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British accent - Michael E. Andrews | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Links & Internet Resources |  | |
| Evanitious Triglot Newbie France Joined 4453 days ago 36 posts - 39 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1, Italian | Message 1 of 12 11 July 2012 at 12:53pm | IP Logged |
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Hi there !
At work we've received a group of British people and now my main goal is to get the same accent ! So I'm listening to British movies and trying to repeat what they say while recording myself. Lately though, I've found a website where a guy, Michael E. Andrews, claims to be a coach dialect and tells us we can "learn to speak british accent fast" ! I have to say I'm very skeptical. It looks like a scam, a nice webpage telling you what you're expecting to read and I've been looking for his name as a coach dialect and I couldn't find anything about him. I wanted to know if any of you has ever tried his method ? The testimonies on his website could be fake. He seems to be the only one offering this service, I mean, on the internet and for quite a decent price...I suppose. He pointed out interesting things to work on such as Vowel lengths Consonant lengths Connecting words Intonation 'Silent' letters If you think this guy is a fraud, would you know where I could find such ressources, please ? At school they didn't teach me how to connect words, intonation, etc...Is it worthwhile buying a book on phonetics or linguistic ? I have to add that I don't have any problem with my oral English, at least, I hope so. I would say that English speakers understand me perfectly and I've passed the CAE of Cambridge. I just want to sound like a British and get rid of my French accent. Thanks in advance ! Ev 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4762 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 2 of 12 11 July 2012 at 9:08pm | IP Logged |
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I don't know about this man, but if you have time, there is no shortage of material to
listen to out there, spoken in British English, for no cost, or probably not much cost. If you can get BBC Radio on the internet there, I'd recommend Radio 4. (Or World Service in English if you can find it). Or any number of films of course. If you like audiobooks, try to find them by British actors who speak RP, e.g. Jeremy Irons, Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Fry, etc. Yes, probably an accent coach could accelerate the process, but if you are not in too much of a hurry, I'm sure just listening attentively to the right material would do the trick. I don't think you need to aim to speak with a perfect British accent; just make your French accent a little less noticeable. Provided your actual language is reasonably accurate, your accent will be perfectly acceptable, and many people will actively like it. You could work on simple things, like always sounding initial "h"'s, which can be quite noticeable when they are not sounded (as in the Cockney dialect). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Matematik Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4453 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes | Message 3 of 12 11 July 2012 at 9:33pm | IP Logged |
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Listening to Radio 4 is a good idea if you want to learn a clear Received Pronunciation accent as Radio 4 tends to be clearly pronounced and have fairly minimal usage of slang.
However, bear in mind that the Radio 4 RP accent sounds rather stilted to a lot of Brits and almost comically old fashioned in some cases. At the end of the day there are so many different accents in the UK that all you can do is pick one you like and focus on speaking with that accent. However, the most accessable British accent for a foreigner is obviously going to be Received Pronunciation as you hear it on the BBC. Edited by Matematik on 12 July 2012 at 8:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mariasantiago1 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4238 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English | Message 4 of 12 12 February 2013 at 7:28pm | IP Logged |
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To reply about the 'Learn the British accent fast' course. Actually I got that course some time ago (for myself and my
brother). We both thought it is really good. It gives you a lot of detail on how to pronounce British sounds very correctly. My boyfriend is English and he told me that my accent had improved a lot and I didn't even practise much LOL, but my brother's still working with the course and he sounds really good now. It's definitely a legit course. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sandy Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5562 days ago 37 posts - 61 votes | Message 5 of 12 13 February 2013 at 1:34am | IP Logged |
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You will not succeed in convincing anyone that you are a native speaker. If you try to pretend that you have a RP accent then you might sound affected and odd. There is no need to lose your French accent. Many British people prefer the French accent to some of our regional accents.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4573 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 6 of 12 13 February 2013 at 10:24am | IP Logged |
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It is obviously very difficult to achieve a real "native" accent. However, I personally think one should try to get as good an accent as possible. Although RP might sound affected, as a non-native I still prefer that as a standard rather than any regional accent.
I already recommended this site from BBC in another thread. They have some good tips and exercises on pronunciation. They claim it to be "standard south English accent", but I'd rather call it "BBC English". 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5499 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 7 of 12 13 February 2013 at 11:28am | IP Logged |
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IMO, I think if you are a non native learning RP is the only way to go. If, as someone
from France or wherever, you studied to speak in a Cockney or Scouse accent you would sound very odd indeed. Anyway, in my experience, most educated people from any part of England adopt a largely RP when speaking formally or to other educated people. But at the end of the day, if you speak English well with a French accent you will sound very appealing to most English people - look at the success of Antoine de Caunes. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4556 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 8 of 12 17 February 2013 at 12:53pm | IP Logged |
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Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a standard British accent. There are many regional varieties instead.
I've never understood this fascination with accent. British people cope with many different accents and if you sound a bit French, it's not a problem in the slightest. I've heard peope from abroad criticise a fellow countryman's accent when he speaks English, yet the guy in question sounded crystal clear to my ears. I work alongside Polish people and they all speak English with a Polish accent, but I understand everything they say. Accent is not the same as pronunciation. There is also no such thing as accent-free speech. I expect a lot of linguists to disagree with these statements, but I stand by them. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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