Understanding British Accent.

Question

Hello Friends,I am New in Manchester, UK and I am unable to understand the English people Speak Here. I am from India and it was OK to understand Local Indian Accent but I only get 20% here in Manchester UK. I want to know where I can find some Audio Files Recorded in British Accent So I can Practice with them. I will appreciate your HelpThank you.

MrPedantic · Accepted Answer

Hello Harish

Try this link: British Library Archive of English Accents and Dialects

Good luck!

MrP

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks.

This is Exelent Collection

Annvan · Answer

Hi Harish. Can I ask you - how long have you been in Manchester now?
(I lived near Manchester for many years, though I wasn't born there.)
Ann

Anonymous · Answer

0 hi harish this is sharon from kerala i read your mail i understand your problem while speak with british people..if u were in kerala i could have heleped u a lot cause i ve got a teacher who was trained by british teachers..take some movie dvds and watch with the help script..u should watch part by part..again play it and try to understand without script. 01b00email addy deleted by mod02b0-

Prez1dent · Answer

0 I don't understand too. They are speaking very fast! 0-

Anonymous · Answer

Ouhh man your situation really scares me.. I got an scholarship to study a master degree at the University of Manchester but Ive learned american english all my entire life!!

Anonymous · Answer

Hi Harish,
I have same problem.i recently came to UK.i can't understand the British english accent.i want to do job here.....so plz help me

Regards,
sangeetha.

Pronunciationkaren · Answer

Hi Sangeetha

Welcome to the UK. Where are you living? There isn't one uniform British accent. There are many regional accents. A good resource to use for learning to understand spoken English is the BBC Learning English site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/

I particularly like their Express English series, where passers-by on the street are asked questions:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/expressenglish/

Also if you watch programmes on the BBC i-player they generally have the option to turn on subtitles.

There are two main problems causing lack of comprehension faced by newcomers to the UK:

1) Often the English taught abroad is based on each word being spoken very clearly and in my experience the use of weak forms is often not taught. You may find that the spoken English you hear sounds very fast. Certain words within a sentence will be being stressed and the other words will be sped up and possibly shortened.

So for example, you may be used to 'What do you think?' being pronounced /w?t du: ju: ???k/ but in reality in the UK you may hear it being pronounced in a number of different shortened versions including /w?? d?? ???k/.

2) Most English taught abroad is based on either British RP or General American. There are many regional accents in the UK. These can often sound quite different to standard RP. You can hear examples of different regional accents here:

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/england

http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_maps/europe.php

Karen

Pronunciationkaren · Answer

I would also highly recommend the app Cool Speech by Richard Cauldwell which helps the user to understand everyday speech. You can find information on it here.

Anonymous · Answer

If you want to understand British accent, just listen BBC news and study ebook of British accent that will mostly help you in understanding British english . You should also try to speak british accent . Some of the examples I have given here for your more information.

• Structured learning at your own pace.

• Learn precisely how English words work and how to split words into s

• Structured learning at your own pace.

• Learn precisely how English words work and how to split words into sounds ( phonic) .

• There is a plenty of practice.

• There is no need of teacher and audio.

• This British accent course won't cloud your mind with technical jargon .

• Rapid progress is encouraged.

I think this information will help you in understanding British accent more perfectly without any teacher. Hence, I m from India

Thank you

Understanding British Accent.

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