[kakasensai]

Hi Soompiers,

Well it comes down to my interest and lately I been watching lots of British English films such as Harry Potter, Hot Fuzz, Shawn Of The Dead but those are past movies I seen and also I guess you can count Pirates of the Caribbean part British but I highly doubt it anyways my point of this topic is about British English and how you can develop it normally.

I can speak British English in a abnormal way and I bet everyone knows how that works but what I want to know is how can I speak in my normal english voice, I have lived in America for 19yrs to persay but I have a big interest in British English and I want to speak in fluently and not some abnormal voice.

So does anyone here have any tips to how I can fluently speak normal British English, I mean British English is english but in some parts its different in ways sort of like bathroom is loo and well the middle finger is Peace Sign lol and well tea is very popular in Britian and well more and such but I aim for the british english side of it.

Well if anyone has idea's or is british themselves and got any tips please let me know. Thanks!

[daulism]

oh you want a british accent too? XD teehee
theres a lady on youtube who shows "how to have a british accent". you can try that, but shes blabbing most of the time >>

i haven't done it yet, but i think the best way is to listen and repeat a lot... in my case, i would listen to a bunch of british speaking people with some headphones on, and if nobody's around, i would repeat it a lot.

plus you should know some other british english words to be "fluent". like football over there is soccer.

hopefully i'm getting what you're saying. ^^; i kinda got lost reading your post

[kakasensai]

Yeh i saw that youtube video today lol I might look at it again lol

[Danni3]

from what my friends and i discussed earlier (yes we talk about these kinds of random things)
changing your accent is very hard, especially if you are beyond the age where you can learn different languages easily. Your tounge adapted to a certain accent and will most likely stay that way. Its like a middle aged immigrant learning english, even though they understand the language coherently, it is very hard/almost impossible for them to lose their accent.

I guess you could relate this to changing the language you think in =/, but nothing is impossible so good luck >.<

[kakasensai]

from what my friends and i discussed earlier (yes we talk about these kinds of random things)
changing your accent is very hard, especially if you are beyond the age where you can learn different languages easily. Your tounge adapted to a certain accent and will most likely stay that way. Its like a middle aged immigrant learning english, even though they understand the language coherently, it is very hard/almost impossible for them to lose their accent.

I guess you could relate this to changing the language you think in =/, but nothing is impossible so good luck >.<

haha Thanks! I think I should live in london for while xD

[xstarBURST]

I thought the peace sign meaning john tesh you was in Australia . I odn't think Hot fuzz, Harry potter show the TRUE British humor. Any ways not much of a help, but authentic british accent with out it's british humor comes off as fake to me. Any ways check out death at a funeral to get a better sense.

[MythnoonA]

could you explain just a little more? Do you mean you want to speak with an 'English' accent ( and which one--from what area? London/cockney/Birmingham/etc ) Is what you want to have an accent and have it be normal-sounding? You said you've lived in the US for 19 years--don't know your age--so is that your whole life, or did you live somewhere before coming here? Don't know if I can help--but I wanted to make absolutely sure what you're asking.

I thought the peace sign meaning john tesh you was in Australia .

In GB, too--it's okay if you do it the way most people do in pics--with your palm facing out--but when the palm is facing you-- yep, that's what it means. O: 'Thumbs up' in Australia is rude too. ><

[Sense91]

theres actually a person that teaches you how. theyre called 'dialect coaches' i guess you can youtube dialect coach for british accent or if ur serious enough. go find a dialect coach

[catsinheat]

are you an actor?

really, the only way to pick up an accent is to surround yourself with it for a long, LONG time... and even then, you'll never sound like you were born there. you can cultivate a decent accent but it will always be extra effort to speak in that manner. and there are SO many different dialects of british english -- manchester, cockney, welsh, irish, sussex, belfast, posh... (nobody really actually speaks with a posh british accent anymore though.) FYI, keira knightley speaks with a west london accent, but a person from northeast or south london would sound COMPLETELY different.

and, no offense, you'll just kind of look like an idiot if you speak with an english accent and you've never even been to england, much less lived there (unless i'm misunderstanding).

[Chianna]

There are many dialects in England even neighboring towns can sound vastly different from one another. There is something called the Queen's English which is basically speaking clearly without a local dialect influencing your words. 20 years ago I would have told you to listen to the BBC news for a good example of the Queen's English but it's been toned down a lot. It might still be worth going to the BBC website and listening to a few broadcasts though.

[jaeka]

I'm English. :D

To speak proper English, use english sayings. Haha.
I'm from the north, so my accent+sayings are different from most... I can teach you some of that but like... I doubt you'd want to sound like an english northerner haha. You're probably aiming for the queen's english type accent? (no-one really speaks perfectly like that... unless you were like from oxford and then you'd probably sound like harry potter. XD)

But yeah many have said there's so many accents and dialects in england.
geordie (that's mine, newcastle!), scouser (liverpool), cockney (london), (birminghamish, birmingham lol) etc...

[chopstick^^]

Uhh... u can't unless u was born in Britan. But then you can, but u got to keep practicing, Practice make's perfect.

There are fluent Chinese speaker out there, so i know. It's possible!

Mike Myers i think his interpretation was Scottish.
Kelly Osbourne, she has an English parent, and that didn't help either. She has an American accent.

I think u should watch more British shows, if u have a British satallite channel.

[kakasensai]

Hmmm lots of great response's but yeah true I think I should surround myself to the environment more then I can pick it up faster. But yet again I cannot achieve perfection because I was not born there and yea I lived in USA for my whole life tho i am asian ;o xD

[MythnoonA]

I've lived here my whole life too (my grandma was English and never lost her accent)--but I grew up with British tv (including Scottish, Welsh, and Irish)-the public stations carried so much of it--then when I got older, watched on my own. I picked up a lot. It makes my friends laugh--but I learned things too--including how accents developed on the East coast of the US and Canada. If you can't get there yourself, you can rent shows, or get them from the library. Doesn't matter if you're Asian--there are Asians in GB too. lol

If you have a good ear, you'll learn fast enough.