Hello again and welcome back to Britain under the Microscope - the special episode on British accent. Hello Anlan.
Hello everyone.
If you listen to the previous episode, we've already covered some of the basics about Received Pronunciation, heightened Received Pronunciation, regional accents and also differences between pronunciation, accent and dialect.
In this episode we are gonna be looking at Chinese learners in a British accent, but also looking more importantly attitudes to accent as well.
Anlan and I are also going to share with you some of our own experiences in learning language. So first of all, American accent versus British accent， these are not two languages, they are just two accents.
Sometimes the words are slightly different; they're just different versions of the same language. British people and American people can understand each other.
I have a quite blunt question for you Anlan though: as a British person, over the years of all these experienced training language and also being a language learner yourself, have you met many Chinese learners who did not stay a long time in the UK but they speak with very very convincing British accent?
Sure answer？ No. In the UK, I have met some Chinese people who they lived there for years and years and years and they have a British accent, but in China I've never met anyone that can do a convincing British accent.
But a lot of people are really trying very hard to learn British accent. What gives him away?
Generally people tend to over pronounce a lot of the words or each sound in some cases, so it goes like this and it just doesn't sound very natural.
It sounds weird,it doesn't sound natural. I personally believe that because of the Pinyin and all our alphabet, I think it's easier for Chinese speakers to do American accent, to train in American accent. Over the years I've heard quite a few people with very very convincing American accents.
Absolutely same here.
But I've also asked James about it and yes, there are far more people who can do convincing American accent than British accent. This brings us to, how do British people actually feel about it? Let's say a British person meets a Chinese learner of English and the Chinese learner is trying very hard to do a British accent.
To be honestly, just it sounds really funny to us. It sounds like they're making a joke or they're even maybe being pretentious as well.
They won't really feel like that.
No, generally because as same is almost impossible for a Chinese learner, if they are just studying on their own to get a British accent.
And you also make fun of a lot of these American actors and actresses and they are trying to do British accent in their acting.
There are some really good actors and actresses, American actors and actresses that can do a British accent, but it's quite rare.
Anne Hathaway.
Yeah, she's very very good.
And she can do perfect accent. So you mentioned if a learner is trying to put on a very obvious British accent, it can also be seen as being pretentious. Why is that? Is it because traditionally in Britain, class and accents are linked?
That's because most Chinese learners if they do want to try and get a British accent, they're looking for RP, they are focusing obviously on pronunciation.
I've never heard anyone says I wanna speak Cockney accent or Liverpool accent.
And it's important to realize that in the UK, attitudes are changing. So for example the BBC, thirty years ago all of the presenters spoke with RP but now because they want to be more open, they want to be more relatable to the general population who don't speak RP, they are much more tolerant of regional accents.

This I have noticed as well because growing up you listen to BBC, they're all very standard Received Pronunciation. This is also why Queen’s English sometimes is also called BBC English. But nowadays if you really watch British TV, you really watch BBC nowadays; there are so many different regional accents. Sometimes I find some of them really comical, a bit difficult to understand.
Yeah. So for example, good example is Doctor Who. The early Doctor Who all spoke with RP and that was a bit of joke that all these aliens speak like the Queen.
Even in TV shows, accents are changing. Now you have many more regional accents. They're included in mainstream British TV and media.
If a Chinese learner is trying to speak with RP, it's important to remember that you won't be judged in the same way. We don't judge foreigners in the same way that we judge of English people or of a British people.
So when a British person opens his mouth the old saying is then you immediately know which class, which social classes he is from. But this doesn't apply to foreigners, does it?
No. Nothing to really worry about as long as you can be understood.
You say there's nothing to worry about. But do British people make fun of people's accents?
Sometimes. But it's never against one particular group and it's more in movies and TV than in real life. So if a Chinese person goes to the UK chances are people won't make fun of your accent.
I think they were just focus on understanding you. You really don't have to be because everyone has an accent. The end of the day, the most important thing is people can understand you. 高级翻译中，外交部的张璐she is a very experienced, very, very good interpreter. She's very clear, but she doesn't have a distinctive American or British or any type of accents. In some parts, she even has a slight Chinese accent which doesn't cancel out her ability and her experience as a language expert. Actually in conference interpreter if you're representing China, you're representing the country, you actually shouldn't have a very strong distinctive accent.
One thing I found very interesting is, native speakers of a language are able to understand a lot more accents, and are more tolerant towards different types of accents than learners of the language.
Yeah, for example some students might say I couldn't understand this person or that person because they had a strong accent. Actually that's not because of the person's accent, that's normally because the students listening.
Um and now in the end I wanna say a few words about my own accent and also to share with you some of my experiences and how I have evolved as a language learner. So Alan, you've known me for years. What do you think of my accent?
Well, your accent is a native speaker accent. You're completely fluent and you're completely understandable. But if I have to say where do you come from? I wouldn't be able to find it. I wouldn't be able to tell you.
Um, so I don't really have a distinctive accent like for example, British or American. I'm actually a bit of a mixture. When I was in school, my accent once was judged and I also went through the whole shame thing when someone says ah your accent is very Chinglish. I spend a lot of time training my accent because I don't want to be judged mostly by Chinese people. So I went through one year accent training, actual accent training by a phonetic expert from New York. After that, I did speak with very strong, very distinctive American accent. I've had American colleagues coming up to me and said are you from California but now I've, my accent has changed because I lived in the UK and also my friend circle are more British or from other countries instead of Americans.
which in itself is perfectly normal. If an American goes to live in the UK for a long period of time their accent will change.
Right now I don't really mind because for me, usually when I speak to any English speakers from any parts of the world, they generally see me as a native speaker.
Yeah. And it's important to remember that speaking properly or speaking well is more about what you say, it's about your delivery. It's also about your manners. For example I've met quite a few language learners who they speak English very very well and they have a very good accent but they actually sound quite rude when they speak English because they don't understand the culture. They don't use words like for example, “Please” “Thank you” “Excuse me”, so I would say that's something to be more careful about than whether or not you speak with a British or American accent.
Yeah, that's for sure especially in Britain. I think to say please, thank you and excuse me much more important than your accent. But speaking of accent Alan you also have similar experience learning Chinese.
Well, yeah I've lived in Beijing for many many years now but before that I lived in central China and that's why I started learning Chinese. And I had a lot of influence from that region and it wasn't particularly standard.
So when you first arrived in Beijing, I remember you telling me people were kind of making fun of your Chinese accent?
Yeah, which to be honest I don't really mind because whether or not you speak Chinese or you speak any language like a native speaker is not very important. It's whether or not you can be understood and you can use that language.
Exactly. So language for most people is for communication and in this, pronunciation is important. Accent is only a small part, your content your delivery, your manners and also your language register. If you are able to use the correct or appropriate language for different context, this is a truly advanced language learning. And how to do that? There are no shortcuts. It is just to increase content input. Don't forget to focus on culture. And this is also what our show is about: is to make that connection between language and culture. And in the end I just wanna say, don't worry too much about your accent because even if you try very very hard to learn a perfect British or American accent, it actually impresses other Chinese learner more than it does native speakers. Because for them, it's more about what you say and that ends today's program. Hopefully that will somehow ease your insecurity and your worries and your anxiety over the accent.
Yeah remember, Chinese learners their English accent or their English pronunciation is probably one of the easiest to understand.
That is true, having heard all sorts of accents. Focus on your content. Feel free to share with us any of your interesting stories and your experiences about accent, pronunciation and general language learning. We'll see you next time. Bye.

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