Aya
Practice listening to RP English I have to practice listening to British Received Pronunciation to prepare for my university entrance examination. I have learned American English, so it was kind of confusing for me to listen to British accent. I looked for received pronunciation tutorials on YouTube, but they were a bit easy and focused on how to pronounce rather than practicing listening skills. Since I'm not a native English speaker, I can't tell RP accent from other accents. BBC News works for me, but I'd like to watch some fun videos for a change. Can you name some YouTubers who speak in RP accent for me? or how did you get used to listening to British accent?
Feb 12, 2019 3:56 PM
Answers · 8
3
RP today means speaking clearly irrespective of the accent or local dialect. The bad rumours you hear about only 2% to 5% of the British population speaking it, no longer applies. It refers to an ancient time when the only people who spoke like it, "received it from their privileged education". In later years it evolved into being "received correctly" by the listeners ear. And was associated with extreme "poshness and aloofness". Just aim to speak clearly and as fluently as possible. I doubt you absolutely must torture yourself and endure listening to hours and hours of RP "of the original first kind" to get into University.
February 12, 2019
2
This is difficult because british media organisations, like the BBC, are casting more people with regional dialects because this more accurately represents the British population. So even though there are many excellent BBC podcasts you can listen to, many of them will not be spoken in RP. I think this video is a good example of near-RP English in use by many different people - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPmtnb8NBog/. But it's not very fun!! Good luck in your search for further sources. I hope more people are able to offer further suggestions!
February 12, 2019
1
You can learn to speak using RP as a guide, but NOT for listening skills. If you can only understand RP, you will only understand about 5% of the British population .
February 12, 2019
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February 12, 2019
Are there not thousands of BBC audio programmes online? Sorry, not an expert atr "RP" or whatever. I guess I don't ever think "youtuber" and "standard" in the same sentence.. Could search "British comedy" - but you'll get a variety of accents, I guess.
February 12, 2019
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