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American or British accent more popular? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5418 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 17 of 70 29 May 2012 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
I suppose it is still regarded more or less as the standard, but is rarely heard outside of those people whose families went to elite private boarding schools or acquired it through drama school. It has been somewhat supplanted by "Estuary English" which is now common amongst BBC presenters. Basically a common, middle class accent in South East England though not entirely dissimilar to RP. Even then that is still a fairly minority accent when considering the wide variety of accents across England and the rest of Britain. If using standard English, most people will just use the accent associated with their dialect. I can imagine in the US there is also a big variety of accents but in the media they appear a bit more homogenous. I suppose it also takes a while for people to get their ear attuned to more easily identify different accents from another country so stereotypes are pretty hard to avoid. It took me a good while to learn to identify a Canadian accent for example, something you'd probably find pretty easy to spot. I suppose it is just down to exposure really. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4622 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 18 of 70 29 May 2012 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've heard that the British have only recently begun preferring -ise. The OED prefers -ize because it is more etymologically correct (in Greek it's a zeta) (and because it corresponds to the pronunciation). Other than that I'm not aware that the OED recommends American spellings (like color or theater). 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| michal Pentaglot Newbie Czech Republic Joined 5304 days ago 16 posts - 34 votes Speaks: Czech*, English, German, Russian, French Studies: Latvian, Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Polish, Yiddish, Greek, Hungarian | Message 19 of 70 29 May 2012 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What options does a mainland European really have?
1. Learn a more traditional RP-like pronunciation from classes and (British oriented) learning materials. 2. Learn an American pronunciation from the media and from American learning materials. 3. Spend a significant amount of time in an English speaking country. Now if one of us goes to live in the UK for a while, we may be able to modify our speech to reflect what is actually spoken in whatever part of the UK we are in. I think there simply are not enough learning materials for us to learn any other British pronunciation than RP from books and accompanying CDs. Either American or RP pronunciation is probably good enough to speak with other Europeans. People going to live or study in the UK need to modify their speech when they get there. I would be interested to hear some Brits comment on this: When a person from the Continent arrives in the UK, which do you find more natural or more bizarre: - The person speaks with and American pronunciation, or - The person speaks traditional RP, something like Prince Charles? And of course, all this is a huge simplification that assumes that we can follow a model pronunciation reasonably well. In reality, most of us end up speaking with and accent that is a mixture of our own native language's pronunciation, and various forms we have encountered in school and the media. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5831 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 20 of 70 29 May 2012 at 2:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I also think some of the problem is British English is not as uniform as American English.
The "Standard Mid-Western" accent that is commonly used to teach American English is actually a rather common accent in the US, many people speak using a similar accent to that and all Americans understand it and accept it. However, the equivalent dialect in British English is RP, and RP is far less dominant in the UK than "Standard Mid-Western" is in America. The vast majority of Brits speak with an accent noticably different to RP, and many British people don't like RP and actually ridicule the accent and style of speech. To a Brit, RP sounds awkward, stilted and in some cases laughable, while to an American, Standard American sounds formal, but completely natural and understandable. The result is, learning British English becomes difficult for a learner, as the range of different dialects are so wide that it becomes difficult to know which accent to learn. However, with American English the choice is easy. Standard Mid-Western is much closer to how Americans speak in real life and no one laughts at it or finds it strange sounding. Also, it is widely understood in almost all of the English speaking world due to the media. Edited by COF on 29 May 2012 at 2:36pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| July Diglot Senior Member Spain Joined 5273 days ago 113 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishB2 Studies: French | Message 21 of 70 30 May 2012 at 1:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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You know, I come from South-Eastern England, and speak something more or less RP
because that was my local accent growing up. It's not a posh accent, it's normal for my area, and my school (which was not private or fancy in any way). It's useful because it's internationally recognized and many English learners find me easy to understand. But it's a real accent, it's my native accent. Prince Charles doesn't speak RP. He has an outdated accent which is not how most people speak, and it's not what you'll find on the CDs of modern English language textbooks. Even Charles' children don't speak like him, but they don't speak 'Estuary' either. RP has simply moved on. If you're foreign and show up in London speaking like a BBC presenter of south-eastern origin, most people will notice that you speak clearly and have taken care to develop a good accent. Most people will appreciate that and just enjoy speaking to you. Not that you shouldn't learn an American/Australian/South African/Indian/Canadian accent. I love all sorts of accents. Just don't let anyone tell you that RP is fake, or that people will laugh at you if you speak that way. It's all nonsense. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5831 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 22 of 70 30 May 2012 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It seems to me that most Europeans are far more aqainted with American culture than British culture.
I get the impression that most Europeans don't really know much about British culture beyond stereotypical references to the Queen, "tea and scones" and Monty Python. In fact, I get the impression that the true essence of British culture is as much a mystery to the continental Europeans as it is to the average American. They just don't know anything about it and don't have much exposure to it beyond the occasional news report on the Queen or Kate Middleton. Why would Europeans want to learn a dialect and accent of a country they don't know very much about when US culture is highly accessable and absolutely everywhere? Please correct me if this assurtion is incorrect, but it does seem to me that most Europeans, particularly those who have never lived in the UK would know far more about the US than they would about the UK. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5831 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 23 of 70 30 May 2012 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I also think out-dated British English textbooks also reinforce out-dated stereotypes of the British as being uninteresting and stuffy, such as Assimil's opening line "My tailor is rich".
Seriously, you don't get much more stereotypical than that, and that's only the first sentence! Edited by COF on 30 May 2012 at 1:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5565 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 24 of 70 30 May 2012 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Does the current Anthony Bulger authored edition of L'Anglais: Collection Sans Peine
begin with 'My tailor is rich'? If it does, it does so as a common parody, which can be found in quite a few European made films and literature (for example Asterix chez les Bretons or Le Gendarme a New York) - you are referring to Cherel's L'Anglais Sans Peine from 1929 when everyone had a tailor (and indeed Cherel's courses in other languages are filled with references to tailors). As to your other points - can you substantiate that Europeans don't know anything about Britain? - after all, London is the 7th biggest French city in terms of population and Germans are the 4th largest non-native population group in the UK - in addition to the large numbers of Poles, Portuguese, Spaniards and Italians who come to study or work. Add to that the fact that the UK is the 6th biggest tourist destination in the world and I would think quite a few Europeans have seen beyond the Queen and afternoon tea. 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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