Search results for 'tag:Paragraphs tag:British people' matching tags 'Paragraphs' and 'British people'

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: please correct my paragraph

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 21:47:22 GMT

Who has the Greatest freedom. Orwell or the Burmese?

George Orwell is a police officer. His job might indicate more control and power over the people with which he lived, but obviously he doesnât. (How is it obvious? I don't understand. You can clarify this point or elate it.) Though Orwell hated British imperialism, he did not openly rebel against it.

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Suggestions:

- Okay, I am having a difficult time reading your paragraph. I understand what you are trying to say, but you need to express your ideas and thoughts more flowingly. You are assuming that your readers, us, are George Orwell's biographers: but we are not. I did not know he was a police officer and that he had a dilemma with an elephant. Put yourself in the reader's shoes, write so that your audience knows exactly what you're talking about. Don't have us guess your content!

- Expound on things please.

- Some of your sentences are run-on ones. Proofread your work and edit accordingly.

I left the remainder of the paragraph for you to edit yourself. Please write back if you need more help!

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Because he was a police officer he had to decide what do about the elephant and at last he shot it, but not because he wanted, it was just to show that white men are strong, he said âA white man mustn't be frightened in front of natives", this shows that before he takes an action he thinks of others and not what he really wants to do. He didnât do what he thought that is right, because he decided to watch the elephant and if it wasnât dangerous he wonât shoot it, but then he shot it and of course he did it because he thought of other things other than deciding to take the right decision of his own. Burmese are free because they donât have rules and they showed their freedom in different ways as they always attacked British people and did whatever they want.

Italian student needing some help

Felipebattisti — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 01:03:45 GMT

Hello everyone,

Iâm an italian student (in marketing), and Iâm trying to build my own touristic company in Roma.

And I need some help and suggestions from english speaking people (canadians, british, americans, autraliansâ¦)

In this company, I want to offer people coming in Roma a romantic experience in a personalized theatre.

But my english is very bad, and I asked to friends of mine to traduct my webpage in english.

I received four proposals, and I donât know wich of them is the most professional, the better for american and british people.

Here is the link of theses traductions :

http://ezaesqf4798.site.voila.fr/thetest.htm

When there is a â?â, thatâs because the paragraph is not yet traducted.

Could you please say me wich of these is better, for me ?

Could you please say me, for each of these, if the traduction is very good, good, poor, bad, or very bad ?

If you want, you can send me an email to : (removed by moderator) to give me your indications and suggestions.

The traduction need to be as âpoeticâ as it was when I wrote it in italian. The traduction need to be âmagicâ for my customers. People need to want to buy such an experience, reading the webpage.

I really need your help ! Itâs very very important for me !

I need to succeed in creating my own job !

Thanks :-)

Felipe Battisti

Re: Question about a paragraph

Clive — Sat, 20 Nov 2004 00:40:40 GMT

Hi,
âThe real significance of such messages, whether complimentary or belittling, rarely sinks in.â

The main reason I donât see or like this as a topic sentence is that itâs worded very generally, which is why I think you yourself wondered initially if it was relevant at all. The reader shouldn't have to wonder that about the topic sentence. When I read the paragraph for the first two or three times, it didnât give me a clear sense of the topic. I think a topic should be stated for the reader more clearly and explicitly.
eg (as you yourself reworded it) Americans don't really care or think about cultural diversity.
or (to borrow the wording used in the conclusion) Americans assume that America represents a universal culture.

I donât think there is a final right/wrong answer to your question about this paragraph as writing is a subjective art.

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You ask me if British writing style is not so strict in its organization compared to the American.

Thatâs a tough and perhaps even sensitive question. âStraightforwardâ and âclearâ are positive words, âelaborateâ is in this context negative. As a person of British background, I like to think that we write with complete clarity! And with excellent style!
I think a lengthy analysis on this subject would be necessary, and Iâd be reluctant to start one.

My initial, short, hasty and probably rash thought might be that writing reflects a nationâs character, as you have said of English and Japanese. British people might generalize that Americans are more direct and less subtle in various ways, including the way they express themselves. An example that some might choose would be a comparison of British and American humour.

Others, especially Americans, may have a very, very different opinion!

Clive