British English or American accent?

[shane]

Originally Posted by tdol

That's hard- I can't see anything wrong with a Kiwi accent. ;-(

Unfortunately, if you don't have a clear British or american accent, the kids' parents don't like you :(

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by HPRoxMySox

I'm from America and I personally like how British accents sound more than American one's. I think they sound a lot more proper and sophisticated. I think American accents are easier to understand though, seeing as I grew up here.

I favor the Midwestern accent. :wink:

*ones*

[RonBee]

Is a New Zealand accent anything like an Aussie accent? (Steve Irwin is pretty easy to understand.)

[shane]

Originally Posted by RonBee

Is a New Zealand accent anything like an Aussie accent? (Steve Irwin is pretty easy to understand.)

New Zealanders will tell you they are not similar in any way; but to my ears they seem pretty similar. If anything, the Aussie accent seems much stronger.

Sometimes when I talk to our NZ teachers, I can't hear a difference in pronunciation between "hear", "here" and "hair"; or "beer" and "bear"

I simply try to tell students to listen for those differences and learn them - it will help them to understand. It's the same with Chinese. The standard mandarin pronunciation of the word for foreigner is "lao wai" (lao why) but here in Dalian, the "ai" sound is pronounced as "ei" (ay), so they say "lao wei (lao way). Once I recognised that difference - and others like it - , conquering the regional language barrier was pretty easy :D

Another example: in BE, we pronounce it "stop", but to my ears, Americans pronounce it "stup" (my approximation!)

I think that recognising little differences like these play an important part in dealing with different accents, and getting over that hurdle :wink:

What do others think?

[shane]

While we're on the subject of BE / AE, I found a good site listing many differences in vocabulary: HERE :)

[RonBee]

Thanks. :) BTW, where was the "stup" speaker from? (I'm from St. Louis.)

:D

[shane]

Originally Posted by RonBee

Thanks. :) BTW, where was the "stup" speaker from? (I'm from St. Louis.)

:D

I wasn't referring to anyone in particular, it's just the sound I hear when talking to Americans that I meet. Although now you mention it, I think I probably heard it from my sister who has lived in the US for 24 years!! She lives near San Francisco :)

[RonBee]

I've always said "stop" as in "pop". Ala the Seuss rhyme "Hop on Pop".

:wink:

[shane]

Slightly off topic, but amusing nonetheless:

I was shopping in a department store in Portland, Oregon a few years ago, and the female sales assistant asked me:

"What part of Australia are you from?"

I replied:

"England. Have you heard of it?"

8)

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by shane

Slightly off topic, but amusing nonetheless:

I was shopping in a department store in Portland, Oregon a few years ago, and the female sales assistant asked me:

"What part of Australia are you from?"

I replied:

"England. Have you heard of it?"

8)

Hm. Is that anywhere near Queensland?

:wink: