request for help

[dichroic]

Native English speakers: Would you be willing to write out a short greeting for my Toastmasters people here in Taiwan? Or even better, record one if you have the ability to do it. I'd like for them to hear a lot of the different varieties of English - anything from Down-East Maine to Cajun gumbo to North Philly black or South Philly Italian, to Boston to Bombay to Cardiff to Singapore to London to North Dakooota to Melbourne to Cali surfer dude - just write or say it however you speak. (Feel free to have fun with it - exaggerate the accent and throw in lots of local phrases.)

I want to use this for a "Variety Session", which is supposed to be both entertaining and educational - unless I can think of a better way to do it, I'll probably divide them into teams and let them guess where each one is from. I can give out hints and decrease the points they get depending on how many hints I have to throw out.

Thanks in advance!

ETA: I forgot to say, I'd like to do this at the next meeting, which is Feb 2.

Comments

[peoppenheimer]

Glad to do it. What sort of greeting? "Hi, my name is Paul"? Something longer? How would you like to receive the audio? Would you like video?

[dichroic]

I was thinking something like "Hi, Taiwan, this is Paul. I hope your weather is good - it's sunny here and getting hot! The Indian paintbrush and ocotillo are flowering now, and the saguaro blooms will be out in a couple of months. Talk to you later - I'm going out for Mexican food!"

That's assuming I'm remembering correctly that you're in AZ, of course! It's a little hard to figure out how to do it, since there's no real local accent, but you could always talk about rattlesnakes, coyotes, prickly pear, tamales, Navajo weaving, or anything you can think of for a good sense of place.

As for format, I should be able to handle anything fairly standard: mp3, mp4, .wmv - I'll have a laptop and a projector and the company IT guys will be around to help. Worst case, I can hold a mike to the laptop speaker if I have to.

Thanks!

[dichroic]

Forgot to say - the next meeting is in two weeks - Feb 2.

[peoppenheimer]

Okay, recording is made. How shall I get it to you?

[dichroic]

Thank you! You can email it to dichroic at riseagain dot net.

I will be sure to post how this all works out.

[peoppenheimer]

I forgot to put in how fat the saguaros have gotten from all the rain; but there's time for me to make a revised recording if you think it would be useful. Just let me know.

I'm looking forward to hearing about the class!

[dichroic]

It's up to you - if you haave time, that would be great since it's something very specific to the area (you could even say "It's unusual to have so much rain here in the desert!"). I got the file and was able to listen to it - thanks!