British English or American accent?

[IvanV]

Originally Posted by bhaisahab

Xenophobic perhaps, as well as semi-literate..

Fully agreed.

[thod00]

I was thinking about how I would classify British accents. Although London is located in the south east, there is a distinctive London accent. The accent of south east England is the closest to the BBC accent. The others I would use are:

West Country (yokel)
Welsh
Brummies (Birmingham)
Scousers (Liverpool)
Manchester
Yorkshiremen
Geordies
Scots (excluding Glasgow)
Glasgow (like Rab Nesbitt)
Northern Ireland (norn ir'n)
Southern Ireland

[digga]

Originally Posted by Anonymous

I am a student in China. Because of the Hollywood movies, American songs and much more frequent contact with US than that of UK, American accent seems more popular.

However, the college teachers suggest that British accent is more acceptable in the world, especially in the world outside US. Is it true?

I want to know how would UKers react to American accent speaking callers and vice versa.

Do Americans like British accent on the phone when it is a sales call, for example?

I want opinions from only native English speakers, mainly UK and US citizens. Please state your nationality and your feelings about the accents.

Thanks.

To answer original question, I work at a U.S. call center in Costa Rica, and I am an English teacher. It is my experience that Americans prefer to talk to Americans when getting help over the phone for problems. They don't like having to fight to understand people's accent.

I've seen call centers fire people if their accent wasn't American enough. I even saw a British person get fired. (Sad but true)

I am an American, and I get asked all the time here how to get an American accent. I usually refer them to this excellent product if they want to learn in their own home.

[SUDHKAMP]

Originally Posted by digga

To answer original question, I work at a U.S. call center in Costa Rica, and I am an English teacher. It is my experience that Americans prefer to talk to Americans when getting help over the phone for problems. They don't like having to fight to understand people's accent.

I've seen call centers fire people if their accent wasn't American enough. I even saw a British person get fired. (Sad but true)

I am an American, and I get asked all the time here how to get an American accent. I usually refer them to this excellent product if they want to learn in their own home.

Many thanks for the above.

[alibeth]

hello,

I am from England and I am studying English grammar and lingusitics at university; in one of my modules we looked at language structure and a 'world language' namely - English. In discussions, we looked at some of the reasons why English has been 'adopted' as the main language of trade, retail, entertainment i.e. music and films that you mentioned - and the media - obviously this is an issue with many ways to take a view on it.

American English can be just as useful too learn as British English; being someone who listens to American music and who watches American films too, I know how easy it is to let 'Americanisms' into my everyday speech.
Some americanisms are thought of as stanardised now, and i think it is a matter of opinion whether or not there is a necessity for a divide between American and British English.

Personally I think that it is useful to learn American English; I have many international students on my course who say they were brought up learning British and American English which shows how some places take the view that there is a need for two seperate versions of English.

If a native speaker of English, such as myself speaks subconciously with Americanisms, then a chinese speaker would not be heckled for it. Any form of English is useful in the world today. I hope this is insightful to you.

[inri.2007@hotmail.com]

thanks a lot

[bhaisahab]

Originally Posted by alibeth

hello,

I am from England and I am studying English grammar and lingusitics at university; in one of my modules we looked at language structure and a 'world language' namely - English. In discussions, we looked at some of the reasons why English has been 'adopted' as the main language of trade, retail, entertainment i.e. music and films that you mentioned - and the media - obviously this is an issue with many ways to take a view on it.

American English can be just as useful too learn as British English; being someone who listens to American music and who watches American films too, I know how easy it is to let 'Americanisms' into my everyday speech.
Some americanisms are thought of as stanardised now, and i think it is a matter of opinion whether or not there is a necessity for a divide between American and British English.

Personally I think that it is useful to learn American English; I have many international students on my course who say they were brought up learning British and American English which shows how some places take the view that there is a need for two seperate versions of English.

If a native speaker of English, such as myself speaks subconciously with Americanisms, then a chinese speaker would not be heckled for it. Any form of English is useful in the world today. I hope this is insightful to you.

Ther are some significant differences between AmE and BrE, one particular horror in AmE (for me) is 'She didn't do her homework yet.' and similar sentences.

[SUDHKAMP]

Originally Posted by bhaisahab

Ther are some significant differences between AmE and BrE, one particular horror in AmE (for me) is 'She didn't do her homework yet.' and similar sentences.

What has forced them to standardise such usage in American English, Bhaisahab?

[bhaisahab]

Originally Posted by SUDHKAMP

What has forced them to standardise such usage in American English, Bhaisahab?

That is a good question SUDH. Some have said that it was to distance themselves linguistically from the old colonial power. I don't really know. Do you have any theories?

[SUDHKAMP]

Originally Posted by bhaisahab

That is a good question SUDH. Some have said that it was to distance themselves linguistically from the old colonial power. I don't really know. Do you have any theories?

I thinks the Britishers followed one standard model shaped by the Royalty.
While the Americans were a melting pot with immigrants settling from continent and Africa and other parts of the world. They did not have inhibitions on accepting different usages of English which were influenced by mother tongues of different people.
Thus they arrived in a situation, where they had a different attitude towards usage of English and a mentality to accept such usage as common. And what is common usage in any language is considered 'stanadard' by the linguists.
Same thing is happening in India. Mumbai(erstwhile Bombay) has many immigrants settled from all states of India and they speak a brand of Hindi, which has Marathi overtone. Purity of language takes a back-seat and thus Mumbai has developed a brand of Hindi, which is punctuated by words from many languages and does not reflect correct usage of 'Hindi Vyakran'. The Hindi purists are furious over such usage, yet, it is Mumbai Hindi which has made Hindi more useful and popular across India and many cultures. It has its own unwritten grammar and can be understood by those who llive in Mumbai.
Same thing is happening in Delhi, where there is Punjabi overtone and mixture of words.
Last year I had been to Bangalore and common man speaks Hindi during travel and stay in Hotel(though it may sound surprising to people who think South India never speaks Hindi). They also have their own version of Hindi and it is influenced by Deccan(Hyderabadi Hindi/Urdu). I think the subject is going beyond the purpose of this thread, yet I am trying to find an analogy, how English developed during the years.