A language learners’ forum

tomgosse wrote:

Tillumadoguenirurm wrote:All Brits sound weird when they try to do American.

I think that Brits sound better doing an American accent than Americans doing a British accent. I would love to find a course on how to do a British accent. To be specific, an Estuary or London accent.

Really? I have spent most of my life trying to lose mine - now, say after me 'How Now Brown Cow'. I also used to share a garden wall with Hugh Laurie when he lived in North London and he used to practice his various accents in his garden.

Elexi wrote:

tomgosse wrote:

Tillumadoguenirurm wrote:All Brits sound weird when they try to do American.

I think that Brits sound better doing an American accent than Americans doing a British accent. I would love to find a course on how to do a British accent. To be specific, an Estuary or London accent.

Really? I have spent most of my life trying to lose mine - now, say after me 'How Now Brown Cow'. I also used to share a garden wall with Hugh Laurie when he lived in North London and he used to practice his various accents in his garden.

I would really like to sound like David Attenborough.

Carmody wrote:Congratulations on taking the test and getting "scored an A1." That means we are both somewhat similar in our achievement levels and I don't have to be embarrassed about sharing what I don't know with you.

Goodness Carmody, you underestimate yourself! I'm sure with finishing FIA you're closer to a B1 or B2!

tastyonions wrote:Some more detailed notes on your pronunciation of vowels for the "Assimil 3rd leçon" recording:

Thank you for the breakdown, tastyonions.

tomgosse wrote:I would really like to sound like David Attenborough.

Any good British accent would make me overjoyed!

tomgosse wrote:

Elexi wrote:

tomgosse wrote:

Tillumadoguenirurm wrote:All Brits sound weird when they try to do American.

I think that Brits sound better doing an American accent than Americans doing a British accent. I would love to find a course on how to do a British accent. To be specific, an Estuary or London accent.

Really? I have spent most of my life trying to lose mine - now, say after me 'How Now Brown Cow'. I also used to share a garden wall with Hugh Laurie when he lived in North London and he used to practice his various accents in his garden.

I would really like to sound like David Attenborough.

To be fair, nobody else sounds like Sir Attenborough. I think he has his own particular idiolect. He's a national treasure

I saw Richard Burton read the telephone book on the tv on the Johnny Carson show. And yes he really did pull it off.

Carmody wrote:I saw Richard Burton read the telephone book on the tv on the Johnny Carson show. And yes he really did pull it off.

I remember reading a story that during a Hamlet run he used to do impressions of other actors. So one night he would play John Gielgud playing Hamlet, another night Michael Redgrave playing Hamlet etc.

tomgosse wrote:

Elexi wrote:

tomgosse wrote:

Tillumadoguenirurm wrote:All Brits sound weird when they try to do American.

I think that Brits sound better doing an American accent than Americans doing a British accent. I would love to find a course on how to do a British accent. To be specific, an Estuary or London accent.

I would really like to sound like David Attenborough.

It's funny, you don't ever hear people say that they want a Yorkshire accent, or even a Western one. If Mr. Attenborough has a huge fan base now, imagine the size it would be if he sounded like a pirate.

Tillumadoguenirurm wrote:
It's funny, you don't ever hear people say that they want a Yorkshire accent, or even a Western one. If Mr. Attenborough has a huge fan base now, imagine the size it would be if he sounded like a pirate.

I was trying to restrain myself as to not take over xenops's log but ..

My daughter claims Yorkshire is her foreign language and wants to study it for the next school year. (We're American and she loves The Secret Garden)

Hello peeps! School is done except for a summer-long internship (very little homework), and I just returned from a short missions trip to a restricted country (PM me for details). I'm currently feeling tired, but I feel like I might be free to study Japanese again (do I dare hope?), but I have conflicted feelings about that--it's much harder than French. Maybe I'll focus on French and work on Kanji radicals a little this year.

May intense French commence!...in a few days. Now I want to go to bed.

I hope your internship goes well, and gives you plenty of time for your language work!

When you do study Japanese, have you given a thought to using textbooks in French? I have the Assimil Hindi textbook and surprised myself by how easy it was to work with explanations in French. Assimil has a Japanese textbook, and they also have an advanced book (C1) called Le Japonais du manga http://fr.assimil.com/methodes/le-japonais-du-manga. Studying your L3 via your L2 means you don't have to neglect your French while studying Japanese.