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US vs UK English for learners | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Tecktight Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States Joined 4977 days ago 227 posts - 327 votes  Speaks: English*, Serbian Studies: German, Russian, Estonian | Message 105 of 136 11 August 2011 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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In response to the person that said Americans think it sounds "fake" or "pretentious" when a foreigner speaks
English with a British accent, I respectfully disagree. I think most educated Americans would acknowledge that a foreigner's accent is based upon the circumstances of where and how that foreigner learned English. Therefore, I do not think there would be much animosity because of it, and, if there is, said foreigner should forgive America's idiocy and consider moving eastwards to a more civilized place. ;) My Russian teacher picked up English in London, and everyone in the class thinks she sounds especially authoritative and pleasant to listen to because of it. Anyway, I think both accents are equally fine, and both are understandable. My only gripe with American-English is the unfortunate tendency of Americans to replace "t" with "d." For example, "butter" becomes "budder," "water," "wader," and so on. Thankfully, I avoided this unfortunate habit by virtue of the fact that everyone in my family (first-generation, and only, American speaking here) emphasizes the T sound and I grew up being constantly corrected whenever I dared swap it for a D. That said, I think a foreigner can easily avoid the habit, too (provided they want to--I guess it's a matter of personal preference...) Just my thoughts. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| watupboy101 Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4904 days ago 65 posts - 81 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 106 of 136 12 August 2011 at 4:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Well let me ask you this... What do many speak in movies? What dialect to more people speak? It would be pretty
simple if I had a choice. American, the British accent is hard to understand by a lot of people anyway, just go for American more people, more books, movies, anything... A lot is American dialect... But they aren't that far apart it's mostly the accent. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ppfarj Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4953 days ago 5 posts - 8 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English | Message 107 of 136 08 September 2011 at 12:08am | IP Logged | ||
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You see, I began learning the American English at school, I also spent half a year as
an exchange student in the US, and ended up in Canada for college. Studying both in US and in Canada sort of enriched my vocabulary with a mix of spellings and also provided me with a proper Canadian accent, which make most British wonder whether I'm from the US, since most can't differentiate one from another. Currently living in the UK, I spent about a year an a half in London, then moved to Manchester where I've lived for over a year. I've adopted some of the Brit spelling and some of its grammatical expressions, but I believe my accent hasn't changed as much. I would certainly try to adopt the English RP- which sounds beautiful to me - however, apart from those BBC reporters and some movie actors, you hardly ever hear anyone speaking like that. Actually, most British seem to dislike the RP because they think it sounds pretentious, "posh", snobbish... a bit of a shame! 'cause most popular accents sound quite uneducated and chavvy. By the way, I finally realized that there are many Brit accents, and that they're quite different among themselves - some of them REALLY difficult to understand such as Geordie, Scouse, Glaswegian, Brummie .. even the dialect spoken in Manchester is a bit hard at first.. "me meself, me (h)and be(h)ind me bAck, bUs, book, cock/cocker=mate, ta = thank you, and so on... have i mentioned anything about the Manc intonation??! Search youtube for Shameless or Coronation St. and you'll see what I'm talking about! Hence, I'm lead to believe the North American way is still the best for ESL students in general, since it's usually much more useful than the Brit RP. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| caracao Triglot Groupie France Joined 5121 days ago 53 posts - 84 votes Speaks: French*, English, Italian Studies: German | Message 108 of 136 08 September 2011 at 1:32am | IP Logged | ||
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It's the same language, with regional differences. Who cares what accent you choose. As for foreigners, we choose something neutral most of the time, we have our own accents.
But so few people can speak English fluently anyway, most people stick to Globish, a low-vocabulary language. But it's always good fun to hear American or British says that English is the international language. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| learnvietnamese Diglot Groupie Singapore yourvietnamese.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4950 days ago 98 posts - 132 votes Speaks: Vietnamese*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 109 of 136 08 September 2011 at 4:48am | IP Logged | ||
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I think Caracao makes some very good points, in my opinions.
English is my L2. I'm learning it to make my way through the English speaking world. In retrospect, my English knowledge is made up mostly of American pronunciation and a mixture of British and American words' usage. American pronunciation because most of the films I watch are American. I know more Americans than British. That's my circumstance. British Grammar because Oxford Dictionary is my most favorite dictionary. But for some of the grammar points and words' usage, I think American way is less rigid so I would switch whenever I think it makes sense. So I ends up using both British and American expressions. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| w1n73rmu7e Newbie United States Joined 5941 days ago 31 posts - 46 votes | Message 110 of 136 08 September 2011 at 5:04am | IP Logged | ||
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Maybe it's cause I'm American, but a British accent seems like it would be much more
difficult for a foreigner to pull off than an American accent. Just from my personal experience of trying to speak in a British accent, it feels a lot more stressful on my tongue & mouth. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ppfarj Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4953 days ago 5 posts - 8 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English | Message 111 of 136 08 September 2011 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | ||
To be honest, I can't possibly agree with that. I've met a few foreigners in the UK who actually managed to pick up the Brit accent the same way I once did. It's got to do with your peers, if you make friends with local people or if you stick with friends who have got the same background, which is easier and more "convenient" for most immigrants over here. I've got a Polish friend who've lived in Manchester for 3 years only and she sounds just like an ordinary Manc - that is... her accent is far from being anything alike the one your hear from Hugh Grant, Renee Zellweger, the Royal family and so. A huge part of the UK sounds "rough", at times similar to some southern African American who come from the ghetto. And many dress and behave alike well. The northern part of England is very, very, VERY "working class". Have you ever seen the movie "Billy Eliot"?? Watch that and you can get the picture! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| georgiqg Triglot Newbie Spain Joined 4905 days ago 36 posts - 50 votes Speaks: Bulgarian*, Spanish, English Studies: German, Russian | Message 112 of 136 08 September 2011 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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When I speak English, I tend to pronounce it with an American accent just because I'm more used to listen to the American pronunciation, because of the music and the movies (in my country, Bulgaria, movies are always subtitled, almost never dubbed).
But now I'm trying to change my pronunciation and make it sound more British basically for two reasons: 1. I’m European so I want to sound that way. 2. The language is called English, because it was invented in England. So I can at least try to speak like them. For the same reason I’m currently learning German and trying to pronounce the words as they pronounce them in Germany (not in Austria or Switzerland). And if I learn Portuguese, it will be European Portuguese, not Brazilian. Just for the record, my intention is not to offend US citizens, Austrians, Swiss or Brazilians; I just want to speak those languages the way they are spoken in their respective origin countries. -- Georgi -- 1 person has voted this message useful |
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