Does the American accent or British accent sound better?
I grew up with a thick Australian accent with a drawl I dislike, and have been consciously trying to change it for a while. The problem is I tried to make it sound more American at first but keep getting drawn to speaking "Britishly". Now it's a Frankenstein of all 3 accents and I don't know what to go with.
Some points for both:
▪︎ American accent sounds "cooler"
▪︎ British accent sounds more "proper and elegant"
Australian accent sounds more "relaxed" (but I dislike this for myself, personally).
Man I recently met a beautiful Tanzanian woman who had an amazingly beautiful accent when she spoke English. It sounded regal and dignified. I had a huge crush. Kenyan accents are great too. I think we focus too much on western accents
Just throwing out a random opinion that doesn't mean much but...I'm an American and I actually find the Australian accent to be the sexiest of all native English-speaking areas. I'm just some random on the Internet but yeah.
I'm from the US and honestly I find just about any accent that different from mine really sexy. Aside from a few standouts. I'm not a fan of the Liverpool accent, whatever that's called.
Let me introduce you to my Geordie family and see if tou still feel English is elegant. The high English spoken by poshos that is all over TV and movies is very different than how most Brits talk
As for American accents, i have an absolutely bonkers accent of American Midwest with Texas drawl sprinkled in and other lazy drawn out vowels. Just speak however feels comfortable
Americans think the Geordie accent sounds posh (don't know about Australians, mind). I can't find the relevant articles but there was a born-Geordie American official who hit the news there a while back. In interviews with the British media she mentioned how the accent caused a lot of class-based discrimination back in the UK. Meanwhile the right-wing US media were running articles about the posh British woman interfering in their politics.
I was visiting Leeds this summer and was at a werherspoons when some drunk kids at the next table over heard me and figured out I was American. He said he was aspiring to be an actor and wanted me to give my opinion on his American accent. He sounded like he was from California and he must have picked up all his accent tips from movies/TV.
Now, let me say something I haven't seen mentioned here: don't change your accent. Be proud of it. Have you traveled to the UK or the US yet? If not, do it. You'll find plenty of people finding you interesting and wanting to talk to you because of your accent.
Keep your accent, Aussie accents are lovely. I'm sure it sounds more relaxed to you because it's yours. If you have some inner need to change it to feel more professional, isn't there posh version? Like what newscasters sound like?
Scottish is my favorite by far. The sort so thick you have to listen for awhile until the words come into focus. Not sure why but it is dead pleasant.
No serious linguist would advise you to change your accent like this. It's artificial and unlikely to succeed entirely, as you've noticed - accents are a reflexive, instinctive thing, difficult to rewire. The characteristics of the accents you mention (what you're referring to are probably General American accent and British "Received Pronunciation", which are far from univesal American or British accents) are shaped purely by (pop) culture. That includes the judgment on how good an accent sounds. Is it really a coincidence that the British royalty uses an accent that sounds "elegant"?
You don't appear to have any external reason to change your accent. If you live in Australia and talk with Australians, why would you want to sound like a non-Australian? Why do you want to sound non-relaxed?
I was in the airport recently and family had an incredible southern accent. Their voices were like cool rain on a hot summer afternoon. It was nice to just bask in their everyday conversation from a distance. :)
The answer is of course that neither is better really. As a Brit, there are plenty of British and American accents that I find annoying or unpleasant to listen to, but that's all subjective. Just go with whatever you want, and remember that any native speaker's accent is valid.
I've worked as a professional actor (alongside other things) and I learned how to diagram an accent in drama school using IPA, and then matched up with a bunch of other voice paradigms - Rodenberg, Berry, Linklater...
I know a few people who changed their accents in their lives, and some who only change it for roles.
I'm British, but live in America. If I audition for an American role, I speak with the appropriate accent (usually GenAm) in all communications until I'm cast, but I don't change my every day voice to talk to my wife or whatever, because it's just a job and I'm me and everyone knows me as me.
My rural upbringing is a strength, my culture makes me feel unique. So many people (especially white people) have trouble feeling like they have a shared history to celebrate that's not problematic. Knowing I have the Straw Bear, the Green Man, Hereward the Wake, Boudica and the Iceni - even Morris and Maypole dancing - in my childhood rituals makes me feel less homesick. And my accent is unique, being between the East Midlands and London commuter belt. I can round it out to RP when I need to but it's also part of me.
Trans Atlantic accent or contemporary American accent? I think accents are really cute. My heart melts slightly when my SO's family speaks because they have a pronounced Canadian accent.
Australian accents are my all-time favorite though. Cheerful, relaxed, lovely. :)
It's relatively infrequent, every once in awhile, I'll hear certain pronunciations in American southern accents or Australian accents that reveals age-old British accent roots. It's rather interesting.
I'm pretty sure you're specifically intending the mimic the generic corporate/West Coast/Midwestern non-accent American accents. That's like the way Americans talk on purpose when they want to avoid social judgment from other Americans. The way we talk when home with our families is rarely that.
There are a lot of different British and American accents, depending on which part of the country they're from. Some sound much better than others. I don't know much about Australian accents. Is there just one, or many different ones depending on their location?
I remember trying to watch Mad Max a long time ago. I didn't make it very far in the movie because I couldn't understand what they were saying most of the time. I find most American and British accents easier to understand, although there are a few that are harder.
I have a very specific one: 2nd generation asian american westcoast accent. They are neutral with very clear diction that is very easy to understand even to non-native english speakers.
It feels a bit like OP thinks all Brits sound like the inbred upper class fox hunters we see on tv. They have so many accents and variants of which many are far from elegant and proper.
American accents are like nails on a blackboard, and it doesn't help they are 10x louder than everyone else to the point where if you're in a crowded bar that so loud you can't hear the guy next to you, you can perfectly here the one American on the other side of the room.
And that's not an exaggeration, that's actual experience.
Hey, as an American I found that quite...ah, accurate.
It does vary by which part of the states you get someone from, but yes, apparently we get quite loud (if only to speak over our abundant amounts of cars and gunfire). And is charming as it can be to some, the variations in accents you find on the south and eastern areas in particular can get old quick.
All 3 accents span a broad range. You have people who sound posh or idiotic depending what regional accent they have. Even in the south of the US, you have high southern and hillbilly
FWIW, I'm in the PNW in America. The accent here is pretty flat. An Australian guy just got hired at my job and his accent is fun to listen to. Most of the world doesn't like Americans when they hear our accents, but Americans love brit and aussie accents