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US vs UK English for learners | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 81 of 136 09 September 2009 at 9:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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I remember reading an American magazine article in the 1970s that tried to describe UK English and its differences from the US variety. The author had clearly not been near the UK recently, if ever, as quite a few of the words he gave had already disappeared from British English.
Re accent, there is a much broader range of them, and of dialect, in the UK than in the USA. There is also a lopsided intelligibility as well. It would be unthinkable for a British audience to watch an American English film that was subtitled, but the reverse situation does happen. In choosing an accent, you could aim at something mid-Atlantic, say, the manner of speaking of the actor F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus. The accents in that are interesting. Most actors in it are American, with one or two British. The more patrician actors tend to use mid-Atlantic accents, while Mozart (Tom Hulce) uses his normal, rather broad American speech. The effect, plus his occasional use of obscene language, makes him seem a boor who is also a musical genius. Edited by William Camden on 09 September 2009 at 10:00am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lenya Diglot Newbie UkraineRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5556 days ago 15 posts - 19 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: French, German | Message 82 of 136 09 September 2009 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
I do not know why, but British accent is much more pleasing to my ear. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Paul_Russell Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5578 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 83 of 136 09 September 2009 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Having grown up and lived in the American Midwest I believe myself to speak with about
the most "generic" American accent possible. On extended trips to Germany, it was interesting to listen to the varied opinions regarding English language accents. To a 50 year old Bavarian the British accent is rich, refined, and "more German-like" while the American accent "sounds like mosquito talking through it's nose: drone, buzz, drone, buzz." An 18 year old girl living in the same area much prefers the American accent saying that to her it sounds "normal" and that the British accent is snooty and off-putting. A 30-year old English teacher from Erlangen does not purport a preference, but two years of living in England has given him a near-perfect British accent. I've a similar issue -=- the German language has a wide range of dialects and accents. Learning from a wide variety of sources I fear someday I'll say something along the lines of: Excuse me sir, but if you could pardon my interruption: if ya'all-er goin' to the market, I could sure use some ice cold orange pop. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Me has to learn Groupie Germany Joined 5558 days ago 64 posts - 75 votes Speaks: German* | Message 84 of 136 09 September 2009 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
I read about the Mid-Atlantic accent and it is supposed to be outdated but the idea of combing British and American English appeals to me. Paul_Russell: Thank you for the insight. Edited by Me has to learn on 09 September 2009 at 9:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Z.J.J Senior Member China Joined 5609 days ago 243 posts - 305 votes Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 85 of 136 13 September 2009 at 9:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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I wonder if the Americans usually pay little attention to British English, and the other way around? Interestingly, I found that American dictionaries almost take no notice of British English, while British dictionaries always take account of American, Australian, Canadian, and other variants of English in detail.
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| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5925 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 86 of 136 23 September 2009 at 11:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
Edited by mick33 on 23 September 2009 at 11:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5336 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 87 of 136 30 May 2010 at 12:14am | IP Logged | |||||
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My English accent is complicated. Like someone said all the way back at the beginning of this thread; for me it's a choice between an accent that I've been hearing all my life and that comes most naturally to me and an accent that I love to listen to and which I was always taught in school. I can adopt both of them, although my American accent is superior to my RP accent and I'm sure both are far less than perfect. Being able to do both can actually be quite annoying because whenever I speak English to someone I find myself slowly matching my accent to theirs. This doesn't happen with Australian, Irish, Scottish, etc, accents because I can't do those but it's simply impossible for me to maintain an American accent when I'm talking to someone with a British accent and vice versa.
I basically shift around all the time like this: Stage 1: I watch/read Pride and Prejudice, become interested in a British actor or encounter some other part of British culture and decide right there and then that British English sounds much prettier than American English. I adopt an RP accent, begin obsessively inserting u's in colour and favourite and start saying dustbin instead of trashcan. I force myself to realise how much about the American culture irritates me and since I'm European it makes much more sense to adopt the accent used most closely to my own country. I relish in the thrill of pronouncing the rich sounds of RP and have great fun saying words like dodgy and cheers. This stage can last anywhere between an hour and several weeks but no matter how long it does, it always ends in the same way: Stage 2: I watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy or immerse myself in American culture in another way and decide right then and there that an American accent is way cooler than an RP one. I slip back into the accent, drop those silly u's and allow myself to say trashcan which sounds much cooler anyway. I force myself to realize I hardly even know contemporary British culture and am much more familiar with the American one. I sit back and let the language flow as naturally as my Dutch does without having to mind my accent and love doing what my grandmother would call "chewing on [my] words and then spitting them out." This stage can last anywhere between an hour and several weeks but no matter how long it does, it always ends in the same way: Et cetera. Edited by ReneeMona on 25 June 2010 at 8:00pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5465 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 88 of 136 30 May 2010 at 1:38am | IP Logged | |||||
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Brilliant post ReneeMona. This should be what it's all about for us language-learners -
adaptability, flexibility, and allowing ourselves to be influenced by the culture of the country/countries of our languages. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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