Do English teachers in England speak RP? Should they?

Pete   Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:31 am GMT
Oh I said Spanish accent talking in general Spanish, because in Fact I am Peruvian.

So can you think of a latin, ethnically Peruvian speaking RP English!!!

hahhaa I understand why you brits dislike me! hahahah

I must appear sodding strange.

and NO, RP doesn't mean "Rather Posh" it means "Received Pronunciation" Well I suppose that most of you, experts know this.
Guest   Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:39 am GMT
The comment must be made, 57, that for an avowed Anglophile and RP enthusiast, you use a lot of North American expressions: you may well have been riding, on a horse, perhaps in Rotten Row, or on a bike or motorbike, but you wouldn't have been "riding" or even "riding in" trains or buses in the UK, and you wouldn't have encountered "clothing store clerks".

You may have caught or travelled in a train, which you'd have caught at a railway station, probably a tube station, in which case you then went on the tube.

You may have encountered a shop assistant or perhaps these days, a salesperson, in the shops you entered, but not a clerk, even if you were prepared to pronounce it, correctly, "clark". If you penetrated into the Staff Only area, you may have finally unearthed a clerk, but that worthy would probably not admit to being anything less than an administration officer.

It's all very well trying to speak RP, but without the words, and knowledge of the history and culture which makes those words appropriate, you may as well not bother.
Guest57   Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:20 am GMT
The problem is that almost all the English language TV shows and movies these days are American. Being constantly exposed to this, it is difficult to completely avoid American expressions. Hollywood and the American television industry in general are extremely pervasive, even in non-English speaking countries. I suppose if I lived in the UK, I could pick up all the terminology.

...As far as "It's all very well trying to speak RP, but without the words, and knowledge of the history and culture which makes those words appropriate, you may as well not bother." What accent do you recommend I substitute for RP?
Guest   Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:31 am GMT
"What accent do you recommend I substitute for RP?"

I have to agree with "Guest", that yourEnglish was so full of Amricanisms that you already probably speak a broad international form of English. That's absolutely fine, stick with it and you'll be understood anywhere.
Candy   Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:35 am GMT
<<What accent do you recommend I substitute for RP? >>

Guest57, I agree with 'Guest' above. It seems that you've has some really good experiences in England (I'm glad you like the place so much!) so I would advise you not to worry so much about your accent. You hear thousands of different accents in England these days, so in my opinion it doesn't matter how you speak as long as people understand you!

Pete, you write extremely good English! :)
Ren   Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:57 am GMT
<Do English teachers in England speak RP? Should they?>

Jeez its only a fricking accent not some completely different version of English. English is English!!!

I'm starting a fricking movement against this bloodly stance of *My English is better then yours crap*
Ren   Sun Nov 06, 2005 9:00 am GMT
Opps {=(

*than NOT then
Damian   Sun Nov 06, 2005 9:34 am GMT
57 mentions Upminster and Cockfosters! He obviously enjoys "riding the tube"..especially the District and Piccadilly lines.....all the way to the end!

The term "clothing store clerks" sounds so, so American! I can almost hear the pronunciation..."clurk". Reminds me of the time I heard an American tourist on the radio mention "Burkley" (Berkeley) Square.

The word "posh" really sounds so old fashioned! I think the very nature of RP has changed......it's still a form of RP but one which as been toned down and which no longer has the excruciating tones you hear in old black and white films. Most people listening to them today really can't believe that people actually spoke like that in those days. I mean in ordinary conversations and not a contrived stage acting scenario. Even old documentaries featuring ordinary people being interviewed confirm that people did actually speak in that way...well, especially middle class people and upwards. The rest, of course, spoke in very pronounced regional accents, and of those the Cockney accent also seemed different in those days of long ago.

I read sonewhere that the true Cockney accent as it used to be died out sometime in the 1960s. It has now been very much diluted by immigration and also be the gradual rise and influence of Estuary...the Estuary itself actuallly being that of London's River Thames where the whole thing started.

Essex is on the Estuary of the Thamnes (north bank) and we all know how those lovely Essex boys and girls speak.....

Anne Robinson (who hosts the "Weakest Link") once had a team of people on the program who all came from Essex, and in her inimitable way her "treatment" of these people was merciless but, strangely, she didn't mention accent at all! She extracted the urine for all sorts of other reasons! In fact, they all seemed to speak very nicely and as ever they all came from different backgrounds and occupations. Cool Essex RP predominated with only mild hints of Estuary, especially a 20 year old student from Basildon....but the overall theme was...oh so very Southern English.....
Candy   Sun Nov 06, 2005 10:11 am GMT
<<The word "posh" really sounds so old fashioned! I think the very nature of RP has changed......it's still a form of RP but one which as been toned down and which no longer has the excruciating tones you hear in old black and white films.>>

Even the Queen (Elizabeth) has considerably modifed her accent since her youth. Just lsiten to some of her speeches from the 1940s and 50s - she sounds so strangulated! Excruciating, as Damian says.
Rick Johnson   Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:04 am GMT
<<Anne Robinson (who hosts the "Weakest Link")>>

Anne bloody Robinson is one of the worst examples of people modifying their accent. I remember when she started doing "Points of View" in about 1986. She was quite polite, cheerful and spoke "normally" possibly even with a slight Merseyside twang, not at all like how she sounds today.
Adam   Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:47 am GMT
"Adam you're an idiot ! An American in UK is not called a (Sceptic tank ) is a called "Septic tank" (from yank)! You don't even know how to spell "septic"

I like "sceptic tank"! I'm pretty "sceptical" of most of Adam's pronouncements, anyway! "

Err, no. Sceptic Tank.

I believe I have spelt it correctly.
Damian   Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:52 am GMT
So it's not just her appearance that the Sharp Tongued Vixen has changed then! I know she comes from Liverpool originally.....if she only had a "slight Merseyside twang" then that would be quite cute in my opinion....just a touch of Scouse would perhaps endaer her to most people....just a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny bit. She has no trace of it now has she? I don't know exactly how to describe Anne's accent....she's been living in London for centuries now...or at least she's back there now as she's sold her mansion in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds for zillions.

I think her bite is worse than her (RPish style but not quite sure) bark really...don't be misled by that wink. She's a force to be reckoned with.....but fun to watch. She should be preserved as a national treasure....sort of.

I only know her from the Weakest Link and I think she also did some consumer advice programs on TV.

My friend in Anglesey cannae stand her....she wanted to diss Wales down the chute in Room 101. I think that was a wee bit of tongue in cheek......unless she really, really did have a bad experience in the Principality of Wales. Maybe someone put her on the wrong road to Llanfairgwyyllandysiocoisufkoogogocgogoch. :-)
Candy   Sun Nov 06, 2005 12:03 pm GMT
<<Err, no. Sceptic Tank.>.
It's 'septic'.
Rick Johnson   Sun Nov 06, 2005 12:27 pm GMT
<<I only know her from the Weakest Link and I think she also did some consumer advice programs on TV.>>

Her personality had changed a bit by the time she finished watchdog (in about 1999/ 2000) but its really since the Weakest Link that her personna and voice have totally changed. As for her "dissing" Wales, although she was born in Merseyside her parents were Irish. It always amazes me that the people most associated with being English and thought to sound "most English" are usually nothing of the sort.

Examples:
Tony Blair (Scottish)
Gordon Ramsey (Scottish)
Richard E Grant (Swaziland)
Anthony Hopkins (Welsh)
Hugh Grant (Scottish Ancestry)


I'm sure to most people outside of the UK, most English people don't sound "English".
Rick Johnson   Sun Nov 06, 2005 12:47 pm GMT
Adding to my point above, I remember a few years back when I was in Vancouver BC, a Geordie (Newcastle) guy kept being asked if he was from Switzerland and people didn't believe him when he said he was English.