2

I'm a student studying English as a foreign language that means I'm studying English in the place where everyone else doesn't speak English at all.

So it is really hard for me to have a chance to use English.

I want to ask a question to native English speakers.

I was watching this video as the material of studying English(https://youtu.be/btb9wLkiKPE),

but i'm not sure whether she speaks like a native speaker.

How do you think?

P.S. The contents of the speech is very inspiring and moving. It touches your heart. :)

Beomsoo Kim
  • 21
  • 1
    I'm not convinced this question is on-topic, as it explicitly asks for opinion. The speech is fluent, which is a strong indicator, but the accent is a south Asian accent, with the rhoticity which is common in some parts of America. The subtitles are inaccurate and almost certainly prepared by someone who is not a native speaker. – Andrew Leach Nov 12 '17 at 13:07
  • A very interesting question, though it might be closed since it asks for opinion. Ms. Mazari's pronunciations and idioms are not always those of ordinary 'Anglo' English, but she is entirely fluent and intelligible, obviously completely at home in the English she speaks. That English is probably based mostly on intercourse with non-Anglo speakers; but "native speaker" doesn't appear to be a category which can usefully be applied to her idiolect. – StoneyB on hiatus Nov 12 '17 at 13:33
  • 1
    In this video she speaks and sings in another language (Urdu?) and she seems fluent in that as well. Since she was born in Pakistan, I would think chances are that her native language is Urdu, but her English is certainly fluent and at near-native level. She might actually be raised bilingually, with one of her native languages being English as a second language (I think David Crystal coined that term referring to people in India who are raised speaking English by people for whom English was not their native tongue). – oerkelens Nov 12 '17 at 13:55
  • 1
    Thanks for all of your opinions. I asked you guys' opinions, so I also reckon this page might be closed soon :). It seems like you guys all agree that she is an almost near-native level English speaker. Thank you guys again and enjoy your days. :) – Beomsoo Kim Nov 12 '17 at 14:07
  • 1
    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because OP admits they are deliberately disregarding the inappropriateness of questions seeking opinions. This is really challenging the site ethos. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 12 '17 at 14:56
  • 'Two years ago, I'm in a car accident' is not fluent, native English, to my ear. – Nigel J Nov 13 '17 at 08:12
  • 'Two years ago, I'm in a car accident. Today, I'm driving again' - sounds fluent and native to me. See historical present tense. – Davo Nov 13 '17 at 13:18

1 Answers1

2

What a moving video, I cried!

The speaker is not a British or an American English native speaker but she is very fluent, and she speaks very naturally. The only obvious mistake I found in the subtitles was the spelling of transaction spinal cord it should be transEction. Otherwise, despite some missing commas, the subtitles appear to be accurate.

There was a small fault in Muniba Mazari's speech that I detected, I found she tended to omit articles, but in an arena and in front of a large audience that can happen, so stage fright might have played a role in that.

A few errors that British and American English native speakers would not normally make are the following

“One day doctor came to me”

It should be, a doctor

“I have a bad news for you”

there should be no article in front of "news" which is uncountable, and

“What lovely painting...

it needs an "a" in front of "lovely painting".

”There's no point of crying. Just go and adopt one and that's what I did”

It should be "no point IN crying" and maybe I would have added an exclamation mark after "Just go and adopt one!"

Mari-Lou A
  • 91,183
  • Thank you so much. I learned a lot of information from your reply. I think I am going to leave this page on, because I don't want many people to miss this information. – Beomsoo Kim Nov 13 '17 at 05:08