I went to Covent Garden with some of my friends at London Metropolitan University yesterday. It is famous for My Fair Lady. The srory was based on Pygmalion witten by George Bernard Shaw(1856-1950). Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, and Eliza Doolittle met in front of the Royal Opera House. Eliza selling flowers on the street had a strong Cockney accent. She took speech lessons from Professor Higgins so that she could speak with an upper class accent. Cockney refers to the form of English spoken by working class in London, particulary in the East End. I hear that accent is very important in this country. Each public school has its own accent. I don't know whether it is true or not, but you may possibly find a good job because of the accent. I am really interested in various accents among different classes. Although I don't have enough time, I would like to read Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour by Kate Fox someday.
Saturday 2 August 2008
My Fair Lady
I went to Covent Garden with some of my friends at London Metropolitan University yesterday. It is famous for My Fair Lady. The srory was based on Pygmalion witten by George Bernard Shaw(1856-1950). Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, and Eliza Doolittle met in front of the Royal Opera House. Eliza selling flowers on the street had a strong Cockney accent. She took speech lessons from Professor Higgins so that she could speak with an upper class accent. Cockney refers to the form of English spoken by working class in London, particulary in the East End. I hear that accent is very important in this country. Each public school has its own accent. I don't know whether it is true or not, but you may possibly find a good job because of the accent. I am really interested in various accents among different classes. Although I don't have enough time, I would like to read Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour by Kate Fox someday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Yes, that book is quite good on accents.
I think the bias towards a certain kind of accent is slipping, but we still have very definite ideas about what people are like according to their accents.
Is this situation similar in Japan?
We don't have classes like this country, but there are a lot of dialects in Japan and sometimes I don't understand at all, especially in north Japan, because of the difference of accents and words.
Post a Comment