Question
TheEarthLearning
24 May

  • Japanese
  • English (UK)
  • English (US)
  • Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)
Question about English (US)

I know this is a trivial question, but why is there no problem of communication between British and Indian, Australian and American, even though they have different accents? What kind of interaction occurs between native speakers? What is the standard for correct pronunciation of English?
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LiangpiLife
24 May

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  • English (US)

I’m Canadian. Between all of these groups, there are communication issues. It is sometimes easy to understand other English dialects, but it can also be very confusing

I’m not sure if there is a standard. I think each English speaking country would say their own dialect is the standard. US will say US English is the standard etc.

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LiangpiLife
24 May

  • English (US)

I’m Canadian. Between all of these groups, there are communication issues. It is sometimes easy to understand other English dialects, but it can also be very confusing

I’m not sure if there is a standard. I think each English speaking country would say their own dialect is the standard. US will say US English is the standard etc.

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us4gi
24 May

  • English (US)

There's not that much difficulty understanding people from other English-speaking countries, provided their intonation and emphasis is natural.

Think of a taiko drumming troupe playing a syncopated piece together.

Some of the notes pop out and are louder than the notes before/after them.
As long as you arrange the words in a natural way in terms of emphasis, you can speak 100% katakana and people will still understand you.


This reminds me of one experience I had a couple years ago.
I was in charge of helping two (Edit: Japanese) 9th-grade girls get ready for a speech contest.
I recorded myself reading off their speech scripts and gave them the data.
One student was better at making the sounds of English, but the one with a stronger accent memorized my recording like it was a song.
Despite her accent, her speech was easier to understand, and she placed higher in the contest.

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us4gi
24 May

  • English (US)

Oh, I forgot to specify. They were both Japanese.

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I know this is a trivial question, but why is there no problem of communication between British and Indian, Australian and American, even though they have different accents? What kind of interaction occurs between native speakers? What is the standard for correct pronunciation of English?
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