Search results for 'tag:Paragraphs tag:Accents' matching tags 'Paragraphs' and 'Accents'

When a Smile is not a Smile

mindatrisk — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:30:24 GMT

Hello, this is an article that I have written to promote some theory that I have written, I know it is quite long, but if anyone could check my grammar and punctuation then I would be very grateful. I am most concerned about the second paragraph. Thank you.

..

When a smile is not a smile â¦

â¦ A customer that seems to be cared about is not the same as a customer that is cared about.

Herein lies your biggest problem. You want the customer service consultant that really does care about your customers. You want the customer service consultant that will sprint the extra mile, preferably shoe laces tied up, but more than willing to trip up in making the effort. You want the customer service consultant that, when the customer is satisfied, is plucking the cherry that makes them delighted.

This is the customer service consultant that sees a human being, and not just a cardboard cut-out customerâ¦ that sees a human being who craves peace of mind, and not just someone to make money fromâ¦ that sees that delivering them peace of mind is the best way to make money from them, and with the customers abiding blessings. These are the customer service consultants that you want. And these are the customer service consultants that you rarely get.

Except â¦

â¦ you do already have them.

Climb atop of your desk (it looks grand and health and safety is overrated anyway) and cast your gaze across the room. You donât see it, and for some reason they donât either. But your workforce - every last one of them - actually really does care about your customers. They care a lot. But they have forgotten, so now they must be reminded. For their good, for your good and for the customers good.

This should be music to your ears. It is vital, vital, vital for your business that your customers are cared about. But how to make your consultants care? You could cc them into a warm fuzzy, but this will work against you as much as for you. You can tie a bulging bonus to a piece of string and hope that they play chase, but on a cold Monday morning with three months until that quarterly bonus and a screaming customer on the line this probably isnât the incentive to transform the moment into a customer care heaven scene. You could even Go TotalitarianÂ© and attach electrodes to their nipples, but then youâd have to relocate east, and we all know how customers feel about foreign contact centres.

The thing is, none of this can make them care about the customer. Instead they push, shove and drag themselves into as much pleasantry as they can summon to try to seem like they care, then get stressed under the pressure of pretending to be what they do not feel for nine hours and leave their job mid-shift on a âtoilet breakââ¦ Not good for business. Your consultants need to care, so how?

Well â¦

â¦ Human beings are naturally altruistic.

Most of us do what we can when we can for other people. Many endeavour to do volunteer work with the most vulnerable in our society. Why? Because it makes us feel good. Altruism is enjoyable. Serving other human beings is enjoyable. Now, if serving other people makes us feel so good about ourselves then why on Godâs concrete Earth is the customer SERVICE sector not populated by the shiniest happiest people in all the land? I mean, these are people who get to serve other people ALL DAY LONGâ¦ and get paid! Those early morning birds / cars that wake us from our slumber should be greeted with a fairytale smile and twinkle in the eye at the prospect of nine whole hours at the call centre! âCall centre work rules!â should be graffiti scrawled across red-brick campus wallsâ¦ But it isnât. Why not? No, seriously, why not? A bit of help hereâ¦ Please?

Okay, so I am not quite sure why it is that temples arenât erected in honour of customer service, but I do know that, at least metaphorically, it is a very real possibility. We have the ingredients cut neatly on the faux marble work surface, and now we have our super-food in altruism that is going to bind and nourish this recipe.

Because â¦

â¦ Your staff do care about your customers.

They care because they are human beings who care about other human beings and enjoy caring about other human beings. And to be quite frank (but still Richard), very few of us do justice to how much we care when interacting with others. What is needed most of the time is just that little dash of awareness to bring out our altruistic flavours. You see, awareness leads us to empathy, and empathy finds a nature within us that is worlds apart from ourselves sans awareness.

For a heavy but clarifying example, if we knew that a loved one were to die tomorrow then there would be very little that they could do to upset or anger usâ¦ and yet, we do not know that a loved one will not die tomorrow. So, what gives? Simply put, what gives is that we just do not think about that. If we did then our compassionate nature would flourish and accord instinctively, but we donât and so we donât.

Letâs think about the customer. It is well documented that there is a certain breed of customer out there in the capitalist wilds that have been observed and classified (even tagged) as âdifficultâ. They are the ones that do not grasp that, maybe just maybe, the problem that they have most likely did not originate with yourselves, and that you are just the unfortunates with a target white tacked to your forehead. But this does not matter! This flight is under your control! Because, with that liberal sprinkle of awareness, you will see beyond your prevailing perception that, actually, this customer, like all human beings, probably has a very good reason for sharing their complete and utter disregard with you, and if you knew that reason (money problems, depression, abuse, tight trousers etc. etc.) then you would most likely feel compassion for the customer and really want to help them outâ¦ because you are human and you know what it is to hurt and you do care when other human beings hurt too.

Customer service â¦

â¦ is just human interaction.

And like any human interaction it can a be stimulating, meaningful, rewarding and educating experience. It is ludicrous like a hamster tasting tomato or a square shaped circle or tomorrow being yesterday and today for contact centre work to be considered mundane, repetitive and unsatisfying workâ¦ Ludicrous, I say! This work is river-bed rich in opportunity for growth through a constant and varied interaction with other peopleâ¦ a variety of interaction that is unique to customer care. An obnoxious customer may test your patience, or your tolerance may be spread nano thin by a customers heavy regional accent, but each is a challenge that can be embraced as a remarkable opportunity to learn and grow and express yourselves as human beings who really do careâ¦ Not just to become an ace hot-shot customer service consultant, and not even just because you will enjoy more harmonious and supportive relationships, but most of all because â¦

â¦ You Will Be Happy.

Lest I forget that this here article has been written to promote my training program, it goes without saying - even though I am going to say it - that this will be FANTASTIC for business. Perhaps even more so than I dare to believe at the moment, what with me being such a young upstart armed with a hat rack full of paradigm busting, evolutionary catalysing ideas, and all.

What I do is simpleâ¦ I gently wake people up. A little nudge here and a metaphorical Clockwork Orange eye opener there, until that natural vein of empathy is tapped and an expanded awareness is buckled in, and all of a sudden your consultants are charmed and honoured to be talking to even the most profound hell raising customerâ¦ I mean, we are talking about another human being here, devil horns or polished halo, this is an incomprehensibly unique individual who deserves the happiness that we too pursue, and you know what, maybe our happiness is invested in our desire to deliver them their happiness? I wouldnât be the first crazy to propose that maybe, just maybe, happiness has something to do with love, and not 6 digits in the fools gold account.

I am the perspective engineer that turns your thinking inside out until your customer nightmares are embraced as divine opportunities to practice and develop qualities like patience and tolerance which in turn make your customer service even betterâ¦ Genius! You get the consultants that your dreams dare not allocate space for, with customers who stall in their rant tracks in case this is actually the Dalai Lama answering their complaint, in a working environment that will have your staff wondering whether the golden age of peace and love is to begin in the humble call centre.

However, my motivation is not, and never will be, to make you more moneyâ¦ conversely, it is exactly that which will make you more successful than maybe even your calculator allows for.

The truth is that the insightful company who recognises that compassion and altruism and all other such nice, heart warming, picnic scene feelings are the key to customer care is the company that is going to be heralded as a visionary. If that company is yours, and you see the potential wonderfulness in what I have to offer, with the chance to cast yourselves in the non-fluorescent light of a pioneering and compassionate company; explorers in new directions and methods to attain excellence for the hallowed customer, whilst shattering the Made in Another EraÂ© mould and reassembling the pieces to form a new and vibrant era in mature and humanist customer care and employee regard, thenâ¦ HIRE ME! Or you could just ask for more informationâ¦

Here I amâ¦ Contact me!

Email: <removed by mod. Please include your contact details in your profile, if you want other members to contact you.>

Phone: <removed.>

Thank you for reading, it has been a pleasure having you read these words. And remember that, with thinkingâ¦. there is no box.

About the authorâ¦.

I am Richard Horrocks. I am a pioneering spirit with a passion for serving all human beings. I am here to deliver progressive and multi-dimensional ideas to those corners and shadows where they are most neededâ¦. The freshest ideas since âMilk-from-the-udder-Shakesâ.

Re: i want to learn bristish accent...

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:12:47 GMT

I am very talented with accents, but I have had to accept the fact that I am getting older and the ability to imitate an accent is diminishing. I am a native speaker of standard mid-western American English (considered to be accent free in the US). I speak Spanish with several regional accents, due to spending summers as a child in Mexico with relatives, then I lived 12 years in Miami and developed quite a heavy Caribbean accent, and could pass as a Cuban.

I learned quite fluent German at age 20-23 when I was stationed in Germany with the US Army, but I have a slight accent because of what I mention in the next paragraph--rhythm and music.

I live in Israel now, and although I do not use American vowels and consonants in Hebrew, it is the rhythm or music as they say, which gives me away.

At the end of the day, you must admit that it is WHAT you say and that it should be kind and with a good heart. Someone could be the most talented foreign language learner in the world and could learn to speak those languages perfectly without foreign accent, but this person is a horrible and says nasty things! I think we would love and respect the foreign accent spoken by the kind, well-meaning person. It is not the accent, but the thought that counts. Remember that!

open and willing to ...

Feathers — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:08:12 GMT

Hello there,

Would you take a look at this paragraph? My question is about the last sentence:

Can a person actually learn a new accent? Many people feel that after a certain age, it's just not possible. Can classic musicians play jazz? If they practice, of course they can! For your American accent, it's just a matter of learning and practicing techniques this book and CD set will teach you. It is up to you to use them or not. How well you do depends mainly on how open and willing you are to sounding different from the way you have sounded all your life.
_____________________________________________________________

I wanted to memorize the last sentence , then stumbled: I am open to sounding different, but I am willing to sound different, right...? I asked my friend who's a native speaker; he said, "This sentence does not sound quite right... I don't know, let me ponder!."

I'd be happy if I can get your advice.

Re: Do I need a comma before all quotes?

GL2 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 09:27:06 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

Hello,

I am just trying to find out if you put a comma before all quotes????

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the EHR is, âa longitudinal collection of patient-centric healthcare information available across providers, care settings, and time. It is a central component of an integrated health information system.â NIST believes, "a personâs medical information is scattered among various providers who most often store it in thick paper files. Although pieces of this overall record may be in electronic format, they are probably located on different, incompatible health information systems. There is no coordinated, standardized system that integrates a personâs medical information within and across care settings. EHRs and EHR systems can provide this capability.â

The following text is from Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers (Second Edition):

Use a comma to set off quoted words from short explanations in the same sentence. This rule holds whether the explanatory words come before, between, or after the quoted words. Examples:

"My love is a fever," said William Shakespeare about love's passion.

"I love no love," procalimed poet Mary Coleridge, "but thee."

This use of commas is especially important in communicating conversations or other direct discourse. Explanatory words like she said, they replied, and he answered are called speaker tags, and they are always set off from immediately following words of direct discourse...

When explanatory words have that just before the quoted words, however, do no use a comma after that. Example:

Shakespeare also wrote that "Love's not Time's fool."

Shaw quipped that "Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else."

Sometimes conversation is conveyed through indirect discourse. The writer does not use direct quotation but instead paraphrases material. Do not use a comma after that in indirect discourse. Example:

Shakespeare also wrote that people should be true to themselves.

Exceptions...

If you have made quoted words part of the structure of your own sentence, do not capitalize the first quoted word, and do not set them off with a comma. Example:

Mrs. Saintonge says that when students visit a country whose language they are trying to learn, they "absorb a good accent with the food."

Winking, she encouraged me to try "very speedy persistence."

~~~

Applying these rules to your sample paragraph above, I would not use the two commas that I've highlighted in red above.

How Good or Bad is My Accent?

Lingual Bee — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 23:25:26 GMT

If you are curious about how others might think of your accent, you can get some feedback from Kantalk.com. At its recording page (http://www.kantalk.com/recording/), you can record a funy paragraph, which is used by linguists to study human accent. After you've done it, others can rate your accent and pronunciation and comment on it. Some native speakers recorded there too. Many interesting accents.

Re: How to get rid of accent?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 22:52:48 GMT

You can record a paragraph at http://www.kantalk.com/recording/. The text was written by a linguistic professor who studies accent. After you recorded it online, others can rate your accent and give you feedback how to improve. Some native speakers recorded it too. It's very interesting.

Re: how to pronounce 'sp', 'st' and 'sk' in the middle of the word?

Kooyeen — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:34:55 GMT

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 they sound the same?" This is similar to your p/b problem. Anyway, I disagree, spoon and sboon sound similar to me, but not the same, and people say spoon, not sboon. She go on saying: "Hear how they sound the same? This is why I'd like you to always convert the preposition to to duh when you are speaking, no matter what comes before it (voiced or unvoiced sound)." I have to disagree again. I don't think to becomes duh after unvoiced consonants. Examples: "Way duh go!" (ok, vowel sound), "I need duh know that" (ok, voiced consonant), "To be or nod duh be" (I don't think so, I think it's simply "To be or not to be"). In the book, however, she explicitly write in the phonetic transcription "T'bee r nah d'bee".

In the end, that paragraph was one the ones I didn't pay too much attention to. But maybe she's right, and I'm just a bad sutdent not willing to listen to teachers

Re: which accent?

Marvin A. — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:52:06 GMT

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 pull off either an American or British accent. "British English" and "American English" consist of 3 parts--accent, spelling, and lexicon.

As for accent: when people learn an American accent, they learn what is known as "General American"--an accent based on a generalized Midwestern accent, spoken in the 1950's Narrowly definied, this accent is only spoken by very old speakers (80 year olds) in the Midwestern and Western portions of the US, and in a couple of 90 year olds in Canada. Broadly defined, it is spoken by everyone in the Midlands US, the North Central US (North Dakota and surrounding areas), the Western US, and Western and Central Canada (BC to ON). It is also spoken by many newscasters. If they learn "Received Pronunciation" then they learn sort of the upper-class sounding accent in England, that is considered overly posh to some. Both RP and GA are very much alike, except in the overall place of articulation. As a speaker of North American English, it would be *very* difficult for me to pull of a convincing RP accent. I would need long and intensive accent coaching. Even actors are notorious for doing very lousy RP accents.

There is however something called a Mid-Atlantic accent, which is very easy to do. It sounds exactly like a British RP accent to Americans, and exactly like an American accent to British people. It uses the American vowels and consonants which correspond to British ones, but uses the American place of articulation. If you aren't a native speaker of English, unless you honestly *do* sound like a native speaker, most people won't be able to even tell if you are speaking "American English" or "British English". It just depends on how your own non-native accent compares to an American or British accent. For example, almost every Japanese speaker I've met learned American English, but they sounded like they were speaking "British English". The reason was simply that they could not make the vowel sound that exists in the word "hat", nor could they make even a reasonable approximation of the North American English retroflex final "r". Thus, even though they learned "American English", they sounded just as British as they sounded American. So, they could have just as easily learned RP, and they would have ended up with the same accent. So, unless you really do have a native sounding accent with no interference from your native accent, it is not going to make a bit of difference whether you learn American or British English--and if you are so good at imitating accents (unlikly), you should be able to do them both--certainly better than I, as a North American, can fake an RP accent.

The next aspect is spelling. There's American spelling, British spelling, Canadian spelling, and Australian spelling, and New Zealand spelling. First of all we have to keep in mind that spelling has nothing to do with pronunciation, and the fact that a word spelt in one form of English is pronounced differently in another has nothing to do with spelling. The spellings of words are simply national unofficial norms and customs. There are two categories--high frequency, and low frequency words. You can often read several pages of text and not have a clue as to where it was written based on the spelling. The high frequency words are the most important. The low frequency words are written much less frequently, and thus people hardly notice if there are differences in the spelling, and most people in all of the English speaking countries don't care too terribly much. For example, the word [ mIdiv@l ]. I have a hard time remembering how to spell this word. In American spelling, I believe it's spelled midieval or something like that, and in British spelling, mediaeval. I doubt anyone would really care how you spell it this word, in fact many Americans spell it the British way, because the American version looks ugly. So, as for these types of low-frequency words, it really doesn't matter how you spell them. The high frequency words on the other hand, spelling is much more important.

You have to remember, though that everyone will understand these words just fine whether you use the American, British, Australian, or whatever spelling, it's just that some that have not been exposed to the other form, will consider the other form incorrect--American schoolteachers are a good example of this, and they will usually mark your paper if you use, say a British spelling, to let you know that it's spelled differently in America. Most of them don't really care, actually, they just want to help you. I'd say it's probably the British who are the most uptight about spelling, because they tend not to like Americanisms. Canadian English technically has no "official" spelling. Both American and British spellings are accepted, but even so, there is a general trend in how many people spell words, and thus we can say that there is a distinct spelling. so, anyway the only words that you need to worry about are the high-frequency words (as for the low frequency words, just spell them the British way--Americans really won't care--and if they do, tough.)

If on the other hand, you really want to be consistent and spell everything the American way, just get Microsoft's en-US spell checker. Unlike the Canadian or British one, there is no controversy regarding Microsoft's en-US spell checker, and thus it could be said to be the final authority on American spelling (I'm serious. No American would argue with it.) So, the only important words with varients, are those of the or/our class; the er/re class, and the -ize/-ise class. These are the only ones that will get anyone worked up over.

If I were you, simply consider your audience. If you're writing for a British audience use -our (colour, honour) and -re (centre), and if you're writing primarily for an American audience use -or (color, honor) and -re (center). Truthfully, it's mainly the British people that get emotional about these words, because they don't like to see Americanisms all the time, and Americans usually don't care, they just either haven't seen the British form before and think it's just a misspelling. On those two examples, the current trend in Canadian English is to follow the British spelling (colour, centre). When it comes to a few words in American English, the British spelling is regarded as classier, and thus the following words are often spelled like in British English in the US especially for places: Theatre, Centre, Harbour, and Glamour. Note, it's pretty much only these 4 words especially "Theatre". You'll find about the same number as "Theatres" in the US as you'll find "Theaters". You may find a city "Centre", although it's less common than "Theatre", and many businesses use the word Harbour. "Glamour" is far more glamorous than "Glamor"--in fact I don't think I've seen the word "glamor" very often.

When it comes to -ize/-ise words, I believe -ize is considered correct for all varieties of English. -ise however is quickly gaining ground in the UK, and -ize is sometimes even mistakenly assumed to be an Americanism. Most newspapers and magazines now use -ise, for example. The Oxford English Dictionary still lists the -ize form first. I believe that -ise is more common in Australia and New Zealand. -ize is the only acceptable form in the US and Canada (although -ise is sometimes [rarely] used in Canada--usually by people originally from somewhere else.)

So, anyway, if I were you I'd learn both spelling varients just so you know them--the high frequency words are not at all hard to learn. Just consider your audience when you're writing, and be consistent (I'm not, but I just like to be different, for my own personal entertainment. [Of course I'd never hand in paper to a teacher, or for anything important using an odd concoction of American and British spellings--as people would just think I was a bad speller.]) Do as I say, not as I do )

The third thing to learn is the vocabulary differences. You can also just describe what you are talking about, or try to use alternate words. If I were you, I would simply avoid any deliberate Americanisms, or Canadianisms, or Briticisms, or whatever, or learn all of them.

So, in conclusion, it doesn't matter too terribly much which variety of English you want to learn. I myself, would suggest that you learn both, and what the differences are between them, and as long as you don't overwhelm yourself with the differences (they're fairly small ultimately), if you learn both, you can adapt to the person you are talking to and be more easily understood. If you want to learn a particular one, learn either one, it makes absolutely no difference, because no one will take you for a Englishman or an American, nor will you sound like one or the other to native English speakers. You'll still sound like you're speaking German-English or Italian-English or whatever you are. Until people say you sound like a native speaker, you needn't worry. Besides, if you really want to become very proficient in English, you'll have to live in an English speaking country for a while, and you'll pick up the local accent anyway, which more likely than not will not be Upper RP or conservative General American.

As for speaking in a mix of British and American accents, to tell you the truth, I doubt many native speakers would notice... They'll just be thrilled that you're doing the best you can to try to communicate with them, and as long as they can understand you--and General American and RP are the most easily understood forms of English for native speakers to understand.

(edited to insert paragraphs to make reading easier)

Re: Received Pronunciation & Mid Atlantic English

Tallulah Tam — Fri, 12 May 2006 14:28:09 GMT

You bring up so many points in your message Colombo. The grammatical points I will leave for someone else to answer since I am not very hot on grammar as you will see from my spat with the Gurus some time ago.

I am quite good at conversation though and would like to hold a discussion with you.

I have chosen to address "poetic licence" from your first paragraph.

I feel that Alan Jay Lerner was not so concerned about his own grammar when he wrote the song, he insults the intelligence of the audience by using the word "hung" incorrectly, especially when putting the words into the mouth of Professor Higgins who as I said, should, and most likely would, have known better. Also the rhyming is bad.

Henry, 'Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter,
Condemned by every syllable she ever uttered.
By law she should be taken out and hung,
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.'

I would modestly suggest:-

Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter,
Condemned by every syllable to utter.
By law she should be taken out to hang
For the cold-blooded murder of the English twang.

"Going back to the matter of Higgins' beloved Received Pronunciation, I've always wondered whether what we see in "Pygmalion" and "My Fair Lady" is really possible. I'm not thinking of Britons trying to disguise their natural accents, but of foreigners learning their RP so well as to pass for natives."

Personally I DO think such a transformation is possible one only has to witness the transformations of Glynnis Paltrow and Madonna who now speak better English than the English. I am also personally acquainted with a Dutch Professor who speaks perfect English with Received Pronunciation and no trace of a foreign accent. Richard Burton is another example; when once asked how he managed to lose his Welsh accent he replied, "blood, sweat and tears". I don't know how old you are, but perhaps you remember The Jenkins brothers Clive and Roy? British politicians. To hear them speak you would not have believed they were reared in the same household. Clive had a very thick Welsh mining community accent but Roy who won a scholarship to Oxford cultivated a Received Pronunciation accent so far back it was almost ridiculous.

"By the way, if I'm not wrong, Rex Harrison is as Scouse as the other Harrison I mentioned above. The only film in which I've heard his real voice is precisely "My Fair Lady", and obviously he needs Received Pronunciation for it. But how did he normally speak? "

My handy encyclopedia is Macmillan's, and it only lists Sir Rex Harrison, (Reginald Carey Harrison) as a British actor, followed by his achievements. It does not mention his place of birth. But actors are usually exceptionally good at mimicry (although Robert Redford refused to learn a British accent for his part in "Out of Africa"). Sir John Mills for instance was never heard speaking in any other accent but what was considered to be a high class English accent, except if the part called for it, such as in "Ryan's Daughter, but someone once commented that his natural accent was quite a strong West Country accent. James Mason is yet another example who killed his Huddersfield accent to play upper class British gentlemen in his films. The first time I heard James Mason speak with a flat accent (in a film) I was quite shocked! As you say, it would have been "a bit shocking" to have heard Rex Harrison speak with a Liverpudlian accent.

Re: British Pronounciation vs American Pronounciation

Tallulah Tam — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 17:18:51 GMT

Felt I had to jump in here with my 2c. worth......

I am British, I was educated at an expensive school in Cheltenham in Gloucestershire so I tend to speak that way. Although I have lived in The States for almost 20 years, most of it in The Deep South, I am married to an Englishman and have lost none of my English accent.

Now, I KNOW the "expensive," word will jump out at everyone in the paragraph above. The reason I put that in, (before I am called all sorts of nasty names) is because we definitely had a different accent to the locals, or children from other schools. We developed a more "far back" English accent, so called because we tend to speak from the back of our throats rather than the front of our mouths as people from the north of England do for instance. This tendancy seems to be going out of fashion with the younger generation, just listen to the way Prince William and Prince Harry speak compared to their father.

This accent, when I was at school, was the favoured BBC accent which seems to have almost disappeared now in the English media. Strangely enough it is very favoured over here, especially when actors are playing English butlers! The Americans in general (not the American media) are not very discerning when it comes to a British accent. They do not seem to be able to tell whether I come from England, Wales, Scotland, or Ireland, or even Australia, or South Africa. They also think variously that I speak like Paul McCartney or Mrs Thatcher!

The Southern American drawl, (not South American) is quite different from the accent California Jim will have, but the majority of English people would not be able to tell the difference. We recognize Americans by their monotone or when they say "bedder" or "innerrupted" or do not pronounce our unique vowel sound as in "what" (which Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna have gone to great pains to perfect).

As to which is best, the answer is neither. From my experience to avoid misunderstanding it is best to adapt ones accent according to the majority. When I first came to the States I remember going to buy a pen as a gift for someone, I was directed by the sales person to the kitchen department to buy a pan. All the different American and English accents give the language variety and colour, The Americans are exceptionally good at making up words and descriptive phrases which sum up exactly what you want to say. "bummer" is a good one I use a lot.