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Why can't there be a British accent course?
I have to have a British accent for the play I am doing and I can't find anything to help me. Anyone have any suggestions?
25 Comments
381
Try you tube videos.
Duolingo is an American company and that’s the type of English it teaches.
The OP is talking about accents, not dialects. Think cockney accent, geordie accent, Scottish and Irish accents plus lots of other regional accents.
Remember, Duolingo is about the basics. There are plenty of good sources to acquire a British accent though. Try watching one of the BBC channels for a bit, or series like 'Downton Abbey' or the recent series 'The Crown'. Youtube also has plenty of material specifically for theatrical performances - mostly of Shakespeare's plays, obviously.
Unless the play is specifically set among the early 20th century aristocracy, I would strongly recommend NOT using Downton or the Crown to learn a British accent, or it will sound very strange/as if you're taking the piss. The accents in those programs were deliberately learnt and exaggerated by the English actors in them - nobody speaks like that any more, not even the Queen!
if u have siri on your phone go onto siri settings and change her acent to british then get her to repeat the lines of ur play listen to that over and over and u will puck up on it
I think if somebody asks a question, he wants to get an advice based on personal experience, so it looks somehow rude to send him to google. The question is not that elementary, after all.
Find a Youtube Channel, Podcasts, or TV Show that is British and watch it a lot.
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You have many options for this. If you've got time to passively absorb the accent you could set your electronics to communicate with you in a British accent, thinks like your car GPS for example.
Hate to tell you but there are lots of British accents! Depends on who you need to portray, by nation - that’s four already, English, Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish. Then there’s social class to consider and regional variations. I suggest going for a fairly neutral variety unless you’re playing someone of a very specific type, such as a snooty duchess or a Welsh miner’s wife. BBC News is a free app that portrays most varieties of people at their most polite (telephone voices). Or listen to your play or something close in an audiobook. Warning: in southern English they don’t pronounce “r” where it should be, but add it on where it’s not in the written word. It took me about 10 years to realise that, when I came down to England from Scotland, so you can get by, don’t worry too much, there are so many variations on British English.
I think they mean southern English (as in England)...
I'm from southern England and I don't say 'r' on the end of words or before a consonant (e.g. hammer, torn) but I have no idea what the op means about adding it on where it's not written. Also it's not that we don't say it at all, we just don't curve our lips round it like in Scottish or American accents. It still affects the sound of the word though (torn is pronounced with a different vowel to ton).
It's us from the Westcountry who hold on to the final R :) I'm guessing you're from further East?
Which accent do you mean? There are lots of regional accents. Just make sure you don’t try to copy Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins who murdered the cockney accent.
You will find entertaining British accents in the film Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke
Accents and writing courses could be things to add to the "labs" feature. Interest in them might be limited though.
