What's the difference between British English and other Englishes?

[Lost_Soul]

Hi,

[Alan]

Hi,

For those of you who have managed to wade through the treacle of sarcasm directed at me in the suggestion that I need medication for my

[Diverhank]

Yankee, I don't think you are being fair... . Your tone was obvious and you backed that up with your second post in response to EU. While I'm very fond of American English, I don't see anything wrong with someone trying to learn the Queen's English. Your calling Alan names was very uncalled for, in my humble opinion. He was very reasonable in his "argument".

I really agree with Torsten...one should worry about learning English first...never mind the accent...an ESL person will unlikely being able to sound like a native English or American anyways.

[Yankee]

@ Alan

Don't you think that last post of yours was pretty slippery and misleading? I would also suggest that it is not at all helpful to learners who would like to know what a sentence such as "His choice was questioned" means. Or would you have us believe that you're unaware of the meaning that "to question something" conveys? That was the format you used (twice) and that usage fits definition 2 of the verb here:
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/question?view=uk
and here:
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/question?view=uk

Instead of responding to Lovelyjitu's post, you chose to question my post: "I don't see why Lovelyjitu's reason for wanting to speak the British brand has to be questioned."

Even if you had really meant your usage of "to question something" in the sense you now claim to have meant it (which I don't believe), what the devil is so unusual about asking a learner a simple, open-ended question? Don't ESL professionals do that all the time in order to clarify an adult learner's needs, expectations, etc? Don't people ask simple questions all the time? And if someone were to tell me that they planned to study literature, would it really be so unusual to be interested in finding out the reason that led to such a choice?

.....................

@ Diverhank

I asked a very simple question. Do you always interpret the meaning of a simple question for person A only after a response has been given to person B, especially when person B has a well-known agenda? And, no, I don't believe for a minute that I have been unfair with Alan. Quite the opposite.

I purposely used the words "expert" and "British" in my original question since that was Lovelyjitsu's description of the goal. It is completely normal to ask adult students of English for information about their perceived needs and goals. And I'm sure that if Alan would clear his head for a second, he would have to agree with me about that. Every single day, countless ESL teachers ask questions such as the one I asked. Every day! Such a question is asked in an attempt to get more information. I did not say one single word about American English. I did not tell Lovelyjitsu to avoid British English. I asked a very simple question about the stated goal of "expert British" pronunciation.

As regards my response to EU, I did feel that I knew why EU wrote what he/she did. I'm quite certain that Alan did, too. EU is well-known in this forum for his/her extreme (some might say excessive) fondness of the type of English spoken by the Queen and a version of British English which EU refers to as URP. I doubt that Lovelyjitsu had speaking URP in mind, so I told EU that the reason for lovelyjitsu's stated desire was not obvious to me. It seemed fairly likely to me that the reason for Lovelyjitsu's stated goal was probably not the reason that EU thought was obvious.

I still have little idea why Lovelyjitsu believes he/she needs "expert British" pronunciation. There are any number of reasons why an ESL student might be better off focusing on a different system of English pronunciation and/or not beating themselves up about not having a "perfect" accent. It is quite often the case, however, that ESL students automatically believe that British pronunciation is what they must learn, and that they must learn it "perfectly". The reason for learning "British English" is often simply that it's seen as the "original" form of English. ESL students also sometimes have the unrealistic goal that they will be able to learn to speak English without any trace of a accent from their mother tongue. A few may manage this, but most won't.

In my second post I reminded EU that only a minority of the total native-speakers of English live in the UK. I said absolutely nothing about American English or Australian English or Canadian English or South African English, etc. I did not mention any type of English pronunciation because I still had not received a clarification from Lovelyjitsu about the need to learn "expert British" pronunciation.

[Diverhank]

Amy, thanks for your explanation . I'll be quiet.

[Englishuser]

Hi,

[Yankee]

Hi EU

I'm glad you now agree that LJ's reason for learning expert British pronunciation is not obvious.

By the way, I'm aware that URP is a particular type of pronunciation. I'm also aware that the vast majority of people in the UK do not speak URP. As to admiring URP, well, I don't know that I'd agree with your evaluation, but I'm aware that you admire it.
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[Yankee]

Alan,

How often do you intentionally mislead ESL students? It seems you have no qualms about doing so if it covers up whatever hallucination has affected your judgment.
.

[Englishuser]

Hi,

Are you suggesting that you disagree with this comment

[Prezbucky]

I don't know what Yankee was getting at, but there might be a number of reasons concerning why a person might not enjoy the Queen's accent/manner of speech (I am not necessarily espousing any of them, but here are a few ideas):

1) It might sound snobby to him/her (forthwith I will use "her" to refer to the arbitrary person)
2) It might sound foreign/unintelligible to her
3) It might remind her of royalty, and if she has something against royalty, those negative connotations might be projected onto/associated with the accent.
4) She may have had an affair (of and degree) with someone who spoke with that accent and/or in that fashion, and if the relationship ended badly, she might take those negative feelings and project them onto the accent.
5) She might have had a bad experience in an area in which that accent/manner of speech was spoken.

etc.

There could be any number of reasons why someone might not like that accent/manner of speaking... as with any other accent/manner of speaking.
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[Ralf]

I agree with all 5 points prezbucky made. And I shall hope he was talking about the Queen, too.
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[Yankee]

Hi EU

There have already been conversations about the Queen's accent on countless other occasions here, haven't there? Nobody in the US has ever told me that they admire the Queen's accent. Not a single solitary one.
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[Englishuser]

Hi Ralf,

[Englishuser]

Hi Yankee,

[Ralf]