Elocution lessons for our American daughter?

[VintageRainBoots]

Our five year old daughter will soon start school in the UK. She was born in US, has only lived in the US, and has so far been educated in the US. As a result, she speaks with an American accent.

My concern is that there are a few sounds that she still needs to work on, and moving to a different country with different speech patterns may complicate things for her. For example, she cannot pronounce the "r", as in "star" or "very." Could elocution lessons in the UK help her pronounce words the American way? That is, can a British speech therapist help her learn to say the American "star" or will she be taught the British version (which sounds a lot like "stah" to our uncivilized American ears)?

In addition, she's only recently mastered the "th" sound (before, she was approximated "th" with a "d" so that "them" was pronounced "dem"). However, I hear a lot of folks around town (and more often in London) pronouncing "th" with an "f" or "v" rather than the American "th". We spent a fair amount of time helping her with her "th" sounds; I would hate to see all that work amount to naught if she's in a class with students who use "v" or "f" instead.

So, will elocution lessons help her?

Along those same lines, does anyone have a recommendation for a speech therapist or elocution coach near Guildford?

OP you will just be like lots of British parents reminding their children for the 1,432nd time that it is 'letter' and not 'le'er' and your daughter will acquire a school voice and a home voice like generations of kids before her.

^ This.

Go for a posh school in Guildford and your DC will probably end up correcting your pronunciation anyway.

I'd also echo those who have commented that an English accent seems to be attractive to Americans anyway. I point you towards the 'bottle' scene in 'Love Actually'- it's not made up.

I am DYING to know what OP thinks of & Tom Lehrer.

Recent radio interviews with TL and he has lost much of his MA accent! It's shocking compared to the 1950s recordings. Down to years of exposure to Midwestern twang, I imagine.

dreaming, I find the Bronx and Boston accents great. bettered only by a slow Southern drawl. that fact that someone else (on an internet forum no less) finds them ghastly is of no consequence. she's entitled to her opinion.

lljkk, never heard the great man speak! thanks for posting that YT, I ahve some watching to do!

Of course she's entitled to her opinion. Aren't we all? But it's still a rude thing to say.

If the response to rudeness is to say we're all entitled to our opinions, well then rudeness loses all meaning as a concept.

Thanks for liking my accent though

Do y'all remember how much George W. Bush affected(s) a TX accent? He was from Connecticut, ffs, but he knew what the voters liked.

Yes, Bush was the exact same background as his opponents northeast, Ivy League, rich family but managed to make himself appear to be a completely different person just by taking on that accent.

Can you imagine that in the UK? A politician purposefully taking on, say, a Geordie accent in order to become prime minister?

But GWB did live in Texas, didn't he? Might he be an example of how people's accents change when they live in different places?

I grew up in the US, but have lived in London most of my adult life. My accent has changed from how I sounded when I first came here.

Though if he did deliberately take on the Texas accent, presumably he did that in order to be elected governor of Texas.

Which is your accent? Southern?

If the response to everyone is entitled to an opinion is, as long as its not a rude one, then opinions become pretty muted. That's the problem in the USA too many people afraid to speak their minds, for fear of being labelled rude.

Fortunately or unfortunately, not a problem in the UK.

Thatcher had elocution lessons, didn't she? To lose her East Midlands twang, lower her voice, sound less shrill and sound... something, more southern, anyway.

And wasn't Neil Kinnock advised to try to drop his Welsh sound?

stopcalling, as it happens we all change or hold our accents "deliberately". it's a question of whether we do it consciously or sub-consciously. accents are central to identity, and we choose the extent we will modify the accent depending on circumstances and value. nothing wrong with GWB if he decides he wants to emphasise his Texan side.

not quite as convinced when Madonna was in her British mode, but then again up to her. we should take it as a compliment.

Saying people with southern US accents sound uneducated

The only Texan I can bring to my mind's ear is Sheldon Cooper.

No my accent is New York. The one she specifically said was 'awful.'

On what planet is that not rude?

And I'm sorry but you can't be serious that people speak their minds in the UK and not in the US. If anything I find people in the UK to be far more tolerant and polite, which of course often comes at the price of not voicing their opinions.

I mean seriously, if I came on here and said the Geordie or Yorkshire accent was 'just awful', no English people would be offended? No one would think that rude, it's just me voicing my opinion? I don't think so.

If you siad that, I think most Geordies or Yorkies would think you were jealous!

Nuu Yaaark eh. Lovin' it.

Surely it's Americans who miss out the tt in letter? She's far less likely to do that in Brit speak. DS3 insists on saying diapers and cookies which sends me apoplectic. At least they pronounce the words correctly I guess.

She might even end up saying mirror rather than meer

OMG, there's 9 pages, I missed 8 of them.

I am with you dreaming.

I am not personally offended (life is too short to take offence over an internoet forum for me) but I came on here last night to say I thought OP was rude, and I stand by that.

She has said that many US accents are awful and make her squirm inside
She has said she wants her daughter to have lessons to stop aquiring an awful UK accent

I genuinely think she has no idea that some of what she said was offensive. And i think she is going to find a lot of things a bit different when she gets here!

Interesting point about UK or US speaking ones mind more. In my (limited experience) I find that here UK we are superficially often polite, but get with friends and they will be much more 'real' And my US friends (although they weren't living in US so may not be representative) tended to be more polite to their friends, and didn't get some of our rude to each other humour, they saw it is hurtful when we would find it funny.

If it's any comfort dreamingbohemian, the OP would probably not like my accent either. But then IMO she is misguided if she thinks she can have any control over the way her dd speaks. I can imagine the teenaged dd speaking estuary/bronx just to wind her mother up.

actually what I just said was a pile of rubbish, 200 million people across how ever many times zones, how can anyone be a 'typical' American, or a typical Brit

Steppe American kids are allowed to use 'gonna' in written work??? Seriously? DS2 would love that. He has finally learned that I will make him rewrite gonna correctly.

ooh wentshopping are you still around? Which communication aid does your dd have? I realised I think of ds1 as having an American accent as his communication aid does. I did change words like jello though.

He says 'lader' for example and not later

Hey thanks step, and stop.

To be clear I'm not distraught or anything I'm just more flabbergasted that the OP doesn't see how off her attitude is.

In New York everybody has an accent, it's incredibly diverse, and accents are just seen as normal and not a bad thing. So from my perspective, saying you don't want to have any accent is not just about language but also sort of denying that reality of diversity. It's looking down your nose at a whole segment of society.

That's interesting what you say about US/UK step. It's hard for me to judge because I think us east coasters are an overly expressive lot

steppe - I've worked with Americans and Japanese and found the same. On the whole Americans are much politer to their friends than either the Brits or the Japanese, but perhaps more informal in formal situations.

The Japanese were as rude to their friends/real piss takers/wind up merchants. Which was a surprise. But yes you can take the piss in Japan if you know someone well enough. Found American friends were perhaps offended by that.