Do the Americans speak English better than the British?

Hiroki   Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:49 am GMT
I envy you guys for being able to know about English accent, enough to debate whoes English is like what !! As far as Rene's British accent in Bridget Jones is concerned, it sounds sophisticated and educated to me. And it is easier to speak like her than like George. W.Bush !!
Liz   Thu Jul 20, 2006 8:19 am GMT
<<grabbing every occasion to disparage Americans and other nations.>>

'Grab the opportunity' instead of 'occasion'. Forgive my shameful grammar. :-(
Guest   Thu Jul 20, 2006 8:56 am GMT
Do the Americans speak English better than the British?

of course they do, just look the way BUSH speak.

or see this thread

http://antimoon.com/forum/t4401.htm
Uriel   Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:10 am GMT
Um, I am well aware of the fact that Shaun of the Dead was a British movie. I'm pretty sure I even figured it out well before the credits. ;)

And I forgot about Sliding Doors -- I've heard Gwyneth Paltrow getting very good reviews for the accent she did there. Good movie, too. Ya gotta love that little Scottish guy, John Hanna.

Speaking of redneck accents -- the actor who played Wormtongue in LOTR (Brad Dourif) is from (I believe) West Virginia, and has a thick hick accent in real life. But on set he spoke with nothing but the British one he was supposed to use in the movies, so that when his part was completely filmed and he reverted back to his natural speech, people thought he wasd just joking around.

I don't think Bridget Jones was actually meant to sound "sophisticated and educated" by British standards, Hiroki!

Anyone seen Elizabethtown yet? Orlando Bloom's first attempt at sounding American. I can't remember the exact quote, but somewhere he said that he thought there was a lot more to it than just changing the way he talked -- he said there were intrinsic differences in the way Americans and Brits think. Brad Dourif said something similar -- that the accent influences a lot of your acting, in the way you use pauses and other non-verbal communication.
Rene   Thu Jul 20, 2006 3:44 pm GMT
Orlando Bloom did a really good job with his accent in Elizabethtown (that's my opinion anyway). I only had one problem with Jude Law's American accent and that was that he just couldn't throw off the r's where he was supposed too. (Idear, etc.) I had to see a play by a local theater recently. They were doing a Christmas Carol (it's a really long story) but anyways, if you wanted to hear some realy fake accents, that was the place to do it. I'm not really even sure why they tried because most of them sounded like Tony Blair one minute, the Steve Irwin the next, and then to finish it off like George Bush. It was a bad play anyways, that was just one of the things getting on my nerves.
Liz   Thu Jul 20, 2006 4:49 pm GMT
<<I only had one problem with Jude Law's American accent and that was that he just couldn't throw off the r's where he was supposed too.>>

How interesting!!! I've noticed this in his other films as well, when he tried to speak with an American accent.
Liz   Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:08 pm GMT
<<I don't think Bridget Jones was actually meant to sound "sophisticated and educated" by British standards, Hiroki!>>

She was meant to sound middle-class.
Hiroki   Fri Jul 21, 2006 6:38 am GMT
<<I don't think Bridget Jones was actually meant to sound "sophisticated and educated" by British standards, Hiroki!>>

She was meant to sound middle-class.

I want to learn to speak middle-class English. like, if I spaek high-class Japanese with my friends, they will go off me, I'm sure. It's fine, I think, as long as we speak clearly.
Uriel   Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:43 am GMT
Just rented Elizabethtown tonight. Will report back when I've seen it.

Do Australians and other Commonwealth actors get as much flack as American actores about THEIR fake British accents? I'm thinking Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth, Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale, and Russell Crowe in Gladiator, among others....

Australian actors have taken over Hollywood lately, the way Canadians used to, and I've seen plenty of them do just fine faking our accent. There were three of them in L.A. Confidential alone, and I never picked out any of them!
Guest   Sun Jul 23, 2006 8:12 am GMT
Uriel   Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:51 am GMT
Verdict on Orlando Bloom's accent in Elizabethtown: Couldn't have done it better myself.
Damian in London   Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:15 am GMT
Orlando is a bloom! Pluck with care.

Hey, he's from Canterbury. Does that make him a Man of Kent or a Kentish man? Who cares....he's really cool. Check him out:

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/orlando_bloom_biog.html
Damian in London   Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:18 am GMT
yeah....just found out.....Canterbury......east of the Medway.....Orlando's a MAN of Kent! Can anyone doubt it? :-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/places/features/manofkent_kentishman.shtml
Rene   Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:46 pm GMT
I don't know if any of you have seen the Horatio Hornblower series or not, but in the last episode there is the worst fake American accent I've ever heard. This woman hasn't picked up a drawl at all (didn't realize how much of one we had till I heard her trying to fake the accent without it) and her vowels are all miles off. Oh well, all of those movies are still totally awesome and way better than Master and Commander, which I loved too.
Hiroki   Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:45 am GMT
forgive me asking a basic question about English. I am Japanese speaking Japanese as first language. I wonder if there would be any difficulty between the Americans and the British when they talk with each other? If there are any, what sort of it do they have ?