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Shadowing practice: British Dialect Training for Auditions

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  1. Alright, so we are going to practice a very short scene with a British accent today.0:00
  2. It's very short, you only have four lines, but I want you to give your best performance with a British accent.0:04
  3. I will predict the feedback that I most likely would give you purely based on like thousands of hours of British dialect coaching that I've done.0:11
  4. This is your first line, you try it and then I'll give feedback.0:21
  5. Did you say daughter like daughter?0:32
  6. Remember it's a long or sound, daughter.0:36
  7. Not a short or sound, daughter.0:40
  8. My daughter, wrong.0:43
  9. My daughter is correct.0:44
  10. Full line, my daughter's in the ER.0:47
  11. You can choose the amount of drama you want to add to it, that's your choice.0:50
  12. But this is a very common problem for American actors trying to do the British accent with words containing the or sound that you tend to shorten it.0:54
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  1. Not really sure why.1:03
  2. For example, daughter, water, shorter and so on.1:05
  3. You get the idea.1:10
  4. Okay, your next line is this, try it.1:11
  5. I'm going to guess that you went full cockney with this.1:19
  6. Bottle of water.1:23
  7. I know it's a meme now to do the bottle of water mate, bottle of water.1:24
  8. But trust me, if you go to an audition with a cockney accent, you will not get the part.1:29
  9. Especially if anyone in the casting room is English.1:36
  10. For us, it ruins the illusion because unless you've grown up in a cockney environment or known someone with a thick cockney accent, you won't get it right.1:40
  11. Just trust me, you won't.1:51
  12. It's not something you can learn from a book or a video like this.1:52
  13. Yes, you can learn the characteristics, the aspects of it, but you really need to be immersed in the cockney world to get it perfect.1:55
  14. So how do you make the teas natural?2:05
  15. Great question.2:07
  16. It's better and more natural to have a mix.2:09
  17. Some true teas, some glottal teas.2:12
  18. So one example, she got hit by a bottle of water.2:15
  19. Notice I glottalized this tea and this tea, but kept this and this true tea.2:19
  20. Bottle of water.2:25
  21. Got hit.2:27
  22. Bottle of water.2:28
  23. It's way more natural to have a mix.2:30
  24. Some glottal teas, some true teas.2:33
  25. Mix it up.2:35
  26. Don't have all glottal teas, don't have all true teas.2:36
  27. That sounds weird.2:39
  28. Okay, your next line is this.2:40
  29. Try it.2:42
  30. Okay, this word contains this sound.2:46
  31. Oh, I don't know if it's because of my job.2:51
  32. I've developed a sensitive ear for these things, but when I hear an American actor say this word wrong or a British actor say this word wrong with an American2:54
  33. accent, it ruins the illusion for me and takes me out of the moment.3:04
  34. Americans, you say this more smoothly.3:09
  35. There's less movement in the mouth and the lips.3:11
  36. Don't.3:13
  37. But in a British accent, it's much more pronounced.3:14
  38. Quite literally, your mouth will move more.3:18
  39. You'll see more movement between the sounds.3:20
  40. Don't.3:24
  41. Don't.3:25
  42. I'm exaggerating, but to show you.3:26
  43. Don't.3:29
  44. Don't.3:29
  45. See, my jaw's opening more.3:30
  46. My mouth's opening more.3:32
  47. There's more of a difference to show you that this is a diphthong.3:33
  48. Oh.3:38
  49. Two sounds.3:39
  50. American, don't.3:41
  51. British, don't.3:42
  52. The full sentence, I don't want to go.3:45
  53. So if you said it like, I don't want to go, it's really a muscle in your mouth that you have to train.3:48
  54. What I'd like you to practice is really exaggerating that sound.3:54
  55. Don't.3:59
  56. Don't.3:59
  57. Open your mouth until it feels more natural, until you can feel the sound.4:00
  58. Don't.4:05
  59. Don't.4:06
  60. I don't want to go.4:07
  61. See?4:11
  62. All right.4:11
  63. Also be careful with the glottal T's here.4:12
  64. The glottal T here is okay.4:15
  65. I don't.4:17
  66. Fine.4:18
  67. One.4:20
  68. Maybe no.4:21
  69. Don't put a glottal T there.4:22
  70. I don't want a go.4:23
  71. No.4:25
  72. There's too many glottal stops there.4:26
  73. I don't want to go.4:28
  74. Sounds more natural.4:29
  75. I don't want to go.4:31
  76. Your final line.4:32
  77. We don't say this word the same as you.4:37
  78. We contract Terry to treat.4:40
  79. Military.4:43
  80. Not military.4:45
  81. At least not yet.4:47
  82. Possibly in the future we might change our pronunciation because we copy you for everything.4:49
  83. Like we've already started copying you with the way we say better.4:54
  84. This is better.4:58
  85. Our T is becoming more similar to your D sound.4:59
  86. So maybe in a few years we'll say it like, yeah, I'm going to the military.5:04
  87. But not yet.5:09
  88. Also, you know that our R sound is not the same as yours, right?5:10
  89. So we turn this R into a schwa.5:15
  90. It's an uh sound.5:19
  91. Very lazy.5:20
  92. Safer.5:21
  93. Not safer.5:22
  94. But because that next word begins with a vowel sound in, we connect that R sound.5:24
  95. Safer in.5:31
  96. When there's a vowel sound after a R, yeah, we say that R.5:33
  97. Otherwise, no.5:37
  98. Schwa.5:38
  99. But safer in.5:39
  100. Safer in.5:41
  101. The full line.5:43
  102. She was safer in the military.5:45
  103. Okay, so let's practice this whole scene together.5:47
  104. I will be a doctor working in the thing and you will be the concerned parent, I guess.5:49
  105. I'll say my line.5:55
  106. You say your lines.5:56
  107. Yes, can I help you?6:03
  108. In the ER you say, wow, okay, what happened to her?6:07
  109. What's her name?6:10
  110. It's crazy.6:14
  111. Crazy people out there.6:15
  112. You should go home, get some rest.6:17
  113. We'll contact you if you need to come back for anything.6:19
  114. So it's our policy.6:24
  115. Um, you're gonna have to leave.6:26
  116. I don't know what you want me to say.6:33
  117. And scene.6:35
  118. Congratulations.6:36
  119. How did you do?6:37
  120. Let me know in the comments.6:38
  121. If you want more practice with this, I've developed a whole British pronunciation course.6:39
  122. It's free.6:43
  123. You don't have to pay.6:44
  124. You can, but you don't have to.6:46
  125. In this course, you develop your own natural -sounding British pronunciation style.6:48
  126. So if you want to sound more cockney, this will show you how.6:52
  127. If you want to sound more posh, this has all the tools you need.6:56
  128. So it's free.7:00
  129. What can I say?7:02
  130. You can get it on my website, papatichme .com.7:02
  131. There's a link in the description.7:05
  132. I'll see you in the next class.7:06
  133. Bye.7:08

Accent Coaching for a Four Line Audition Script: English Speaking Practice at 190 Words a Minute

This clip is a lecture, not a scene. A British accent coach runs an actor through a short four line audition script and predicts, then corrects, exactly how each line will be said wrong. It is built for english speaking practice because the lesson's subject and the material you repeat are the same thing. The pace sits at 190 words per minute, faster than 52 percent of the catalogue, and the CEFR level is B2, so you should already follow spoken English before starting this one.

The coach's method is predict, then correct, then re demonstrate. He warns the actor before the line even starts: "Did you say daughter like daughter?" then names the fix directly: "Remember it's a long or sound, daughter." and confirms it again with "Not a short or sound, daughter." That three step pattern, wrong sound named, correct sound named, full line repeated in "Full line, my daughter's in the ER.", is what makes this clip worth working through line by line rather than watching once.

British English Pronunciation Practice: The Long "or" and the Glottal T

Two sound problems carry this lesson, and both are named on screen rather than left for you to guess: the long "or" vowel American actors flatten, and the glottal stop that turns a British accent into a cockney one if overused. The coach treats cockney as a trap, not a goal, and warns "But trust me, if you go to an audition with a cockney accent, you will not get the part."

  • "Did you say daughter like daughter?" and "Remember it's a long or sound, daughter." Long vowel, not the shortened American version.
  • "I know it's a meme now to do the bottle of water mate, bottle of water." Cockney played for a laugh, then corrected.
  • "So one example, she got hit by a bottle of water." A natural mix of true and glottal t, said once in full.

English Shadowing Practice for This B2 Audition Lecture

Work the clip in the order the coach built it, not straight through as background audio.

  • Start at "Did you say daughter like daughter?" and shadow just that fix until the long "or" sound feels automatic, then move to "My daughter is correct." and finally the full "Full line, my daughter's in the ER."
  • Read "But this is a very common problem for American actors trying to do the British accent with words containing the or sound that you tend to shorten it." aloud once before you try to imitate it, so you hear the coach naming the exact mistake you are about to avoid.
  • Shadow "Bottle of water." on its own several times, then attempt "So one example, she got hit by a bottle of water." and listen for where the t turns glottal and where it stays a true t.
  • Skip the meme line for pronunciation drilling. It exists to be recognised, not repeated, since the coach immediately warns against the accent it represents.
  • Finish by running all four corrected lines back to back, coach's fix included, to check the improve your english accent habit actually holds across a full sentence and not just a single word.
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