Like many languages, English comes in many different flavors. So if your goal
is to be able to speak English, you'll want to make pronunciation practice part
of your study routine. And to do that you'll need to pick your favorite flavor to focus on.
Today, I want to help you choose which English accent is right for you.
Have you seen Luca's recent video about some of the different French accents?
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So, like I said, there are over 150 dialects of English
and it's spoken as a native language by people in about 20 countries.
I'm going to focus on two standard dialects that are most often taught to people who
are learning English as a foreign language: General American and Standard British,
or Received Pronunciation. Now this isn't to say that you shouldn't
adopt an Australian or a South African or even an Indian English accent.
The choice is yours! But my first recommendation is to choose one accent
and commit to it. Many students develop a strange hybrid
accent because they pronounce some words with the British pronunciation but other
words make them sound American. So choose an accent and try to get as much
exposure to that variety of English as possible, if you want to improve more quickly.
Of course, if you've already developed a particular accent, it's
better to just stick with it and keep practicing to make it as good as it can be.
Don't forget that there's certain
vocabulary that goes with each accent too. If you've committed to an American accent,
but you keep calling "underwear" "pants," people are gonna be a little confused.
So if you're on the fence between a British and an American accent,
I'll explain some pros and cons of each to help you decide which one to learn.
Probably the most obvious advantage to learning the American accent is that
there's a lot more content available to help you practice it. Since the US
produces so much music, television, film, radio, etc, it's easy to find and easy to
immerse yourself in. I'm not saying there isn't great British content too,
but you get to be a lot more selective about what you practice with
if you go with the American accent. On a similar note, it's also easier to find an
American English-speaking conversation partner who shares your interests and
can correct your pronunciation, simply because of the size of the country.
This also means that you're more likely to be understood by a larger number of native
and non-native English speakers around the world. Although the US is huge
there are generally fewer regional pronunciation differences you'll need to
worry about compared to the UK. With a few exceptions, most regional accents in
the United States are quite similar. That is not the case for UK accents.
There are tons of accents in the United Kingdom and most of them are actually quite
different from the BBC accent or Received Pronunciation. This is something to take
into account, because when you're choosing a UK English speaker to shadow
or chat with, you'll need to be aware of which regional accent they have and be
able to recognize the sounds that they might pronounce differently.
Only a very small percentage of Brits, probably between 3-10%, actually speak
with Received Pronunciation, whereas about 67% of Americans speak with
a general American accent. There are also certain perceptions that come along with
each of the English accents. For example: British English could make you sound fancy, or posh.
Depending on who you'll be speaking to, that could be a good or a bad thing.
I personally think that Hugh Grant's British accent is dreamy, but foreigners
who adopt an accent like that could come off as pretentious to some other people.
One study found that some non-native speakers believe that
British English sounds more professional than American English. Perceptions aside,
we think that either accent is just fine as long as you speak it clearly and confidently.
If you're European, British English might be what your teachers
spoke at school, so you may have already learned some of the British English sounds.
There are about 8 vowel sounds that are different in American and British English,
and like I said before, if you've already learned one way of pronouncing
something, it's probably easier to stick with it rather learn something new.
And probably the biggest advantage to learning a British
accent is that you won't have to use the tricky R sound quite as often.
American English is what we call a rhotic version, whereas the London accent is non-rhotic.
This means that you only pronounce the R if it's followed by a vowel.
So, for example, in American English you'd say "hard," but in Received Pronunciation you'd say "hard."
So, at MosaLingua, we generally recommend that people learn the American accent,
because we think that the pros outweigh those of British English.
To recap: there is more American English audio and video
material to listen to and imitate.
There are more people who speak a standard version
of American English to practice with.
There are fewer regional differences in American English than in British English.
And certain characteristics of American English make it easier for non-natives
to understand and pronounce.
Like I said, choosing an accent is a personal preference, and you
should learn whichever one feels right, but I hope this has helped you decide
which accent is best for you. If you're interested in improving your English accent,
your conversational skills and your confidence, be sure to check out our Masterclass.
We put the link in the video description for you. Bye for now!
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