Exploring Youtubers' Accents

Hello there!

As an introduction to an upcoming blogpost series in which we are going to be exploring some Youtubers' Accents, this post presents the perspectives from which it is interesting to talk about youtubers' accents in CuriousEnglishOnline. Among other things, today we will cover: (1) why English learners should watch native speakers on YouTube and how can it help them to improve greatly, especially when finding and creating an Identity in a Second Language; and (2) why YouTube is a very convenient tool from the point of view of accent and language in general observation and study. To top it all, I am going to tell you how you can participate in this blogpost series!

Finding your Identity in a Second Language - Part II

Hello there!

Here is part two of last week's post in which we talked about why we should find an identity in a Second Language in order to become successful learners, and how acquiring an accent close to a native speaker's is important to do so. Furthermore, as well as an accent, it is equally vital to adopt some cultural aspects of the target language. So here are some reasons for it and how to do it! 

Finding your Identity in a Second Language (L2)

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If you were looking for something to read in this Bank Holiday here you have, in my opinion, an interesting and hopefully helpful post. Today we will be talking about finding your identity in a Second Language (or Foreign Language, if that is your case): why you should create this identity and how to do it, as well as some aspects to take into consideration. This topic is also related to a frequently visited post which you readers seem to have liked called The Power of being an English Learner, so perhaps you would find it interesting too, in case you have not read it yet.

Is asking for THE British accent a Taboo?

I was reading random discussion forums on the Internet the other day and I found this (very old btw) one where someone asked the following question: Would it be possible to type in a British accent? In return, this person got really sarcastic and mean/funny comments like "there ain't such a thing as a 'British accent', you bloody fool" There is always controversy around British accents since it is indeed a very important issue for native speakers. Moreover, it was not the first time that I encountered this kind of reactions although this time it was on the Internet and not in real life. So, is asking for 'THE British accent' a taboo? I will try to explain why people get that nuts and sensitive with this subject.

The Power of being an English Learner

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This week's post is dedicated to those who have the power of giving a second first impression of themselves to the world thanks to being an English learner. Moreover, everything can be extrapolated to any other language you may be learning or considering to learn; maybe this post gives you that extra shot of motivation in order to invest your time and effort in learning a foreign language.

Alan Carr's accent: Cockney?

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I was watching Chatty Man the other day, hosted by one of my favourite TV presenters, Alan Carr, and he inspired me to write a post about East-London accents, or as some people (making a generalisation) call it the 'Cockney' accent, since he certainly has some features of those accents in his speech. However, he is not originally from East-London so I decided to observe his way of speaking to his guests on the show and thought that it might be interesting to also include accent adaptation in today's post!

Women leading language change

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Being the International Women's Day, it seemed just fair to remember women's role in language change. Actually, historical sociolinguistics tells us that, the vast majority of time, women are curiously the ones who had led linguistic change. Are you interested in reading some facts and debate about this? 

Do you 'look' or 'lick'?

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The thoughts that I am sharing with you today are related to how we pronounce words like "look" nowadays and whether it is portrayed faithfully in books and the typical vocal tract representations.

About

I am Isabel, a 23 year old graduated in English Language and Literature at the University of Seville with a passion for English accents and language translation.