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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.
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!
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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).