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Turn pseudo-USaccent into an English one? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes  5 sounds | Message 1 of 22 05 July 2009 at 4:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey guys!
Okay, I'm trying to turn my pseudo-American accent into a Southern English one. I still want to keep my American accent, but I want to be able to switch. I have my reasons :-p Basically, I may have to spend a year in the UK, and give up on going to the US. Since I know that I'll be influenced by the British accent anyway, I thought that slowly shifting my accent would be less painful than going to the UK in a few years and getting laughed at because I sound like I live in British US or whatever. I also fell in love with the Southern English accent. I think that educated girls from London sound absolutely lovely, without sounding too posh. I'm totally jealous when I voice chat with English girls. I always wish that I could press a "steal accent" button during the voice chats! Now, when I do a British accent, American features just pop out. My English friend gave me advice like "stop curling your tongue", "enunciate more", "elongate your vowels", and she also made me repeat words, but she says that my voice has a twangy quality even when I'm aiming for English English. So, here are my questions: For Brits: why do Americans still sound American when they do a British accent? What do you do if you want to imitate an American accent? I'm tackling the problem in a roundabout way, because it works better that way (well, in my case) For everybody: Does anyone know of a good audiobook/ podcast in British English that I could shadow? I know the differences between the two accents, but I'm struggling with English sounds, especially the vowel. My friend told me that my l was too moist. I can see what she means, but I need some help to do a good British L. By the way, if anyone wants to help me with the sounds of British English on Skype... :) Be prepared to hear a lot of discordant sounds, though :-p 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| richie Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5643 days ago 13 posts - 12 votes Studies: French, English | Message 2 of 22 05 July 2009 at 10:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Just wondering are you talking about Received Pronunciation (PR English: http://ww w.ling.ed.ac.uk/research/gsound/Eng/Database/Phonetics/Engli shes/ByLanguage/All_Words_Gmc_W_Eng_EW_RP_RP_Typ.htm ) or Estuary English? I hope its PR English since it sound great with a slight french accent!
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| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5677 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 22 05 July 2009 at 11:09am | IP Logged | ||
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In fact, as people have pointed out in several other threadx, there are many English accents. There is no single "London accent". Richie above mentioned the Estuary English accent, which is very unpleasant to listen to. Received Pronunciation ("old-style BBC English") is, alas, rare. My preference is Oxford college English - where the focus is on clarity.
Here is an entertaining survey video of British English accents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn3_bYcAnWI I am not aware of books or tapes that teach a clear British English accent, but there are certainly many personal tutors. One of the most impressive (IMHO) is a native German speaker whose British accent is almost perfect: http://www.pronuntia.com/ (she has a link to an mp3 where you can hear her accent). She can also teach over Skype it seems. Her prices, though, are not cheap. Edited by Splog on 05 July 2009 at 11:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5773 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 4 of 22 05 July 2009 at 11:41am | IP Logged | ||
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English in England is unintelligible for most English speakers. (I just love baseless exaggerating)
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| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 5 of 22 05 July 2009 at 2:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry if I wasn't clear enough. Of course, I'm talking about received pronunciation, BBC English, the Queen's English, whatever you call it. Take a news presenter on BBC1 (who hosts the London edition of the news) for example, well, that's what I'm aiming for.
For example, here's the English woman I shadowed a year ago : http://www.archive.org/download/mpgs_0903_cs/movingpicturegi rls_01_hope_64kb.mp3 (without much success, but that's the type of loveable English accent I'm talking about). And the woman from pronuntia.com sounds quite impressive indeed. I can tell that she still sounds a tiny bit German, but I'd be really happy with a result like that. Wow. Edited by fairyfountain on 05 July 2009 at 2:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6042 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 6 of 22 05 July 2009 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | ||
Lol "You will find very very posh Scots walking in Edinburgh" ;-). I didn't realise people in Scotland see it this way ( it's to be expected though, Edinburgh being the capital). Actually, a taxi driver once told me that "people in Edinburgh are snobs" but at the time I regarded it as a personal opinion not a stereotype. Apart from this curious bit of information, I don't think his performance is good. The guy just modulates the pitch of his voice and throws in some local slang but without changing the phonetic quality of the accent (or at least not much). Edited by Sennin on 05 July 2009 at 3:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 7 of 22 06 July 2009 at 1:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I've been practicing quite a lot today, and here's my conclusion:
If I try to sound British, I can, but then, I sound like I'm in the racehorse business or related to the Queen. (= forced, too posh, whatever). If I try to tone it down, most of the time, the American accent will come out. In rare cases, the French accent seeps through (which doesn't make any sense, since I'm pretty sure that I neutralized my French accent in American English. Members of this forum confirmed that, even if I don't sound totally native in American English). The thing is, I don't know whether I should pursue with the whole thing or not, because my American accent is starting to sound more British, which was not the initial goal. That said, now that I've messed my English up a little, I might as well get on with it. So if you guys have any advice, I'm all ears. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6211 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 8 of 22 06 July 2009 at 6:02am | IP Logged | ||
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I would say don't ever force it, just because I think you'd get more negative reactions that way. I know that I
personally hate it when people force "American" accents--it sounds so silly, and sometimes even like they're making fun of us! It would be better if you just let it come naturally (i.e. tone it down). People like slight foreign accents alot more than they like hearing foreigners doing caricatures of them! For it to come naturally, I think there are basically three things you can do: 1. Listen to lots of British English. (I guess shadowing would probably be good, but I know nothing about that!) 2. Talk with people who speak RP and have them correct you, not every word, but the most salient things. 3. Study the concrete phonetic differences between your accent in English and RP. As far as being able to switch bettwen American and English accents, I raelly wish I could help you--I'm trying to do the same thing for Spanish! Maybe if you set like Monday, Wednesday, Friday British and the other days American or something like that, it would help. I really don't know. By the way, why have you given up on going to the US? I mean, I'd love to spend a year in the UK, but I think if you feel like you're "settling" you won't have as good of an experience. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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