शैडोइंग अभ्यास: Rating Good and Terrible American Accents by British Actors - वीडियो के साथ अंग्रेजी बोलना सीखें

Hi!

As a former stage actor and occasional dialect coach,

I often get asked which British actors are the best at doing American accents.

And recently, while watching the conclusion to Stranger Things,

a show that features several British actors,

it forced my brain to return to this very topic.

And today, I'm going to show you examples,

some good, some not so good,

of times that British actors try to hoodwink American audiences.

So, if you're fanatical about British versus American cultural comparisons,

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In the meantime, Ewan McGregor.

I called everywhere in five states.

I told him it was the only way to get my wife to marry me.

I'll have the rest of my life to find out.

It's a tough one, this.

I love Ewan McGregor.

I even love the film Big Fish.

Massive fan.

But as I was watching it,

I did get the impression that this wasn't his real accent.

And I don't know if it's just because I've seen him fight Anakin Skywalker as Obi-Wan Kenobi and speak like Alec Guinness.

But some of that's coming through,

I think, in his accent.

I mean, go back just a second ago.

I think he almost gives up at the end of that sentence and goes back into Obi-Wan Kenobi,

even though he's Scottish.

I mean, I think it is a valiant attempt at doing it

because whenever American or British actors try to do regional accents from the other country,

we usually completely butcher it.

He at least has most of the vowel sounds down.

And also, if I was too harsh to him,

I'd be a complete hypocrite.

Well, you don't want to find yourself out there in the woods alone at night, Lawrence.

But I think pound for pound,

I'd probably give Ewan a 6 out of 10.

Is that too generous, Southerners?

Let me know in the comments below.

This is a rescue.

I'm helping you escape.

Can you fly a TIE fighter?

What?

No, no, no. I'm breaking you out.

Can you fly a TIE fighter?

I went to see this at the cinema,

and I had no idea that John Boyega was an English actor.

And it was kind of strange in a way,

because it's like he's in a galaxy far, far away.

There's absolutely no real reason for him to play with an American accent when he's British.

Except for the fact that he's on the side of the resistance in a film franchise

that prefers lending voices like mine to the villains.

That said, because I walked out of the cinema not having a clue that he wasn't American,

I think he probably did a very good job with the accent.

And I think the mistake that a lot of British people make is that they try to overdo the R's in car.

And I think he doesn't.

He speaks at a sort of rapid pace.

I'm hoping you escape.

Can you bloody tie fighter?

And he just seems like an American actor,

so I think I'd give this maybe 10 out of 10.

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David, sacrifice is to get anything of value.

You have to sacrifice.

Nothing that has meaning is easy.

Easy doesn't enter into grown-up life.

And here in this film,

he's supposed to be from Chicago,

which is where I live.

And I don't hear too many people speaking like that.

I think it's inconsistent.

He goes in and out when he says the word value.

It just goes all English.

To get anything of value.

This is something that on the other side of the coin,

100

American actors will often do when they're doing British accents.

101

They get a lot of the things down about how we speak,

102

but there'll be certain vowel sounds that they just cannot let go of or they can't even hear.

103

I remember when Daniel Craig went on Colbert to tell him that you're saying my name wrong.

104

Daniel Craig.

105

Daniel Craig.

106

Ooh, I hear the difference.

107

That is subtle.

108

So I think that a lot of the time,

109

that's part of the problem.

110

The good thing, though, with Michael Caine is he gets away with it because he's Michael Caine.

111

Look, man, I'm telling you right off the bat,

112

I'm high maintenance, so I'm not going to tiptoe around your marriage or whatever it is without going there.

113

If you want to be with me, you're with me.

114

I think the biggest compliment that I can give to Kate Winslet is that she sounds more American than Jim Carrey.

115

And that's because he's Canadian.

116

And I think that when you listen to each and every one of the vowel sounds,

117

because I think she more or less uses all of them in that,

118

there's a distinction between how she would speak those with her natural British accent and how Americans would say them.

119

And I think she mostly lands it pretty much perfectly.

120

I mean, to be fair,

121

she'd already had some experience playing an old money American in Titanic.

122

She basically is American at this point.

123

But I would give Dane Kate,

124

she's not been knighted, but probably should be, probably 10.

125

I know that, thank you.

126

It's your question.

127

It's not properly phrased.

128

Do you understand what I'm getting at?

129

I do.

130

Why don't you answer it?

131

Because I don't like your phrase having anything to do with the Communist Party,

132

because Robert never had anything to do with the Communist Party as such.

133

So here, Emily Blunt is playing Kitty Oppenheimer,

134

the wife of Oppenheimer,

135

and at first was unsure of what I was listening to in terms of an accent until I realised,

136

oh, she's doing old money.

137

She's doing mid-Atlantic American English.

138

Three months ago, I was 40 years old.

139

40. The accent then of prestige.

140

The mid-Atlantic accent is very similar in nature to receive pronunciation British English.

141

So you could argue that it's cheating,

142

but I don't think it is.

143

I don't think it's easy for British people to mimic Americans using an accent that's mimicking a British accent.

144

It's hard for us to find those nuances,

145

those parts of the accent that aren't the same as British English.

146

I think, Emily, you get 9.8,

147

which is still really good.

148

So don't come at me in the comments, Blunt.

149

Which brings us once again to the urgent realisation of just how much there is still left to own.

150

Item 6 on the agenda, the meaning of life.

151

Hang on, I'm going to pause.

152

Did he just say a gender with an R on it.

153

Okay, so there are examples of words in this country that don't have R's in which some Americans will pronounce an R.

154

An example of this is the word wash or toilet.

155

Some people in America in certain regions and of certain generations might pronounce these words as wash and toilet.

156

But I'd be amazed if the meaning of life had that as part of their a gender in this scene.

157

So I think he's doing here what I did when I first did an American accent on stage.

158

I had the word sauce as in tomato sauce in my script

159

and the way I pronounced it is how Americans would pronounce the word sauce as a new sauce.

160

Pass me the tomato sauce.

161

This is instead of saying it the way Americans usually do.

162

Sauce.

163

Harry you've had some thoughts on this.

164

Wait a second.

165

He pronounces Harry as Harry instead of Harry.

166

Some energies have a spiritual sauce which act upon a person's soul.

167

Hang on.

168

Whoa.

169

He just said the word sauce, I think, didn't he?

170

A spiritual sauce.

171

Is he saying sauce?

172

He definitely means sauce.

173

I can't believe he did the reverse of what I did.

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Now, you might say, Lawrence,

175

you're taking Monty Python way too seriously.

176

And I think it's a good point.

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I think when a bad accent turns up in comedy,

178

it almost adds to the comedy.

179

So I'm not unhappy.

180

I'll give them a bit of leniency and give them three out of ten.

181

Well, sometimes doctors make mistakes.

182

Anna, you need to try twice as hard to fix them.

183

Are you using your inhaler?

184

You sure you're using it right?

185

Why don't you show me how your inhaler works?

186

So this is Hugh Laurie as Dr. House.

187

And when I first moved to America in 2008,

188

a lot of people would tell me,

189

did you know that the guy who plays Dr. House is British?

190

And I said, yes, we all knew Hugh Laurie decades before you Americans,

191

because of Blackadder, because of Jeeves and Worcester.

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And it was as much a surprise to me

193

that he was cast in a very popular show in America in the lead role.

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It's the subtle things that he does really well.

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Firstly, he's got this sort of gravelly cadence

196

that really helps to sell a leading man's accent on this side of the pond.

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Doctors make mistakes.

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He hangs on to that S sound,

199

which is something that certain American speakers that I've interacted with might do that if they're trying to convey a specific mood.

200

I must I'd say those same Americans that came up to me

201

when I first moved here would also say I didn't know he was British at first.

202

That is probably an even better sign than me not detecting it.

203

So I think for Hugh Laurie I couldn't give him anything other than a 10 out of 10.

204

He had like the high-vis jacket and the removable hat.

205

Was that for our good?

206

Was that a right choice?

207

I'm gonna snatch that diploma and I'm gonna run like hell out of here!

208

He says that there are monsters in Hawkins.

209

I have been absolutely obsessed with Stranger Things for 10 years

210

because it's eerily reminiscent of the American films that I watched growing up as a child in England.

211

And it still shocks me to say this,

212

but the four actors that I showed you just there are all British.

213

And it doesn't matter how many times I've watched it,

214

I don't question their American-ness.

215

It's almost like they've been living here their whole life.

216

Actually, in the case of a couple of the actors,

217

they did move here as children.

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When you're a child, you're a sponge that soaks up the sounds of the people that you hang around with,

219

I think a bit more readily than we do as adults.

220

I remember when I was at school on the playgrounds of Britain

221

and some of the people that I would pretend to be would be from the American films that I was obsessed with.

222

And I think

223

that might get to the heart of why British actors tend

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to be noted for their ability to adopt American accents better than American actors are in the reverse scenario.

225

But in this particular case,

226

there are a couple of things that I was very impressed with.

227

I love the way that Eddie's character successfully pronounces the word half A year and a half?

228

In my experience as an actor,

229

that is a vowel sound that doesn't come particularly naturally to us.

230

And similarly with Holly's character,

231

when she says Hawkins, she says Hawkins,

232

except without that deep voice. In Hawkins.

233

So, just as I would if I were reviewing the show itself,

234

I'm going to have to give all four actors 10 out of 10.

235

In the meantime, here are six American movies that were renamed for British audiences.

236

You'll watch that video next.

237

And until next time, goodbye.

शैडोइंग तकनीक क्या है?

शैडोइंग (Shadowing) एक विज्ञान-समर्थित भाषा सीखने की तकनीक है जो मूल रूप से पेशेवर दुभाषिया प्रशिक्षण के लिए विकसित की गई थी। विधि सरल लेकिन शक्तिशाली है: आप मूल अंग्रेज़ी ऑडियो सुनते हैं और तुरंत इसे ज़ोर से दोहराते हैं — जैसे वक्ता की छाया 1-2 सेकंड की देरी से। शोध से पता चलता है कि यह उच्चारण सटीकता, स्वर, लय, जुड़ी हुई ध्वनियाँ, सुनने की समझ और बोलने की प्रवाहशीलता में काफ़ी सुधार करता है।

शैडोइंग अभ्यास: Rating Good and Terrible American Accents by British Actors - वीडियो के साथ अंग्रेजी बोलना सीखें

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