The Stubborn Accent Won't Go Away

Me   Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:13 pm GMT
oops, I meant to type "an" American
Eastern European   Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:30 pm GMT
Why exactly is it such a big problem? I tend to believe it is more an identity thing than a language one. Honestly if you don't need to be 100% perfect( going for an anchor job for example) I would not give it much thought. It may also be that your looks give you away too. Don't worry and I suspect less people will ask.
Damian in Edinburgh   Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:01 am GMT
Fewer people will ask, not less! ;-) Nitpicking pedantic me.....
T   Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:14 am GMT
ESB, tried sending you an e-mail. Guess it didn't get through (or maybe it's in your spam folder?). Will try again, maybe tomorrow - I'm sick with the flu or something right now.
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:18 am GMT
I'm not really sure whether one of our cute BBC TV weather gurus, by the name of Tomasz Shafernacker, tried desperately to rid himself of a perceived "stubborn" accent or not. He is Polish, born in Gdansk, and partly educated back home in Poland but also, latterly, in the UK - in London and also in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

I don't think he made a conscious effort to acquire the accent he now has and which you can hear in the link below. I think it came naturally to him through being here for so long and for having been educated here for the most part. If I wasn't aware of his background I would assume he had lived in (Southern) England all his life.

Post uni in the UK (and partly in the USA) he qualified as a weatherman though the UK's Meteorological Office, now based in Exeter, Devon, and now appears in the regular BBC TV weather forecasting/reporting slots.

His accent is now undeniably British - of the Southern English English variety and no way would you think he originated from outside this country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9ctEDqqJtk

Don't you think he's cute? Like his name. He has a lovely personality and also has quite a substantial gay following here in the UK with many solely tuning into the BBC TV channels to get weather updates just to see this guy, and in a country whether the weather must be the most difficult and irritatingly and perfidiously unreliable of any other in the entire world! ;-)
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:26 am GMT
Mega sorries to the lovely Tomasz - I got his surname slightly wrong! It's Shafernaker - no "c" in it. I knew there wasn't, but I inserted one anyway. Not my day today so far and it's only 09:25!
ESB   Thu Feb 05, 2009 3:41 pm GMT
T, no, it didn't go through. Once again, my address is:

eugenebalt [AT] yahoo.com

thanks!
T   Fri Feb 06, 2009 1:45 am GMT
Sent