How hard is it for an American to learn to speak with a convincing British accent?

Question

I'm fascinated with Hugh Laurie from the show 'House', who is a Brit but speaks in an utterly convincing American accent. I've always been interested in linguistics and accents, so I was wondering if it's possible for an American to accomplish the same feat with the British accent, and not only do a passable job but an excellent and completely convincing one. Anyone know of any actors/actresses who have done this?

Answer 1

It happens quit a bit. I came back from there with a decided accent and did not even try. I lived there 4 years. Many Americans do that.

Answer 2

Hugh Laurie's American accent is particularly brilliant. It even fools native-born Americans, and that's very hard to do. People are extremely well attuned to their native accents, not just by country but by region. New York and Boston are famous for having accents that can place you within a few blocks.

Learning a particular accent is a lot like learning a language. It helps to start with cogent instruction, like an accent tape/CD (the ones at http://www.dialectresource.com/ come well recommended, but I haven't tried them myself).

After that, spend a lot of time listening to the accent and practicing. I find it helps to pick one person whose voice sounds like yours and mimic that as much as possible. It produces a more specific accent than trying to make a hodgepodge of different people.

An important note: specificity is key. There is no "British" accent. There are a scores of British accents. The one you're probably thinking of is called "received", but even more than in America you'll actually hear many accents every day: Cockney, Liverpool, North, etc. Even "standard British" has several variants. Pick one and practice it.

If you're interested in accents in general, you should learn the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is how linguists write down the very fine distinctions between different sounds. It takes a lot of practice, but from there you can work with a book like "Accents: A Manual for Actors" or "Stage Dialects" to study accents in detail.

Answer 3

You just have to have an ear for it. I'm a native born Texan and do many different accents. I worked with a group from Ireland and introduced myself using an Irish accent, they all wanted to know what part of Ireland I was from. I confessed after a week which shocked them all. But they said everyone is a wee bit Irish. I can do Russian, German, French, India, Pakistan, Japanese, Hawaiian, Aussie, British, Cuban, Mexican, Jewish, Arab, and African.
When we hear a Brit speaking like an American they are usually just not using an accent at all.
America has mant different accents. I can hear the differences in accents of North or South Carolina, Tennesee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, etc. Minnisota has a unique sound as does North Dakota.
There's getto, redneck, white high society(Thurston Howell the Third), like L.A. ya know, fasttalkinggetdowntobusinessconmen, and those with disabilities.
I think one of the hardest American accents to do is a native of Chicago. Most people do New York, which usually sounds like Jersey, there's the humorous Canadian "A", they try to drawl out a Texas accent which is hard on my ears and everyone in Texas can usually do a good Mexican accent.
Whatever accent you want to do, get a tape of someone talking in it. Listen to it repeatedly. Till you're sick of it. You'll have it down.

Answer 4

The key to learning any accent or dialect is to listen, listen listen. You have to totally listen to every syllable that the people say. Most people will be able to do a pretty fair imitation of an accent in a language they are familiar with. If you have a keen ear and nose for detail you could do it just by watching the BBC Channel for a week.

Answer 5

It's not that hard! Just look at Madona! lol ok all jokeing aside all it takes is practice!

There are all kinds of help out there to get you started.

http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml

this site gets you up to speed on British slang!

It also depends on which British dialect you wish to speak. Just like Americans speak diffrently around the country, so do the Brits. So I might suggest buying some dialect CD's to get you going.

check out:
http://www.paulmeier.com/booklets.html

Good luck!

Answer 6

I dont know of any actor/actresses, but i know it really hard to keep up any fake accent...

Answer 7

Try asking Madonna. She's a good faker.