Received Pronunciation

You see, this is why every language needs a particular accent that is accepted as the "proper" pronunciation.

Sure, it's classist, slightly racist and incredibly excluding, but it works, dammit!

I've never had an accent that anyone could actually identify. For as long as I can remember people have been asking me where I come from. Sometimes I sound a little more British, so they ask if I'm Scottish. Sometimes I sound a little more North American, so they ask if I'm Canadian. Maybe I just sound "northern", I don't know.

But, when I need to, I can deliver a clear and well annunciated "home counties", English style accent - the slightly less plummy version of Received Pronunciation that used to be referred to, in some quarters, as "Eaton Dialect". You know, the way all of the Doctors on Dr Who used to speak in the old series.

I have found this skill to be invaluable. Suddenly, I am perfectly understandable to anyone from Europe, and reasonably understandable to a large number of people from Asia.

Why? Because English, in Europe, is usually taught by English professors with that accent, or someone who studied English in a school where that accent was preferred. In Asia it is usually taught by someone with an American accent, so the Asian students I work with can sometimes struggle a bit with my vowels when I snap into my "Home Counties Accent". I suppose I should try making it a bit more "Boston" when I work with them.

It's almost automatic with me. The minute I'm in a situation where I think someone is having trouble understanding me, I switch into this accent and start sounding like an English Professor. With some people, you can see the lights switch on as they finally have a fighting chance of interpreting what I say (I even had a student from Germany thank me once).

But, then, you get people who learn a language as a group of words. They don't pay attention to how the words sound, they just pronounce it the way they'd pronounce their own words. Then they come and ask me questions and I have a hell of a time trying to work out what they want.

If, on the other hand, they had learnt a couple of accents along with the vocabulary, then we'd all stand a fighting chance of being understood.

I'm trying to be conscious of that as I'm learning Estonian and Russian - listening to the speakers and trying to pick up on their accents. I'm not sure if I'm being remotely successful as I still have this weird tendency to try to speak "clearly" - which, with my training, is the "Home Counties Accent".

I'm sure Russian with a crisp, clear English accent is just as hard to understand as English with a soft, muted Russian accent...