When English is taught as a foreign language in continental Europe we naturally learn standard British English / RP / Queen's English, because the books and other teaching material only have examples of that form of English. In addition the teachers also learned RP once and naturally teach RP.
The result is that we Scandinavians sound extremely upper-class and snobbish when we speak English, something I think really sucks, because Scandinavia is a very democratic and non-snobbish region.
I hate the Queen's English! Women speaking it sound like old prudes and men sound homosexual. I would have much more have learned to speak everyday English (like Tony Blair or Eastenders), Northern English (like in the League of Gentlemen), Scottish (like Ewan McGregor) or even Australian! I want to say "how's it goin' luvv?" in stead of speaking in a style that is more in tune with statements like "dare I presume you are with good health, ma'am?"
I was quite shocked (and happy) when I discovered that the genius of the English language, the nice little phrases like "we'll be going now, won't we?" "having a good laugh" is common to all parts of the British Isles, and not just to tweedy people.
And then I started listening to BBC and discovered that a lot of the stuff there was presented in non-RP accents, just as clearly and understandably and much more nice to listen to, than what would have been the case if the Queen was reading the news!
And I find Northern English and Scottish, being more hard-knitted, is much easier to pronounce for me as a Norwegian, in stead of the very open vowels of RP.
So what do you guys think? Should educatational authorities do a little thinking on the pronounciation they teach and maybe change to a form that is more in tune with what their students want, both for linguistical and social grounds?
Well, you can always learn those words and phrases on your own.
Naturally living in Scotland for some months would give your English a Scottish polish, but I think it is very hard to re-learn something you have already learned in a slightly different way. And I don't think it is wise to learn it on your own (I mean without guidance from books or teachers), because you could end up with what YOU think is a Scottish accent, and in the end the Scots will smile at your weirdo accent
Phrases can be learned later, but an accent is very difficult to change and / or learn.
The accent ESL students are taught depends much more on who's teaching them. Don't go blaming textbooks and educational authorities: neither beurocrats nor books ever model pronunciation for students in classrooms.
Of course we could speak whatever accent we wanted to, but our textbooks had phonetic script in moderate RP.
For business I speak English with non-English speaking people all the time. It is my feeling that non-English people who speak English with an American style accent are easier to understand than people who speak with a British accent. I mean the television accent not the New York accent. This is especially true for people from Germany or Sweden. The American accent is easier for more people to understand.
I don't like RP. It sounds cold and pretentious. I like the Californian accent (non-ValleyGirl types of it) because it's one of the easiest to learn... Both cot and caught are [ka:t]...I don't have to learn by heart that LOST has an O-sound and that HOT has an A-sound (like in New York City accent and many other East Coast accents).
I use A for both of them /la:st/ /ha:t/...
(/ha:t da:g/ sounds more logical than /ha:t dO:g/ or /ha:t do:g/ or /ha:t dowg/)
O occures mainly with R, L orange /Or(a)nj/, Florida /flOrida/
(It's funny to notice that ''Noo Yawk Talk'' has /ahranj, flahrida/...
I always remember Nanny Fine saying /fahrenas/ for foreigners.. :) )
Greetings from Croatia
*southern Europe*
I'm glad English is my first language, but if I had to learn English and I had a choice as to my accent or dialect, I would choose American because I think most people think it's easier to understand, plus it's spoken by many more people. I must say though, it is sometimes fun to talk with a Scottish accent...
Why is there any sort of hostility towards the Queen's English? It is the most flawless form of English, and is the classification of English my family learnt and the English I was raised with prior to attending school in New York. The Queen's English is far more pleasant to hear than, "You be'er do i' a l'il bi' like VIS. I' isn' 'ard." The Cockneys, proletarians, and many of hte regional dialects sound entirely uneducated, and much of what they speak is indecipherable. I'd rather even listen to Scotish English rather than repulsive English street slang talk.
With the exception of the New Englander/New Yorker accents, American English is ghastly. After listening to an RP-speaking anchour on the BBC chat with an American, the English clearly speak their language far more exceptionally that Americans. Midwestern/west coastal American English is essentially slang.
Thanks for the opinion, Adam. Unfortunately, all of us do not share it.
Why is there any sort of hostility towards American English? Well, we'll respect your opinion if you respect ours.
And wtf. is this thing with homosexuals? Do you have a problem with gay people, Fredrik from Norway?
I agree about Adam L., Tiffany. I don't know where he gets his ideas, but I am insulted when he calls my dialect 'slang'.
<<With the exception of the New Englander/New Yorker accents, American English is ghastly. After listening to an RP-speaking anchour on the BBC chat with an American, the English clearly speak their language far more exceptionally that Americans. Midwestern/west coastal American English is essentially slang.>>
I think this is overgeneralised and also inexact. Slang is a sociolinguistic category, and concerns vocabulary use, while as I perceive, this thread is about accents. Also, the dialectal map of the US is too varied to allow for such generalisations. I too perhaps prefer the New England accent over Texan or Californian, but would not call those I don't like "ghastly". And as for the British, their accents are as varied as those in the US, and not all of them sound "nice" in purely aesthetic terms. But on the whole, I think what makes speech nice or ugly is not the form, but the contents. Swearing in RP would be much more repulsive to me than genuine compliments in Cockney - actually, the latter would not be repulsive at all. :-)
In my opinion, British English sounds nicer than American English. Many Americans, including myself, find British accents to sound very formal, and I'm not sure why. I don't know the different varieties, of course. BTW, I'm from California, and I find the worst accents to be Southern, New York English, and African American Vernacular English (I'm not racist towards blacks, but I can't stand how it sounds, especially because of its similarity to Southern). I also find Australian English to be odd-sounding, and I find its slang rather strange. Sorry if I offended anyone in the post, but it's what I think.
It's fun to have all these opinions on he subject of this forum..the English Language. The mere fact that it has so many forms makes the whole subject matter fascinating. Long live the differences in the way we speak the language.
The title Queen's English is just a name and nothing else. The spoken language in the UK has changed a lot, and even the Queen herself has changed the way in which she speaks...just listen to her present style of speech and compare it with old recordings of her voice. I may be wrong here, but I believe she once took coaching sessions in an effort to make her speech a bit more "downmarket" and therefore sound more like ordinary people. Here again, it is very much an English thing, as opposed to the rest of the UK.
As Frederick says, there are so many different accents within this country you cannot generalise, and honestly, nobody in general life outside what's left of outdated upper class ENGLISH society consider themselves as speaking The Queen's English.
Frederick...