American and British accents

Hi, everyone!
I’m Georgiana, founder of SpeakEnglishPodcast.com. My mission is to help YOU speak English fluently.

In this episode:
• I’ll talk about why the American accent is so different from the British accent.
• After that, I’ll use the Question and Answer technique to help you develop your speaking skills.

Let’s get started!

In the eighteenth century, American and British pronunciations were pretty similar.
Remember that the British Empire colonized America.
Many immigrants traveled to America to start a new life.

So, a fair question is:
Why are American and British pronunciation so different nowadays?

Well, there are many theories, but here’s a reasonable one:
I know this may come as a surprise to you — it’s actually the standard British accent that has radically changed in the past two centuries. However, the American accent has remained almost identical.

So, what happened?
A little bit of history can help us.
At the time the British accent started to change, the Industrial Revolution began. That means that many families became wealthy in a short period.

The upper-class society did not welcome those families, although they had a lot of money.
Therefore, newly wealthy families tried to distinguish themselves from the lower classes. One way to achieve that was to change the way they spoke. They tried to sound more sophisticated, more elegant.

So, new tutors and experts on pronunciation offered their services to the newly affluent people. New guidelines and pronunciation dictionaries were written. This new way of speaking became standardized — it’s called Received Pronunciation (RP) — and it spread all over the country.

More and more people wanted to sound elegant and not like the lower class. It was a fashion that became very popular.

The funny thing about this is how accents are represented in historical films.
For example, the American Revolutionary War shows British soldiers talking with the Received Pronunciation (RP) accent, as if they were on the BBC, and American soldiers with the Standard American Accent. You know that’s not very accurate.

Mini-Story (Practice Your Speaking)

Awesome! Now let’s practice with a mini-story, which is a method that I use in my English courses.
Sometimes I call it a conversation simulator because you practice your English like in a real conversation.

Here’s how it works:
I give you information and ask simple questions.
After each question, there is a pause where you can answer.
After the pause, I give you the correct answer so you can compare.
You’ll see how this method will help you improve your English speaking.

Are you ready? Let’s go!

The Parker family owned a big factory in Liverpool.
Did the Parker family own a small factory?
No. No. They didn’t own a small factory. They owned a big factory.
Did the Parker family own a big restaurant?
No. They didn’t own a big restaurant, but a big factory.
Was the factory big or small?
Big. The factory was big.
Where was the factory? In Manchester?
No. Not in Manchester. The factory was not in Manchester but in Liverpool.
What did the Parker family own?
A big factory. They owned a big factory in Liverpool.

More than 1000 people worked in Parker’s factory.
Did only 500 people work in the factory?
No. More than 1000 people worked in the factory.
Did less than 1000 people work in Parker’s factory?
No, no. That’s not true. More than 1000 people worked there.
Where did the people work?
In a factory. They worked in Parker’s factory.
How many people worked in Parker’s factory?
More than 1000 people. More than 1000 workers worked in Parker’s factory.
Whose factory?
Parker’s. Parker’s factory.

All the machines in the factory had steam-powered engines.
Were the machines electric?
No, they were not electric. The machines in the factory had steam-powered engines.
Were there in the factory just a few steam-powered machines?
No, no. All the machines in the factory were steam-powered.
What element did they use? Steam? Oil? Water?
They used steam. They used steam to power the machines.
Where were all those steam-powered machines?
In the factory. In Parker’s factory. They were in Parker’s factory.

All three children of the family took pronunciation classes.
Did the three children buy a book on pronunciation?
No. They didn’t buy a book on pronunciation. They took pronunciation classes.
Did they take French classes?
No. They didn’t take French classes. They took pronunciation classes.
How many children took pronunciation classes?
Three. All three children took pronunciation classes.
What did they take?
Pronunciation classes. They took pronunciation classes.

The children sounded more refined and sophisticated than their parents.
Did the children sound refined?
Yes. They sounded refined.
Did the children sound sophisticated?
Yes. They sounded sophisticated, too.
Did the children sound as sophisticated as their parents?
No. The children didn’t sound as sophisticated as their parents. They sounded more sophisticated.
Did the parents sound more elegant than their children?
No. They sounded less elegant than their children.
Why did the children sound more refined and sophisticated than their parents?
Because they took pronunciation classes. They sounded more sophisticated because they took pronunciation classes.

Perfect! That’s the end of the mini-story.
As you can see, you are answering easy questions all the time.
They are easy on purpose; this technique helps you develop your speaking skills.
It’s like practicing with another person!