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US vs UK English for learners | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| TRENDY Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 5163 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 89 of 136 28 October 2010 at 2:52pm | IP Logged |
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I rather try to stick with a standard british accent, it seems nicer to me than the average american accent, perhaps it shows more personality since an overwhelming number of foreigners nowadays choose the american way, i don`t like the accent of stereotipycal american teenagers and i even dislike more the increasingly tendency that many foreigners try to emulate it.
In the other hand i have to admit that they`re american accents that also appeal to me, i gather a lot comes down to the person speaking it. Edited by TRENDY on 28 October 2010 at 2:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5185 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 90 of 136 30 October 2010 at 7:38am | IP Logged |
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Just a comment for people studying English - if you plan on spending time in America you're really better off going with the American version. Ironically, Americans love the British accent but they think you're some kind of a snob if you try to imitate it. We think you have to be British to speak like a Brit or it's not right. I had a friend from Germany who came the US and she spoke broken English but with a pretty nice British accent because her teacher was from England and she told me shop keepers and people would sometimes give her funny looks that made her feel very uncomfortable when she pronounced English with the British accent instead of the American variety. It was bad enough that she consciously made the effort to speak American instead.
I had to apologize to her on behalf of my fellow Americans as this was grossly unfair to her and her language abilities. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5335 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 91 of 136 30 October 2010 at 10:04am | IP Logged |
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Like most Europeans, I was taught British English at school, and used that accent until I was 20. As a student I took up a job as an Oslo-guide to foreign tourists. Since the ratio was approximately 1 bussload of Brits to 99 bussloads of Americans, I just converted linguistically over the summer. When I started studying English at the univerisity I wrote in British English and had a mostly American accent.
I am still there, but like ReneeMona I will swing back and forth depending on my linguistic surroundings. If I am in the UK or surrounded by Brits I will use more of an English accent. If I relax, or talk with an American friend watching an American film I will be all American. If I am at an international meeting, and get into a cold rage (usually directed at the French management of the organisation) my generally warm and bubbly voice becomes ice cold, my vocabulary becomes over polite and my accent purely British. I am not sure if I do this because it sounds more business like, or because I revert to my earlist training in English, but I have noticed it several times. Oh, and about American stereotypes: Here is mine based on a 5 weeks' trip to the US some years ago: They are lovely, friendly, service minded and good fun. Whether they were old or new Americans I felt only warmth and love coming from them (I know it sounds like the worst of clichees, but that is the way it is). In a Chinese breakfast restaurant, a Jewish lunch restaurant, a hotel with Mexican staff, 3rd generation locals of European origin or in shops with people of all colours and creeds, I received nothing but warmth and friendly interest. People stopped to offer us lifts, and went out of their way to show us where to go. Superficial? Perhaps, but a lot nicer than the coolness, or down right rudeness I have experienced in some European countries. Do I like all previous American presidents, or their foreign policy at any given time? Nope, but that doesn't change the way I feel about the Americans as a people. The only thing I find slightly worrying is that after the wast amount of American films we see here, the American films and the culture we are presented to seem normal to me, and the Norwegian ones seeem phoney. Yesterday, watching "The Leap Year" I had to explain to my 14 year old daughter daughter that the custom of presenting a diamond ring in a little box when you propose is an American tradition,and not a Norewegian one, and she could hardly believe me. We are so influenced by the US that our own culture is being pushed back. Although I can think of worse manifestations of that than receiveing a diamond ring, obviously :-) 7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5341 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 92 of 136 30 October 2010 at 10:49am | IP Logged |
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Personally, I like American accent more, because it sounds somewhat more relaxed, easy-going and pleasing to the ears (at least to mine, and I just simply adore the way how the TV presenters on CNN speak!), while I find the British one to be more uptight and somewhat snobbish...however, as I was taught British English in school, I can't seem to change the accent anymore, even though I bought the American Accent Training book+CDs a couple of years ago to learn the American accent, and the end result: a poor imitation of the American accent that sounds really so cheesy :( Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 30 October 2010 at 10:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| TRENDY Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 5163 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 93 of 136 02 November 2010 at 9:43am | IP Logged |
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I don`t believe that just for speaking with one of the hundreds british accents this has to be considered snob when many of them actually sound in a very matter of fact way.
If i were living in U.S.A. for some time i will end up picking up their accent but i don`t see anything wrong with speaking with a british accent if you just go there for a few days and all your background knowledge in English stems from " british English " switch to an american accent in this case would sound really phony , neither this would have to draw glances of any sort in such multicultural country, at least they draw none in my country when a foreigner speaks with a south american Spanish accent. Edited by TRENDY on 02 November 2010 at 10:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 94 of 136 02 November 2010 at 8:31pm | IP Logged |
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Everybody speak differently and unless I have some serious reasons to speak in this or that accent, I don't think this is something I should worry about. Now and then I hear for instance Germans say "Oh.... we're not at all accustomed to American English, what we learned in school was British English" - and then they still sound like the stereotypical German in British/American media. No matter what British/American vocabulary/speech patterns/et.c. could fool me that they aren't German.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6035 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 95 of 136 02 November 2010 at 9:09pm | IP Logged |
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In theory I'm going for "the British accent" (meaning some form of RP / BBC-English in the lower range of poshness ), in practice I'm also very influenced by American English. I've been asked on a number of occasions if I'm American, it really comes as a sock. Me who listens BBC Radio 4 every evening?! Lol... Anyhow, I still can't fool English natives, just non-native speakers.
So I'm near the point of giving up any attempts for consistency. And with French, I gotta stick to the European way ^__^. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 96 of 136 03 November 2010 at 11:05am | IP Logged |
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It's hard to get the right accent. A long time ago I was speaking in Russian, and was told I had a Ukrainian accent. More recently I was speaking French in Belgium, and was asked if I was from Luxembourg. After that, I was speaking Turkish and was taken for a Turkish Cypriot.
In one of John Le Carré's novels, there is a character who speaks a number of languages but always with the wrong accent - his French has a German accent etc. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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