Does RP pronunciation Work ?

[Marceloatp]

Please, I need help !

I've spent two years of my life learning the RP pronuntiation. These days many people have told me that "British English does not work in the world", beacause most of the information comes from EEUU and American English is the "standard one". Ok, I agree with this, but I'm very aware that I have to learn both, BR and AME english, but the point is: I have learned the RP pronunciation all these time and Know after two years people tell me that it does not work. I know Ame and BR expressions, I've studied differences between them so I know both very well but I was thinking "It is stupid to have an RP pronunciation and then say american idioms, slangs and sayings under that prunuciation ??? The truth is that I feel very very frustrated, I don't know what I have to do...please help me...what do you think...I should start to learn AME pronunciation ?

Please help me !

Regards !

[Katz]

I was wondering about the same thing when, after years of learning English from tapes, BBC news, comedies, etc., i.e. mostly listening to RP, I started travelling around the UK and noticed, to my horror, that almost no one speaks with such accent. What's more, initially I was often told things like "wow, your accent sounds very posh/upper-class" or "how come you speak RP?"

I used to explain that foreigners often learn from tapes and TV, and so on. Then I realised how many different accents exist within the UK (not to mention the English-speaking world) and that speaking RP, though probably does make you sound a bit posh, is not really that important.

I think that the most important thing is to be understood by the people you will talk to; there was a discussion on this forum some time ago and one of our Moderators said something along the lines of "I couldn't care less about the accent as long as your pronunciation is correct". Need I say more?

It's just like with any other language - for example, you are from Chile and I have always learnt Spanish Spanish, but I have no doubt we will have no problem understanding each other.

And let me finish with an anecdote - because of my job I get to meet people from various parts of the UK and the English-speaking world. Most of them will detect that I'm not local, as the city where I live has a distinctive accent which I don't try to imitate. Therefore some try to make a guess - and in 90% of cases it's... "You're from South Africa, aren't you?"

[Marceloatp]

Very helpful information. Thanks !

[BobK]

In what sense of 'work'? Or, to put it another way, of course it works. Whether it is the most efficient and reliable accent for speaking clearly to other speakers and understanding their replies, I'm not sure; and I'm not sure that anyone is in a position to judge dispassionately. But there are millions of people who do use it, and it works perfectly for them.

b