Heya!

 

I'd like to ask for help anyone who speaks British English (and has a Scottish, Welsh or Irish accent).

The thing is that I have my final exams in May and June and I need to do them well in order to leave high school and get to the university. One of the exams is also English - and there are two exercices that include hearing comprehension. And my teacher said that they often put a voice recording with people from various parts of the English world with different accents (and of course they speak really quick).

And me, being quite bad at understanding people with accents, would like to practise more. So I'd be very happy and grateful to anyone who'd tape his/her voice and write what he's talking about (it can be an advertisement or news, whatever actually) and send the file to my e-mail.

I really don't know where could I find what I need but here, so please, help me! :)

Thanks!

i'm swiss so i cant help you much.

 

maybe this link helps you a bit.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/index.shtml

 

try to listen to non-british accents, theres accents that are a lot harder to understand than the ones you'll find in britain i suppose.

thank you for the link! I'll check it out and i hope i'll find something useful. :) and thanks for the advice.

Yar

I suggest you check out some "Jafaican" or "Mockney". That should do the trick!!:P

I suggest you check out some "Jafaican" or "Mockney". That should do the trick!!:P

 

whats mockney?

whats mockney?

 

Fake "cockney"!!:rolleyes:

No can do sorry...

lol I realised that the site's a lot huger than i thought it to be... :D

I suggest you check out some "Jafaican" or "Mockney". That should do the trick!!:P

 

:laugh3: Jafaican...I've never heard that before. Is that like AliG?

:laugh3: Jafaican...I've never heard that before. Is that like AliG?

 

Yup. There was even a thread about it.;)

'Jafaican' is wiping out inner-city English accents

 

by LAURA CLARK, Daily Mail - More by this author » Last updated at 11:50am on 12th April 2006 Comments (29)

Comedian Ali G: Uses his own colourful version of Jafaican

 

 

 

If you struggle to understand Cockney, Brummie, Geordie and Scouse, then stand by for an even bigger challenge.

It's called Jafaican and, slowly but surely, it is infiltrating the English language.

The multicultural hybrid, based on Jamaican but with undertones of West African and Indian, is not a totally new concept, of course. Ali G has been delivering his comic routines in his own colourful variant of it for some years.

But linguistic experts say it is becoming so common in the inner cities that it is beginning to eclipse traditional accents.

In some London boroughs, for instance, it has taken over from Cockney, the prevailing accent for generations, as inner-city white youths pick up the speech patterns of their black and Asian classmates. More than four out of ten London residents are now from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The Jafaican name, conveying the idea of 'fake Jamaican', was coined on the streets rather than in the research rooms. The academics prefer 'multicultural English'. But the message is constant.

"People are beginning to sound the same regardless of their colour or ethnic background," said Sue Fox, of London University's Queen Mary College, who is studying the phenomenon.

She ruled out suggestions that the language is simply the result of white youngsters trying to be cool.

"It's not about that at all," she said.

"It seems more likely that young people have been growing up in London exposed to a mixture of second-language English and local London English and that this new variety has emerged from that mix."

Miss Fox and co-researchers from Lancaster University are analysing the speech patterns of dozens of teenagers at colleges in inner and outer London.

Youngsters have been interviewed and observed talking to their friends over a ten-month period.

What has emerged is a distinctive inner-London patois which borrows heavily from Jamaican creole, lifting some words unchanged.

But it has been influenced by other speech patterns, mainly Bangladeshi and West African, with a little South American and Arab thrown in.

An analysis of vowel sounds has shown the traditional long Cockney vowels are becoming shorter. The word 'face' sounds like 'fice' in cockney but more like 'fehs' in Jafaican.

"Our sample includes teenagers with West Indian, South American, Arab, West African and London backgrounds," said Miss Fox.

"In London in the post-war years lots of white working-class Cockney families moved out to satellite towns such as Basildon and Harlow. In their place, we have got this huge mix of different ethnic groups."

While the study is currently focussed on London, Miss Fox believes a similar pattern will be emerging in other cities.

In Bristol recently, police used Ali G-style patois on placards warning young people to curb their antisocial behaviour. They insisted they were merely reflecting the language of target groups.

Understanding Jafaican

 

Last updated at 10:02am on 11th April 2006 Comments (1)

 

See our guide to speaking Jafaican below:

creps — trainers

yard — home

yoot — child/ children

blud/ bredren/ bruv — mate

ends — area, estate or neighbourhood (as in "what ends you from?")

low batties — trousers that hang low on the waist

skets — derogatory term for loose girls

bitch — girlfriend

nang — good (as in "rah, das 'nuff nang!"

meaning "wow, that's really good!"

sick — good

hype — hype things up, increase status

jamming — hanging around

begging — talking rubbish

chat — talk back, contradict (as in "don't chat to me!")

bare — very, a lot (as in "I'm bare hungry")

nuff — really, very

i'm swiss so i cant help you much.

 

maybe this link helps you a bit.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/index.shtml

 

try to listen to non-british accents, theres accents that are a lot harder to understand than the ones you'll find in britain i suppose.

Yay this site will be helpful for me too..I still haven't decided which english exam to take yet..TOEFL or IELTS...any suggestion?

Understanding Jafaican

 

Last updated at 10:02am on 11th April 2006 Comments (1)

 

See our guide to speaking Jafaican below:

creps — trainers

yard — home

yoot — child/ children

blud/ bredren/ bruv — mate

ends — area, estate or neighbourhood (as in "what ends you from?")

low batties — trousers that hang low on the waist

skets — derogatory term for loose girls

bitch — girlfriend

nang — good (as in "rah, das 'nuff nang!"

meaning "wow, that's really good!"

sick — good

hype — hype things up, increase status

jamming — hanging around

begging — talking rubbish

chat — talk back, contradict (as in "don't chat to me!")

bare — very, a lot (as in "I'm bare hungry")

nuff — really, very

 

I'm going to try to incorporate this into my vocabulary :laugh3:

I'm going to try to incorporate this into my vocabulary :laugh3:

 

Do you get "Jafaicans" north of the border??:confused:

Maybe you'll be the first, innit!!:P

I can help because I have a nice fake british accent :cry:

I can help because I have a nice fake british accent :cry:

 

Well Joss Stone has an awful fake American accent!!:P

oh god she does! :stunned:

 

We don't really get jafaicans no. But yeah I think i might be the first....i could teach it! :scholar:

oh god she does! :stunned:

 

Did you see her on the Brits?? It was ludicrous!!

 

We don't really get jafaicans no. But yeah I think i might be the first....i could teach it! :scholar:

 

On the streets of Glasgee? You'd probably end up getting a Glaswegian kiss!!:rolleyes:

Understanding Jafaican

 

Last updated at 10:02am on 11th April 2006 Comments (1)

 

See our guide to speaking Jafaican below:

creps — trainers

yard — home

yoot — child/ children

blud/ bredren/ bruv — mate

ends — area, estate or neighbourhood (as in "what ends you from?")

low batties — trousers that hang low on the waist

skets — derogatory term for loose girls

bitch — girlfriend

nang — good (as in "rah, das 'nuff nang!"

meaning "wow, that's really good!"

sick — good

hype — hype things up, increase status

jamming — hanging around

begging — talking rubbish

chat — talk back, contradict (as in "don't chat to me!")

bare — very, a lot (as in "I'm bare hungry")

nuff — really, very

 

well i've actually heard some of that.

well i've actually heard some of that.

 

In that case, you must have been mixing with "Jafaicans"!!:P

In that case, you must have been mixing with "Jafaicans"!!:P

 

nope. isnt it just normal that people use some jamaican expressions in an area where many people from the caribbean live?

nope. isnt it just normal that people use some jamaican expressions in an area where many people from the carribean live?

 

Were you in a place like that, then?

yeah there were pretty many people from the caribbean.