA only in the last two years of funding. I don't want to read comments on ratemyprofessors.com like "he has a heavy accent, don't take him" .

Are you making fun of people who have a thick accent? Tell me the truth . Actually my American friends think that my accent is easy to understand. But I want to speak English more fluently even though I don't know how. And how to improve writing skills? Do you have any experiences on English or other languages you learnt?

Any comments will be appreciated!

Edited February 5, 2011 by a piece of bread

[Langoustine]

Well as kid whose first language was not English (and granted I learn English when I was very young :/) I recommend watching some popular TV shows. It definitely shows you the pronunciation and the way people speak. Plus reading books, not Crime and Punishment as a first but easier fluff. The order of things is something I see a lot of people messing up on and I really think that early reading and TV watching was what really did it for me.

This was all a long time ago though for me but you know people always say immersion is the best way to learn a language and since you are not here in the States right now maybe renting a season of Friends or something will help

[Bukharan]

I am in the same field as you. Getting into NYU for Middle Eastern History is a massive accomplishment. Congratulations!

You should be very proud of yourself for this - do not fear moving to the States and definitely do not doubt things of little significance such as the accent in English.

In our field, there are many scholars from continental Europe and the Middle East, and everyone has some sort of accent! It is one of the defining features of our field, in fact.

If you want to make a career in Near Eastern Studies, no one - no professor and no student - will care whether you have an accent because almost every non-native speaker does. Your scholarship will come under scrutiny, not anything else.

[Bukharan]

Oh, and if you seek advice on how to improve your English (I doubt you need it: your initial post suggested a near-native ability) - as Langoustine suggested, watch US TV shows. It is a great way to bridge the cultural and linguistic gap indeed.

Edited February 5, 2011 by Bukharan

[TMP]

Do NOT worry! I had two international roommates during my MA years. One was Korean and the other was Austrian. The Korean found everything quite challenging because the only time she could ever speak Korean was with her family and best friend. Everyone else, she had to speak in English. Luckily for her, she was in music so English wasn't a top priority but she really, really tried. Her speaking skills were much better than her writing (oh, how I cringed when I saw her little notes ).

The Austrian was a different story. Her parents were from North America who had moved to Austria long before she was born. So for the first two years of her life, she heard nothing but German. Then she learned English. Her field was Classics/archaeology. This meant a lot of speaking and writing in English in the US (as opposed to all in German in Austria). Of all the girls living in the apartment, she complained the most and was most likely to say "Noooo I can't, I have SOOOO much homework!" In reality, her workload was tough but not overwhelming difficult to me or the other American roommate. It was the question of reading and writing in English at academic level. She spoke with very little accent. She admitted that it took her more than half of the semester to actually speak up in class because she had to process everything that was being said. Nonetheless, her professors, I believe, were very understanding and recognized this particular challenge. While she could participate in conversations with her American friends, it was academic conversations that she struggled with. She had to learn to sit quietly and listen, just listen. I think she had a lot going for her that this particular adjustment was only a minor annoyance.

Undergraduate students do sometimes get annoyed with foreign TAs but I think it's much more in the math and science where concepts really have to be explained (you know, like behind all the numbers and symbols) and labs cannot go wrong (like mixing wrong chemical solutions that could set fire). In history, if students cannot understand something, they'll just look up the information themselves. You can always say to them, "Look if you cannot understand me, yeah, that means you actually need to do your readings!"

So, don't worry about those undergraduates, especially if your American friends say that they can understand you quite well and you do write extrmeely well here on the forums that I have a hard time believing that you're from Turkey!!! But academic seminars will definitely be a challenge at the beginning but as long as you work with your professors, you WILL be okay. Trust me. My friend is surviving very well and she's in middle of her 2nd year.

Congrats!

[rsldonk]

Don't worry about the accent, you'll be in New York. New York is the most diverse city on earth and has people from all over the world. But yes, watch TV, get out and meet people, have fun. Don't just barricade yourself into your room and read books. Congratulations.

[Herbie]

I'd watch game shows, and talk shows. They're generally conversational English as opposed to being clearly scripted. Family shows too. Just - no CSI.

Since you know where you're going, I'd definitely Skype with a graduate student in the department, etc. if they're willing. If not, there should be an International Office with plenty of people in the same boat wanting to practice a language.

I feel as if you expressed yourself very well, and foresee no difficulties until you run into dialects and colloquial statements. That said, NY is one of the best locations that has all of that and above. Good luck!

[RDX]

Hey all,

Yesterday I received an e-mail from a Professor saying that I am unofficially admitted to NYU's joint PhD program in history and middle eastern studies with a funding by Henry MacCracken program for five years. I met and told this Professor my research topic at a talk she gave last year in Turkey.

It means I will come to the US anyway. I don't know if I can receive any other acceptances but living in New York already seems fantastic. NYU was among my top-three picks.

The main problem of mine is that I have never been in the US. Although I study at an English-speaking university, I speak English only at class and when I meet international students. I don't write in English without having an obligation to write an academic paper. Getting a good score on TOEFL or GRE, I think, means nothing. To be honest, I did nothing for TOEFL, and only summarized lots of words that I now cannot remember for GRE. I got good scores, even in the verbal section of GRE. I feel like a Chinese

Anyway, I need your advice on improving my linguistic skills. I have been learning English for a long time but I feel like I am not moving forward fast enough, at least not faster than the other languages I am still in learning process. I always thought I will have a better English soon after I went to the States, then realized this is not going to happen like a miracle! The good news is that the program structure requires students to work as TA only in the last two years of funding. I don't want to read comments on ratemyprofessors.com like "he has a heavy accent, don't take him" .

Are you making fun of people who have a thick accent? Tell me the truth . Actually my American friends think that my accent is easy to understand. But I want to speak English more fluently even though I don't know how. And how to improve writing skills? Do you have any experiences on English or other languages you learnt?

Any comments will be appreciated!

My $0.02 as an immigrant:

Firstly, you really have good English... judging from your post. Maybe I'm not in a position to say this but I dare to assert that most would agree. And your English will indded improve like a miracle when you come here.

Secondly, don't worry about accent. Cultural linguistically, EVERYONE has an accent. By living here stateside for 5 years, I can roughly tell the difference between, say, northern accents and southern accents, or a Chicagoan one and a Bostonian one (where I happen to be staying a bit longer). Yes there are socially sanctioned accents but no one is exempted from an accent. If you still want to "reduce" your accent, I would recommend you take a look at this book:

American Accent Training: A Guide to Speaking and Pronouncing American English for Everyone Who Speaks English as a Second Language

I used it and it works pretty well. (And if you are unable to purchase this book overseas, *cough* *cough* there are electronic copies and MP3 recording floating around.)

Thirdly, you may want to improve your conversational skills but honestly it's not something can be done well out of the linguistic environment. I will suggest, as many already said, watching some TV shows. Given that you are coming to New York, why not Sex and the City, haha

And in the end, congratulations and wish you alllll the best

Edited February 5, 2011 by RDX

[Jeppe]

My $0.02 as an immigrant:

Firstly, you really have good English... judging from your post. Maybe I'm not in a position to say this but I dare to assert that most would agree. And your English will indded improve like a miracle when you come here.

Secondly, don't worry about accent. Cultural linguistically, EVERYONE has an accent. By living here stateside for 5 years, I can roughly tell the difference between, say, northern accents and southern accents, or a Chicagoan one and a Bostonian one (where I happen to be staying a bit longer). Yes there are socially sanctioned accents but no one is exempted from an accent.

As another non-native English speaker and current graduate student, I agree with RDX on this. You sound like you're already very competent, and your language skills will definitely improve even more once you come over here and start taking courses and talking with people. Really, don't worry about it too much. I certainly know the feeling of unease when you write your first couple of seminar papers in English, as well as the fear that people wont be able to understand you due to your accent, but it is almost never as bad as you think, and what problems you might have initially will dissappear quickly with practice. To be honest, there is only so much you can do from abroad, and that last amount of proficiency will only truly come from being immersed in the language on a day-to-day basis.

Congratulations with getting admitted to NYU, I hope we'll end up in the same cohort

[Henry Hudson]

New York is full of people with all sorts of accents, including in academia.

If I were you, I'd find a way to practice more, either with a local club (if any exists), Skype, iChat, or that website that connects you with complete strangers (I forget the name).

You've got the classroom use down, That's great. You can obviously communicate well in writing. The hardest parts are over. You just need to use it more socially, so you can show up with confidence (even if you don't get such a chance to practice, I'll bet you'll do fine anyway).

[a piece of bread]

Thank you all for your supportive comments and recommendations! I appreciate them. I did not like sitcoms much, but started watching the first season of Friends last night, and it is fun And I have already met someone from the same cohort so that I can talk with him. As Chuianne said, the biggest problem is dialects and colloquial statements. We'll see how Friends works

I agree with those saying that I am lucky because I am going to New York. And Bukharan, you are right that even many of my friends in Turkey have also applied to American schools, and their English is not better than mine One way or another, we will handle this problem. Thanks.

[history_PhD]

Thank you all for your supportive comments and recommendations! I appreciate them. I did not like sitcoms much, but started watching the first season of Friends last night, and it is fun And I have already met someone from the same cohort so that I can talk with him. As Chuianne said, the biggest problem is dialects and colloquial statements. We'll see how Friends works

I agree with those saying that I am lucky because I am going to New York. And Bukharan, you are right that even many of my friends in Turkey have also applied to American schools, and their English is not better than mine One way or another, we will handle this problem. Thanks.

My one suggestion is to make sure that you are really familiar with the Chicago Manual of Style and Strunk & White's Elements of Style, if you are not already. As a tutor, I work with a lot of international students, and their biggest challenges stem from writing.

But definitely don't worry about an accent or English-speaking skills. All of the international students I've worked with tend to criticize their own English abilities when no criticism is merited.

[gradstudenthistory]

You needn't worry. First, only idiots make fun of international students with accents! Most people I know have tremendous respect for their fellow grads with the guts to do a PhD in a language other than their native one. (And to actually write, speak, and communicate generally in addition to doing research in another language -- that's extremely impressive.)

I've known a few grads with thick accents, and in my experience, they improve A LOT in the first year or two. Forced immersion will do that for you. So don't sweat it. By the time you're teaching, you'll be worlds ahead of where you are now!

And as others have said, your writing is clearly not an issue. We can't attest to your oral communication skills, but insofar as you are concerned, you really shouldn't be -- you will improve.