Which version of spoken English do you prefer?

[English-test.net]

Phonetics question

[Poet]

I think I like the American Accent

[Teufelchen53]

Hallo at all,

I don't know which English I prefer. Sometimes there are Amercan people I don't understand because of there slang, but that's also with British people.

I think I would prefer an English that spoken clearly, so that I can understand what the person in front of me would like to say.

That's the same as in Germany. There are many diferent dialects which not been understood by all people. Think about Friesisch, Bayrisch, S?chsisch and so on. The Austrian also speak German in a different way and In Switzerland they speak Switzerduetsch which is similar to German but not the same.

I think dialects are important, but not all people understand them.

Best wishes
teufelchen 53

[Poet]

[Savvythought]

I think there are many different forms of spoken English and every one has its beauty. Especially for people who speak English not as their mother tongue but as a second language it is important to find their own natural way of speaking English without sounding too artificial yet being able to make yourself understood. Do you know what I mean?

[Conchita]

In a drama I watched recently, Mike Leigh’s “Vera Drake”, set in 1950 in postwar London, I enjoyed the working class accent (“I could eat an ‘orse”, “nippy 'todie', innit?”, “washing me hands”...). I also found all the era’s details to be a real treat. By the way, do people still eat bread and dripping nowadays?

An article from BBC online says that the London accent is seen as cool and trendy, and less upper crust than so-called "BBC English". It seems that London is now influencing how the rest of the country speaks. Acording to a phonetics expert, Professor John Wells from University College London, the whole country is picking up on the London working class sound. As he explains, "The only big city that still pronounces its "hs" in the appropriate way is Newcastle upon Tyne."

Whether this influence is good or bad, I couldn’t say. I find all accents interesting and like the sound of all of them (all those I’ve heard, that is). Talking of which, I wonder if you can really be accentless. I’m often told that I am and/or that I have no definite accent, whatever that means – an American colleague even told me that my English sounds too correct (I’m not sure what I should make of that!).

[Jamie (K)]

I don't care what kind of English anyone speaks as long as no one is giving anyone else trouble about it. (Native speakers usually don't bother each other. It's usually non-native speakers who do.)

I like almost any kind of English -- including pidgins and creoles -- and there is only one accent that has ever gotten on my nerves. Actually it was one feature of one accent. That was the way many people in London take words that should end in an [u] sound and end them with an [i] sound instead. For example, the way that say "through" sounds something like "thr?i" and "two" sounds something like "t?i". At first it didn't bother me, but after a few days it started to get on my nerves. However, that's not their problem; it's my problem to get over.

[Spencer]

The American is the closest to me,and that's what I've been trying to speak myself. I like all kind of natives's accent, but I don't like when foreigners have recognizable accent of thear own language,except Spanish or Portuguese.
Hungarian is the worst to my ears somehow, probably 'cause I've been working hard to lose it.

[Jamie (K)]

[Jamie (K)]

[Chocolatee]