Recording: British & American accent:which 1 sounds bett
Hello,
I've been trying to decide on an accent for ages now.
That's why I recorded something in American English and the same thing in British English.
It's not perfect, I know that :)
I just want to know which one you think sounds better.
Please try to say whether it sounds very bad/bad/okay/ good/ near-native in each case, and why.
Any comment on my pronunciation is also welcome.
I honestly do not know which one to tell you to choose. They both need some work. As an American, I can tell you one very noticeable mistake that you make. You seem to pronounce ALL intervocalic T's as taps. This isn't the case in American English. So you may think that it makes you sound more native when you say "Briddin", "polidics" and "cadastrophe", but it doesn't. Americans don't say them that way.
When you do the British one, you sound like a foreigner attempting to imitate a speech that the Queen gave in 1955.
In my opinion your British accent is more pleasant to listen to than your American, which is slightly erratic and your native accent comes through much more. Given this, I'd recommend you work on perfecting the British accent.
Yes, agreed.......work on your British accent just a wee bit more, practise it daily, and within a month or so people will think that you were born and bred in the Chiltern Hills, have lived in Princes Risborough all your life, and only venture abroad to go on a Club 18-30. Nice!
Yeah, I reckon I did flap my Ts too much on that one. Thank you for mentioning that, I did hesitate when it comes to Britain and politics, but now at least I know how to pronounce them (sort of!)
Do you have any advice to improve my British accent? Like something I could shadow or a good software?
I googled the names you used, Damian, because my knowledge of British culture isn't all that great. I would like to know how you think I could achieve this endeavor in 1 month, though :) (and you made me laugh, too!)
Laura - alright then - if you're not happy with one month how about...say....three? After taking time off in my tea break to listen to you again I think you could easily manage there months' at the most to work on your British accent. Do you mind if I call it an English accent though? I mean - I have a British accent but no way is it English!
Right then - just remember not to allow the odd rhoticisms creeping in from your American accent sample - but I like your broad "A"s - well done. In fact, your voice is very attractive and so easy on the ear, and by the time mid February arrives I reckon you will sound quite Chiltern Hills, quite Southern England! I randomly selected that area of Southern England in my rather jokey (but with a certain amount of serious intent) earlier post because the Chilterns is (it is "is" and not are because it refers to a single region and not the range of hills with the same name!) the bastion of Southern English English RP involving most of the people who live in that beautiful part of England, the extremes being the noticeably "posh" people living in all those quaint towns and villages with double barrelled names (such as Princes Risborough, as mentioned) and the more "Estuaryised" people, mostly those under 30/35, at the other end of the spectrum.
Just aim for something in between those two extremes, Laura.
My male cousin (a Scot, of course) married an EERP speaking English girl a couple of years ago in a place called Wallingford, right on the River Thames, and not far from the Chilterns....and they now live in a wee village called Stanton Harcourt, where EERP reigns supreme, with the younger element contributing a certain amount of Estuary. My cousin says that he appears to be the only person in the entire neighbourhood with a Scottish accent, and neither he nor his wife has any intention of influencing each other at all in this respect.
Hi
I'm at the library at the moment, so I can't listen to the recordings - but British is better to learn! Also, upper class British is better!
Hey Damian,
Thanks for you -rather funny- comments and advice!
I'll pay attention to my rs, because I tend not to drop them, and dropping them at the end of words is instrumental if I want to really sound English.
I know that there's a *huge* difference between a British Scottish accent and a British English accent. Sorry if I got it mixed up here!
By the way -because that just baffles me- how comes you all think I sound posh?
I mean, I don't mind sounding a bit posh, but as you said, I don't want to overdo it either.
"Just aim for something in between those two extremes".
Three months sounds good to me, even though I can't work 24/7 on my spoken English.
I welcome all advice and feedback about my audio file and if someone has a good recording in British English for me to shadow or whatever, I'm here :)
Thanks!
Laura, I like your Cockney accent.
You should be on Only Fools and Horses.
Kate Nash should be, not me!
You sound very much like an American with a heavy cold.
You pronounced "leads" as "leaves" and "where the" almost as if it were "whether".
You said "the prime minister, Tony Blair, describe her" instead of "the prime minister, Tony Blair, describes [or describe] her"
You also pronounce "figure" as "figger", but I guess that's an accepted variant, albeit one that grates on my ears.
Kate Nash should be, not me!
it's ''Kate Nash should be, not I''
;) you as a foreigner should stick with normative grammar
I find it rather odd that you're telling someone what the "correct" sentence fragment would be. If we were being truly "normative", we'd insist on a complete sentence.