If I lived In London, England for 2 months, Would I get any kind of british accent? I'm from w. pennsylvania.

Question

What would help me get more of a british accent once I get there? I reeaaaly want one!!

Answer 1

Interesting question. I think it is a matter of individual cases. I have always found accents to be contagious. I develop them in less than a week.

I was in Alabama on business one week, but dealing with people form Minn. My wife asked me how I'd managed to come back from Mobile with a Norwegian accent...

I knew one fellow who spent 6 months in Australia (he being from upstate NY), and affected an Aussie accent for the next 40 years.

Answer 2

It is quite possible, you know.

My sister gets an accent after only six weeks there while I didn't. But I also know people who have been living in London for a few years now and never picked up any accent.

I know some French-Canadian singers that moved to Paris for their career. Some of them always kept their strong accent while others picked up the Parisian accent quite easily and really fast.

It may have something to do about your ability to mimic others and your ear. Some musicians can hear a tune once and be able to play it while others need the partition to play it. They simply cannot play by ear. I think it is the same phenomenon.

Angele

Answer 3

Two months might be pushing it ,but you can try.

Learn the words that we the English spell differently

Or, if you are lazy, follow this rule of thumb. If a word is more than five letters long and contains the letter 'o' place a 'u' directly after the 'o1'. Also, substitute 're' for 'er2'.

Common words that you the Americans substitute for the Queens English

Pants are substituted for Trousers
Elevator for lift
Bar for pub for
Soccer for football for
Apartment for flat
Period for full stop

Use the word F**k and w**ker as expletives
English youth swear a lot in (my opinion)

Speak Cockney,

Watch Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch
Repeat until you understand what all the characters are saying
Call everyone mate or darlin' (common English)or

Old chap,darling,really.absolutely and yar,essential if you want to be thought of as upper class


If all else fails, pretend you are drunk.

Above all have a great time in London.
.

Answer 4

Wow, what I coincidence, I'm from near Pittburgh and I'm also in England.

I've been here 5 months and my accent hasn't changed a bit.

DON'T try to talk with a British accent when you're here, people will just find it strange and silly. Just be yourself. Nobody will even notice your foreign accent, especially in London with so many people from all over the world.

If you're there for 2 months, you'll probably be able to mimic the accent much better than you could previously. I can say 'Youalright?' perfectly, since I hear it so much.

Answer 5

Dont know if you'll pick up on their accent or not, but Im sure it's possible... I live in California and after talking on the phone to my family in the south for only an hour, people say I start talking with a southern accent for a little bit, it's kind of funny!

Answer 6

I doubt it as there's no such thing as a "British" accent. There's English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish - and even they have regional dialects.

My mum and also my brother-in-law are both Scottish. Both have lived in England for longer than they were in Scotland but both still have their accents. A friend from Boston has been here for 7 years and she still sounds very American - she hasn't even adopted English words in place of the American equivalents, although she has picked up a few of our phrases.

Be yourself and just enjoy your time here. There are probably others but as a starting point, you might want to learn the words pavement and lift - we don't have sidewalks here and we don't tend to use the word elevator. Oh and we 'queue' when waiting in line to order or pay.

Answer 7

I am English, born there but raised in Europe. I have not lived in the UK for nearly 25 years. I still have my British accent. I have a feeling that after 2 months you will still have your accent.

Answer 8

Why do you want a British accent? Are you trying to fool people into thinking you're something that you're really not? Do you think you'll be more popular or more attractive to members of the opposite sex with a British accent? You're better off canning the poseur act and being yourself.

Answer 9

No, not at all. I'm from Sydney and have been living in London for 8 months. I still talk as Aussie as ever, and proud of it.

Oh, and why oh why would you want a British accent?

Answer 10

If you`d live in New York for 2 months and be able to talk like a new-yorker than you`re talented and you can succeed with english accent too.......make sense? i don`t think the english accent is more difficult than texan or new york