since I'm learning American English, I wanted to know why that standard American Accent was awful First of all, I didn't think it was awful. (I mostly listened, not watching.) The following are some observations. 1. The stress pattern is

Well this conversation is ancient, but maybe you get a tickler when someone replies adn will find this. The guy's accent is crap. I'm Canadian but I'm from Toronto where our accent is *almost* standard American (or what we called in the film

So what's your definition of American English (or North American English, as some prefer)? I would probably define it mostly by its phonology. It would be pretty hard to define. Or why not just say, any dialect of English spoken in North

Hi, this is interesting, it reminds me of something I read in a book for improving pronunciation (the famous "American Accent Training"). The title of the paragraph is "Spoon or Sboon?" She (the author) say: "Say spoon. Now say sboon. Hear how

To tell you the truth, I've never heard any foreigner (unless they learned English when they were very young, or had lived in an English speaking country for at least a decade, and had extensive, and personalized accent coaching) ever be able to

Hi The Golden Man, You wrote: His pronunciation of 'today' for instance, places too much stress on the first syllable. He says "too-day," when that first vowel should be a schwa. Of course, some people pronounce 'today' /tu'deI/.

I think the problem with his Standard American Accent is two fold- one, his native accent sneaks through a few times in the consonants as a few have pointed out. Secondly, and I think this is the deal breaker, he has some problems with stress

It really depends on your native language. If your native language has many of the same sounds as English, it may be possible to attain a speech pattern that is very close to American accent. If, however, your native language lacks most of the

When I came to live in the States I joined a singing group. Not a band, more a choral society. I was told when we were singing Shenandoah not to sing "water" with an English accent, it was meant to be sung with an American pronunciation where the

I've heard (say, in some British songs) the following pronunciation: the vowel in "got" was pronounced in a sort of ... where a similar thing could happen, say "pot", "stop", etc. I mean I didn't notice it in