Search results for 'tag:Speak english tag:British English' matching tags 'Speak english' and 'British English'

Re: British Pronounciation vs American Pronounciation

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:11:09 GMT

Anonymous
british english
english is derived from england and the english people are the one to discover english so hw anybody else can speak english better than them so its very obvious than no body can speak english better than english peaople and thats why this language is named after there state which is england

Apparently, American writing has suffered, as well.

Re: Difference between European English and US English.

Bokeh — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:14:07 GMT

Nona The Brit wrote:
slum prudery? Interesting turn of phrase.

It's from "My Fair Lady".

Nona The Brit wrote:
I think it is pretty true that a lot of British people don't consider us as part of Europe in quite the same way as other Europeans. Politically, yes.

I think the British people scared to embrace being Europeans are those who believe the imperialistic conservative nonsense that to be British is to be better.

Nona The Brit wrote:
But geographically, no.

Geographically, yes! The UK and Eire sit on the European continental shelf with a sea depth of less than 50 metres right the way around.

Nona The Brit wrote:
No other European countries have English as their native mother-tongue language.

That's true but it is also true that it's not the mother tongue of several million British subjects. (According to Wikipedia 70% of the UK population speak English monolingually.)

Nona The Brit wrote:
I think there are European countries which teach American English rather than the British version so how does that factor in?

Try doing a search on the web for British schools in Europe compared to American ones. Look at translation agencies and see how their FAQs specifically point out that they do British English. Also if you look at style guides for documents translated for the European Union you would see they state spellings and grammar should be British. Lastly it doesn't make sense that mainland Europe should learn US English in place of British English. Trade between the UK and its EU partners far exceeds any trade between the US and mainland Europe.

Re: USA or UK

Charlotte_T — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:14:19 GMT

Thethenothere123 wrote:
Grammar Geek wrote:
I haven't read through all the pages on this topic, but has anyone commented on how NON-homogeneous UK and US English is? It's not like there's one "British English" or one "American English" unless you're been to broadcasting school. Someone from Yorkshire and someone from Cornwall have about as much in common as either does to someone from Alabama or Maine.

That's a good point. I honestly can't remember whether or not anyone has made it. However, I did try to make the point that for the vast majority of the people that speak English, the only real difference is the accent and certain prefernces in word usage (which are almost always understood perfectly well by everyone). In addition to that, there are some extremely minor differences in grammar/punctuation conventions between AmE and BrE, and that's it.

I agree there're always differences between British English spoken by two people from different places, eg. London and Oxford. But why can we differentiate between BrE and AmE? That's because, generally, there're still a lot of similarities between accents of Yorkshire and Cornwall, although we can't deny there're actually not the same. I think we're all talking about this issue generally, don't we? We sort out the accents into 2 main groups: AmE and BrE. Then under BrE group there're a lot of 'sub-groups'. It's hard to discuss and study in details about accents of Yorkshire and Cornwall because even people living in the same place could have slightly different accents.

P/S I mean no harm and I'm just trying to tell my opinions.

Re: help for my thesis about english as a global language.

Kooyeen — Wed, 09 May 2007 22:14:19 GMT

Hi,
here are my comments, quick comments. The first thing that comes to my mind...

1- Why English is the most predominant language nowadays? Why has it become a global language? Because most companies that deal with technology or software are in the US. Technology and science = English.
2-Many people think the spread of English is related to the economic and political supremacy of U.K and U.S.A.. If another nation will be more powerful in the future, could English lose its prestige as it happened for Latin or French?
No, everybody is learning English. I don't think many years ago most people in the world were learning Latin. Plus English is much more simple to teach and learn than any other language.
3-Can English be considered as a positive factor in the international growth of the economy? Yesâ¦ noâ¦.. why? Yes. Global language = global relationships
4-Could the âleadershipâ of English as a âglobal languageâ cause a levelling of the culture into a âglobalâ culture, so to becomeÂ¬ a danger for minority cultures and traditions? Yesâ¦, Noâ¦, Why? It is already a global culture. Everybody knows Madonna, The Simpsons... they are American. We all know a lot of things about the English speaking world. Now, who knows Vasco Rossi in the world? And Pippo Baudo? They are extremely famous... here. No English = no popularity in the world
5-The spread of English around the world has generated new varieties of English in the different territories where it has taken root. Could this aspect be a loss for international communications? Yesâ¦, Noâ¦, Why? No, many varieties, but regional varieties. There will (hopefully) always be a "neutral" variety, the one you'll hear on TV news, main movies, the one you'll read in textbooks, newspapers, most of the internet.
6-Many experts say that the rise of English as a global language has caused the disappearance of minority languages . Is this a loss, according to you? I don't know of any languages that have disappeared because of English as a global language, so I don't know. It could be a loss if they have been replaced by British English. (LOL, kidding)
7- With the spread of English globally, new words and new varieties have emerged. Do you think it could be a serious danger for Standard English? Standard English doesn't exist. "Dude" is a new word, and it's fine, dude.
8- Nowadays the most important requirement in order to get a job is a good competence in English. Could the loss of this requirement be a disadvantage in our society? I don't understand your question.
9-Has âInternetâ influenced the spread of of global English according to you? Will it help English maintain its global influence? Yes, and yes. Definitely. The net brings English everywhere, the real net is English. If you don't know English, you are not really using the net.
10-Some experts have seen the promotion of English around the world as a neo-imperialist project or as a linguistic discrimininations. What do you think about it? I don't know. English rulezz.
11-Many European countries, as Italy and France, defend their mother-tongue; many others consider English very important for international communications and relations. Is the role of English in Europe a danger or a resource? Italy doesn't defend its mother tongue, no one knows what's real Italian anymore. In some areas it's not even spoken much. I think that less than 1% of what I say is in Italian, so... English in Europe is a resource, definitely. But they try to teach British English, which is not good. (LOL, kidding)
12-Inevitably, the formation of new varieties of English raises the spectre of the possible dissolution of English into new languages as it happened when Latin gave rise to the various Romance languages. Is English in the same danger? No, there wasn't Internet, blogs, Hollywood, BBC, Associated Press, Madonna, The Simpsons in Latin, when there was Latin. And there weren't billions of schools, teachers, forums, blah blah, to learn Latin. And Latin was not so simple...
13-Will those who speak English as a native language automatically be in a position of power compared to those who have to learn it as a second or foreign language? Yes, damn, I wish I was born in the US, I would have saved a lot of time and I would already be ruling the world by now.
14-Surfing the web I have read how many English, American, Canadian or Australian scholars think that a god knowledge of English is enough for their career. As a matter of fact, when we read a book of an Anglo-saxon writer, the bibliography is only made up of English texts. Is it a disadvantage for writers of books written in another language? Is this a negative aspect? You write in Italian = you write for Italians. You write in English, you write for the world.
15-In the past the European Union adopted a âlingua francaâ: Esperanto, but this project failed. Could English be the next experiment? English is already a lingua franca. Well, not exactly, but it'll be so in the near future.
16-Many experts and linguists discuss about the âEnglish questionâ. What is your opinion about the future of English? Will it remain the worldâs language? Probably. Unless we are attacked by aliens, then we will speak some strange language from space.
17-In many countries the teaching of English as a âforeign languageâ is compulsory. What do you think about it? What could the consequences be? Good.
18-What is your opinion about learning English nowadays? Is it a way to enrich our culture or merely a way to adapt ourselves to modern society? English = communication with the whole world = access to information = culture
19-Can a global language eliminate the motivation for non native speakers to learn such an important language ? And for native students will the presence of their language as âglobal languageâ make them lazy about learning other languages or reduce their opportunities to do it? I don't understand the question. If you mean that natives then won't need to learn any language, well, yeah, they won't need. So what should they do? They should teach their language! And for free! Better yet, I'd like to be paid for learning! LOL

That's all. Hope you like my answers

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Marvin A. — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:55:37 GMT

and an ignorant American would look at British and pronounce practise (Br. spelling) like practize....

Highly unlikely.

Americans on the other hand, have been butchering it for centuries and should not be consulted when learning this language. It is, after all, English and not American.

Rubbish. North American English is in many ways much closer to Elizabethan English than British English, Australian English and New Zealand English.

Anonymous Australian.

Well, we could say that Australian English speakers are "butchering the language": for one thing, most of you have forgotten how to prononounce your r's; your vowels are quite different earlier forms of English, and your vocabulary has shifted quite a bit.

It is, after all, English and not American.

Well, it's not Australian either.

so it is logical that the more words one knows, the more thoughts one can have.

How is that logical? Other languages can also be quite expressive. Just because English "has" over a million words, you have to realize that many are simply restricted to medicine; others are not in common use and would be quite incomprehensible to most people. Just by possessing a copious amount of words (many of these so called "English words" are hardly native words, and are not understood by many people), doesn't mean that English is more expressive than other languages in all respects.

It (the spelling) was fixed 400 years ago

Yes, for the most part. But what I don't understand, is if someone wants to simply be able to speak English (and doesn't care about reading and writing), why don't they simply use a phonetic alphabet when learning English.

though I'm convinced once upon a time it really was pronounced "kuh-ni-git"

Actually in Old and Middle English, the "k" was pronounced (but there was no "uh" after it), and the "g" was pronounced like in the word "Loch" if you put on a Scottish accent.

Or meaby something from German: einhundertfunfundzwazig (125) - this is correct spelling, there shouldn't be any spaces!!!

Well, it's easy enough to break down, and is hardly harder than onehundredtwentyfive.

You say its easy, and yet you write 'learned' instead of 'learnt' - a classic example.

"learned" and "learnt" tend to be pretty well interchangeable.

Re: British Pronounciation vs American Pronounciation

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 15:03:55 GMT

british english

english is derived from england and the english people are the one to discover english so hw anybody else can speak english better than them so its very obvious than no body can speak english better than english peaople and thats why this language is named after there state which is england

Re: Can a L2-learner become a native speaker?

Marvin A. — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 21:25:00 GMT

Englishuser wrote:
What do you mean, Marvin?

Englishuser

Well, in some ways, learning a different variety of English could be a good idea. If the lady I had met had learned English with a North American accent, I would most likely have realized that she was not a native speaker. But because she had learned English with a British accent, I actually thought that she was a native speaker. Thus, in order to receive "native speaker status" (and by this I mean that people assume she is a native speaker of English.), she could get away with speaking less than perfect British English, whereas she would have to speak with an absolutely *perfect* North American English accent in order to be thought to be a native speaker here. Since learning a fairly good British accent is *much* easier than learning an absolutely flawless North American accent, foreigners from countries that are known to be able to learn to speak English with a fairly good accent, for example, Denmark and the Netherlands, might consider opting to learn the opposite accent from the country they are planning to visit. I have heard many non-native speakers who have learned English when they were older, who have had to my ears a native-sounding British accent, but very few who have had a native-sounding North American accent--there are always certain things that give it away.

I wonder if it's the same on the other side of the pond? Do you more often mistake foreigners who have a North American accent for native speakers, than foreigners who have an accent that is a closely approximated, but not quite British accent?

Re: British Accents

Ruttonjee — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 03:43:43 GMT

Hi there,

I am a non-native English learner. I often visit Randall's ESL Listening Cyber Lab http://www.esl-lab.com/ to practise listening and speaking skills. I find this website very useful in learning to new American English expressions. Can you suggest any similar websites but in British English because I want to learn new expressions used in Britain. By the way, are the expressions in the above websites also used in Britain? If yes, it is strange if I use them in conversation with British accents since I speak English with British accents instead of American accents.

simon

Please HELP! I want a British accent.... NOW!!!!!

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:47:34 GMT

Hiya! My name is Fay and I am from Greece. I naver wanted to have an accent. I only wanted to speak English without any mistakes, until I saw "Pride and Prejudice" (with Keira Knightley and Matthew McFadyen) in the cinema! Since then I am a Britishmaniac! I rented on DVD the old "Pride and Prejudice" (with Colin Firth), which is 6 hours long, and learned all the quotes with British accent!
I love the British culture. I watched "Oliver's twist" with Jamie Oliver and I really liked all these traditional shops where he was buying what he needed.
What I want are some tips for my British accent if that's possible. It would be also great if you could give me some adresses for sites with information either about England or British English!
Thank you very much!
Love,
Fay.

P.S. I have also seen Hugh Grant's movies: "Nottng Hill", "Four marriages and one funeral" and "American Dreamz".
If you know any other movies of him, please let me know.

Re: Countries speak English as Native Language

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:18:13 GMT

I wouldn't say that our English pronunciation is strange. It's just not American or British-accented English, although I would say that we do have a tendency towards British English due to its predominance in our schools. If you would like to improve your written English, Singapore is a fine place to start; spoken English, not so much.

But anyway, thanks for that bit about the nations which supposedly have English as a first language - I was wondering if I needed to take the TOEFL for entry to an American college.