How do I get rid of my native accent and get an American accent?
Naturally, it's possible for anybody to pick up any accent. Now, what you need to do is try to sound like an American naturally, but not to copy them. How do you do this? Our team, as an English teachers, have noticed that the reason we sound differently is the articulators are used differently. For example, when you say the letter "t" as in a word "shut", your tongue should touch the backside of your gum ridge (tooth ridge), but not the backside of your upper teeth. That's how Americans use their articulators ( tongue, lips, uvula, etc.) , in other words their tongues touch the backside of their upper gum-ridges. Interestingly, russians and turkish people's tongues touch the backside of their upper teeth, not the gum ridge, when they say that "t". Thus they sound different. D, N, T, L, these letters are pronounced in the same way as described above. So, whenever you say any of these letters, do not forget to control your tongue to touch the backside of your gum ridge. W vs V. In many languages, these letters pronounced differently, and most of the languages do not have any letter that would sound like the English "w". So, if your language is also one of them, then what you need to do is just to say the letter "v" by keeping your lips circular. Voila, now you're sounding like an American, at least when you say the letter "w". And the letter "v" itself is pronounced differently in Russian and English. Russians often times say it like "ff" and they don't even notice it, while Americans almost always say it as "v" but not "ff". U vs У ( Russian "u"). When you say "put", "good" or "would", what sound do you make with "u", "oo" and "ou"? And most importantly, how do you use your articulators (tongue, lips, etc.)? We don't really pay attention to how we use them. If you say "u" in Russian, your lips are circular, in english they are horizontal. By simply knowing this, you could start sounding like an American right away.I could go on with every letter, but the idea I want to pass on is... I guess you got it, right? If not, what you need to do is just keep asking Americans this question: 'Where does your tongue touch when you say "here goes the letter" ?' And just pay great attention to their lips and what form do they take when they say certain letters. So, pick your American Accent by learning every letter.
Should America get rid of the dollar bill and replace it with the dollar coin?
Great question, and the answer for purposes of saving America money is YES. Coins have a much greater life span than paper bills, which wear out more quickly and need to be replaced more often, making them more costly to produce over time.Unfortunately, for practical purposes, the answer is NO. Americans are too used to paper currency and find them more convenient and comfortable than carrying coins around. As a culture, we are not used to change (I don’t mean coins as change, I mean things that change). Our government made gold $1 coins and pushed them out there, but they simply didn’t take. Efforts to make more $2 bills and get them into circulation didn’t work either. So to summarize, although it would make a lot of sense to do what you’re suggesting, I highly doubt that change is coming anytime in the near future.
Should America get rid of tipping?
Yes. It’s snobby, and you really don’t know that until you’ve given someone a really big bribe, er tip. Here’s how tipping works. As soon as you get into the bar, you walk up the the bartender, hand over a $50 bill and say, “Take care of me tonight, will you?”One of two things will happen. You will get excellent service all night. Or they’ll tell you to piss off. If your money is not big enough to guarantee one of those two outcomes, you’re just patting your bourgeois self on the back.Good, friendly staff who give excellent service do so because they’re good and friendly and excellent and they love doing their job. Not because of your extra pennies.
Should America get rid of state governments?
The education system heavily studied how big to make school districts, business heavily studied how big to make companies, etc, etc. The answer they all get is too big of a system leads to inefficiencies and too small of a system leads to too much cost. This is why people in rural counties get slower Internet speeds than in big cities.Most of the state's are divided into smaller regions so they can be governed best. It has led to shady redistricting for voting, but also to make money. One lake in Pierce County Washington was allowed to sell acre lots but they only had 200 feet on the waterfront and long skinny odd shaped property which made it difficult to provide water, sewage, fireman police and even roads. The new laws prevented it but they kept the old properties.The US states often have natural borders, main transport lines and other reasons for why they were states. Washington and Oregon state were once one territory. Because California is so long, many have proposed cutting it in half, as is typically done with maps. Same for Texas. States often have cultural differences as well as climate differences so local knowledge is deemed valuable by the residents. Some would like to get rid of the federal system so that states could compete directly with small countries. However, issues of water and air quality, law, and citizen rights try to keep things unified for the sake of reducing violence or other internal stability. The all for one and one for all attitude is generous and helps our economy grow.Because states provide the most governance they control the bigger budget, while federal expenditures are kept to those things that cross states such as highways, the need for armed forces, etc.
If Russia and America joined forces?
"America" is a geographic term that includes all of North, South, and Central America. Canada is already part of America. So is Brazil. The country between Canada and Mexico is the United States of America or the United States. If the U.S. joined with Russia, the name would remain "United States", since Russia is a state that would then be united with the existing 50 states. If the U.S. joined with Mexico, then it would remain "United States of America", because the Mexican states are states in America, and would then be united with the existing 50 U.S. states (49 of which are in America; Hawaii is not). If the U.S. joined with Canada, a decision would need to be made to make the Canadian provinces into states or make the U.S. states into provinces. It would then be either the United States of America (if the provinces became states), the United Provinces of America (if the states became Provinces) or the United States and Provinces of America (if the states and provinces kept their current names), or the United Provinces and States of America ((if the states and provinces kept their current names and the Canadians wanted to be listed first). If the U.S. attempted to join with the UAE, then terrorists opposed to non-Moslems joining with any arab government would interfere, and prevent the merger from being successful.
What will happen if we get rid of capitalism in America?
If you think 2008 was a bad economic collapse, just wait till you get rid of capitalism entirely. 2008 was the result of government interference in the capitalist system, through super low interest rates from the Fed inflating a housing bubble. But if you get rid of capitalism entirely, presumably by having the government take over production in some form of communist system, you will get complete collapse. Lenin had to bring some capitalism back with the New Economic Plan after trying to go full communist. North Korea is still a hell hole. Ethiopia and Somalia suffered famines under communist rule.Just look at Venezuela, and they didn’t even go full communist:Ukraine under communism:Have a look at a communist’s reaction to visiting a grocery store in the more capitalist United States. Visiting communist officials had to be convinced that the stores they were shown weren’t just Potemkin Villages, created to impress visitors, but this is what we get everywhere, available to anyone in a capitalist country:
Why doesn't America get rid of social security?
Careful what you wish for.The program is misunderstood by virtually everyone. It is supposed to be insurance, not a retirement system or a lifeline to those who didn’t save.Insurance pays for unexpected costs. You don’t know how many auto accidents you will have so you buy auto insurance. You don’t know how long you will live so you buy old age insurance. The auto insurance does not pay for all of the costs of the accident, and old-age insurance does not pay for all of the costs of retirement.Auto insurance to the good driver does not make much sense at the time. Neither does health insurance to the man who doesn’t get sick. Without old-age insurance no one would be able to retire at 66 or really any age for fear of living to 95.It is supposed to be a stable line of liquidity so that seniors can sensibly plan old-age. The problem is that the cashflows are not in balance. So it is like buying insurance from an insolvent insurance company. That isn’t very bright.
Why does America get to have nuclear weapons and other countries don't?
Okay to keep this short, why is it that America thinks that we can have nuclear weapons but try to say other countries can't have them? Other than the obvious answer that we want to have an upper hand, doesn't that sound a little hypocritical? I mean if we are saying that other countries shouldn't have them then in an "ideal" world shouldn't we get rid of ours? PS. To be clear, I am American. I'm more or less just curious as to what you people think about the whole situation. On the one hand I know that since we already have them other countries will always give us a bit if respect (that doesnt mean they have to like us, I know the world doesnt) but on the other hand if we really want people to do what we ask of them we should at least be willing to do the same as them... IDK what are your thoughts