Sunday 29 March 2015

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.

Friday 20 March 2015

The Power of being an English Learner

Hello there!
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.

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Alan Carr's accent: Cockney?

Hello there!
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!

Sunday 8 March 2015

Women leading language change

Hello there!
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? 

Tuesday 3 March 2015

Do you 'look' or 'lick'?

Hello there!
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.