Practice English Speaking&Listening with: How to speak with a POSH BRITISH ACCENT || RP English
Hi, I'm back!
Arabic Mike and...
Rebecca
Rebecca
this is a special...
kind of edition I suppose because we're going to teach you something
that hopefully you didn't already know
we're going to give you some tips on... what? What are we going to learn today?
we're going to do a little bit of an RP accent
because I don't know how many of you are aware but we've got another royal wedding in England today
we do indeed... who's getting married?
which prince... Prince Harry?
Prince William? One of them
today is the 19th of May and Prince Harry is getting married to
Meghan Markle
so in honour of that we've decided to do a bit of an English themed accent video
I'm here with my sister Rebecca, I'm Arabic Mike
I teach Arabic on YouTube and I teach English on YouTube occasionally
because a large part of my audience is from the Arab world, from the Middle East, from Saudi Arabia
from Kuwait, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, all over the place... Egypt, I said Egypt already
so today we're going to learn how to speak English, like the language we're speaking now
not just with a British accent, but with an RP accent
let's start off with RP, what does RP mean? What is an RP accent? What does it mean? Can you describe it?
so RP stands for, 'received pronunciation'
and there's a long history to the origins of it
which accent are you speaking with right now?
is this just Rebecca's accent?
this is what you would call standard English
so RP... you can get heightened RP, or you can get standard RP/ standard English
which is...
it's not quite as stereo-typically posh
but it's still...
which is the poshest accent? How would the Queen speak?
heightened RP
heightened RP... can you do the Queen?
oh, so heightened (RP) is even more emphasised... I don't even know what the Queen sounds like
she doesn't speak often does she?
no...
it's just far more...
oh gosh, I don't even know
she speaks slowly
she does speak slowly, heightened (RP) is basically just
really really exaggerated and
very very very clipped and short
and British
very British
so we're going to share with you three tips
of how to speak British with an RP accent so what's the first tip?
so the first tip is the importance of the letter 'T'
T T T
because so often nowadays,
people become lazy, you become slack, it's easy to forget certain consonants
I mean, you do it without even realising it
and that's when your mum says, 'don't forget your 'T's'
our mum does yeah
yeah... at least not anymore, but she did
yes she did, so for example
if I were going to say
'Michael will you pass me the butter?'
who says butter?
it's butter
remove the glottal stop between the...
ooo, there we go.. techno
yes, glottal stop, I missed that from my last video, but basically it's a glottal stop so...
butter... butter
it's not quite like a hamza is
like ___
it's not quite a hamza but it's like a glottal stop so
butter becomes butter
there we go
butter is better
butter is... that's a good one
butter is better
if the 'T' is at the end of a word, that's when it's more tricky to...
to make sure you stay on it and you pick it up because... I just said it then... it...
you pick it up... when you're saying things in a sentence, it's easy to run sounds and consonants into one another
so you want to over-emphasise, pronunciate, and make very clear, every 'T' sound within the word
yes, so it's more kind of just being aware of finishing the sounds you're creating
how would you summarise the first tip?
on how to sound more RP like the royal family?
remeber your 'T's'
pronounce your 'T's'... don't drop your 'T's'
if there's a 'T' in the middle of the word, say it, if there's a 'T' at the beginning of the word say it
if it's at the end of the word, say it
okay, moving on, point 2, what's the second tip?
so my second tip, is to think of the sounds coming forward
as I said before, you can get quite lazy when learning an accent, or learning a language
and you can sit quite back
in you tongue and in your mouth
whereas the whole RP sound is quite light
and quite forward
so you want to keep a nice rounded lip, nice rounded mouth
and just think the words are shooting out your nose and your mouth
through the front of your face
did you get that?
that makes sense!
can you give us a demonstration of saying something from the back of your mouth
and then saying something... I just did it myself without thinking
yeah exactly...
so you kind of wan to be using the tips of your tongue
the front of your lips, rather than further back in the mouth, is that right?
mhm, that's right
okay, so I am sitting quite far back on my larynx, my tongue is quite far back at the moment
I'm being quite lazy in using my mouth, in using my articulation
and it sounds a bit weird really
your body language is saying...
'I'm not really interested'.. cause you've got your back as well
exactly it all connects.. it all links in
how you talk kind of reflects your body language and vice versa
anyway, so going back to the RP sounding quite light, and forward, and rounded...
if you then start to think of it coming from a more forward place
it sounds lighter and more airy
wow
and you did that by thinking about using a different part of your mouth
so you think of it coming forward
through the teeth, through the lips
nice and rounded, through the front of your face so it's all...
resonating... that's the word I was thinking of
so it's coming forward, and you are just projecting rather than sitting backwards
and just being like, 'yeah...' you want it to go forwards
I'm going to try, okay?
this is your book, can I just take this a minute?
okay, I'm just going to read
okay, this is me reading it from the back of my mouth
'work to straighten the cervical spine by lengthening and pulling slightly back'
mhm
and then... work... now I'm going to try it forward okay?
'work to straighten the cervical spine by lengthening and pulling slightly back'
now do it from the back again
'work to straighten the cervical spine by lengthening and pulling slightly back'
so it's just less clear
it's slightly different isn't it?
yeah
it's got a slightly muffled sound when I speak from back there
this is... do you want to recommend this book at all?
yeah this is a really good book
it's written by Gillyanne Kayes
Gillyanne Kayes
and can you explain to the audience why you have this book?
I have this book because I'm a musical theatre student and one of my modules is voice
so we were recommended to get this because it helps link the breathing to the voice
to the sounds... to everything
so it's quite technical, but if you are, you know, really into your language, really into your accents and consonants
it's got some great technical hints and tips and some good phonetic advice and information there as well
cool
I'll probably put a link in bio? or link in description?
there it is
I think it's time isn't it?
tip 3
tip 3
okay Rebecca, tip 3 - our third and final tip
on how to speak with a received pronunciation is what?
I like to think of it as speaking north to south
so... similar to point 2, in what I was talking about in trying to get the sound forward
and through the resonance through your nose, in your mouth using the rounded lips
tip 3 is, imagine that you are elongating your lips in a north to south way
like this
yeah, so...
yeah, I don't know how else to describe it
like a duck
kind of
so some accents...
like a fish?
yeah...like that
some accents are east to west
so they lie quite flat
like a Californian accent
is an example of
California?
yeah
cause it's just... all like...
I mean... I don't really know if the sounds are right that I'm doing but it's just so flat...
I mean yeah
and when you're speaking like that, your mouth is like this shape... horizontal
rather than vertical
so again, thinking of how we want to sound
light, clear, up, crisp, front
another way of thinking of it is basically just thinking of speaking north to south
can you give us some examples Rebecca?
what, in terms to an East to west and north to south? or different vowel sounds?
is there an exercise we can practice by speaking north to south?
um.... speaking north to south...
I would say linking it back to the rounded 'vowelness'... so keeping it forward and keeping that north to south look
practicing some sounds like loo loo loo loo
loo loo loo loo
loo loo loo loo la la la la le le le le?
and then you should feel... maybe a le, le is more of a horizontal sound
or... like either or
or like an oar, like I'm going rowing
like either or
so or
more... shore
poor... core
tour... door
and then loo
I just want to just clarify this, so the third tip is to orientate your mouth
north to south, or visual your mouth being north to south rather than kind of flat
so...
a received pronunciation
accent.. you want to open... 'oh, that's how Hugh Grant speaks'
yes!
I've just realised that
Hugh Grant is a prime example
so Hugh Grant and Benedict Cumberbatch... they speak like this
and now I know why
see can you see the difference?
OH MY GOD!
look at the difference in how...
so basically you just talk, but with your lips like that
I mean it kind of helps to get into it
it makes an incredible difference just in how you tighten the sides of your mouth
and then all of a sudden...
you sound very very different so...
wow. I feel like I've just all of a sudden become a public school boy
because it's all very forward... it's all very...
you know... there at your lips... north to south
it's all happening in the front
very rounded
that's amazing
there we go, you just need to...
I feel like, I just want to take a three year long gap year
but... do you know what I mean?
that's probably the easiest tip
out of everything we've done, this is the easiest tip for me
there we go
I can't stop
you've got to find what works for you
that's not my accent
but it's nice to know that I can use it when I like so...
RP.. well there we go
I feel like... I feel like in some ways, I've been born again
there you go
very strange
very very strange
so, Harry and Meghan, we wish you a happy wedding day
Harry and Meghan are getting married, probably right now, they're probably coming into the church
and yeah... it's important, if you do end up meeting the royals, that you probably pronounce your words
eloquently and well and you articulate your sentences in a well formed manner
so, to be honest, I hope you've learned something from this lesson
we hope you'll come back again soon
and yeah, you've got more videos up there and there
and I''m Arabic Mike, what's your name?
My name is Rebecca
her name is Rebecca
and we'll see you again soon
hope to see you again in the very near future
and until next time... bye bye
