Is American accent emulated by youngsters in UK?

Guest   Wed Sep 24, 2008 2:18 am GMT
Is American accent emulated by youngsters in UK?
Uriel   Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:21 am GMT
Somewhere I read that British children are occasionally heard to use American accents while playing with toys that are associated with the US -- maybe through movie tie-ins (?). I think I can remember American kids in my childhood occasionally putting on a British accent when playing with toy knights or such, but it wasn't common, or very prolonged. I'm guessing it's the same sort of thing. And enough British people seem to be bewailing the use of "Americanisms" in speech that those must indeed be creeping in. But I doubt that they are mimicking our actual pronunciation style to any great extent!
WRP   Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:36 am GMT
It seems to be a pretty popular activity on YouTube, but that's not what I'd call a good indicator of a mainstream trend.
Uriel   Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:59 am GMT
But do they do it in real life? Lots of people like to goof off in front of a camera. (And, sadly, we give them a venue for it!)
Damian in Edinburgh   Wed Sep 24, 2008 7:24 am GMT
No! That's my concise reply to the question posed by the OP.

At least not on an everyday basis anyway. British kids may well use some American words or expressions which they hear on some American TV programs, the only situation when they would encounter them here in the UK anyway, unless they have American kids as neighbours, which happens, but apparently such kids usually start losing their American accents pretty quickly once they have been here even fo a short time, unlike their parents, of course.

The same goes for British kids who have moved to America with their parents - it's inevitable as young kids are very receptive to their environment especially with regard to accent and terminology of Language....they soon pick up local accents and dialects, in the same way they soon learn the local Languages, doing it quite naturally and colloquially without bothering their heads with the rules of grammar and all that kind of thing which can complicate the foreign Language learning process for adults.

Of course I speak from a Scottish perspective on the issue raised here and I don't think many Scottish youngsters readily adopt Americanisms - they are much more likely to use all our local Scots dialectal terms.

I can't really comment on what the situation may be like down in England - apart from my time at uni I never went to school there, but unless they are trying to emulate a cowboy or an American gun totin' superhero I would guess it's pretty much the same down there as it is up here.

You'd be hard pressed to hear a British kid simulating an American accent in any big way at all. I wouldn't think that many American kids run around intentionally talking any form of Britspeak either, unless they are madly in love with Will Young or, horrors of horrors - Becks.
WRP   Wed Sep 24, 2008 4:11 pm GMT
"But do they do it in real life? Lots of people like to goof off in front of a camera. (And, sadly, we give them a venue for it!) "

I'm sure it isn't. Because really, why would they?

"You'd be hard pressed to hear a British kid simulating an American accent in any big way at all. I wouldn't think that many American kids run around intentionally talking any form of Britspeak either, unless they are madly in love with Will Young or, horrors of horrors - Becks. "

I bet if any American teenager is likely to imitate a British accent it would be one who was a fan of Will Young. He's not really famous in the US. Becks on the other hand, well, you might have a few more takers for. We see plenty of him.
Skippy   Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:34 pm GMT
Most Americans think they can speak with a convincing English accent... But they're usually pretty bad.. "you go' it, guvna!" lol