I want to speak like Richard Dawkins
Questions and advice about everyday life, from post office opening times to eBay queries or what to buy your loved one for their birthday.
| Announcements | Posted on | |
|---|---|---|
| Advice on Everyday Issues needs new moderators - please nominate! | 12-06-2013 | |
-
- Reputation:
- Banned
- Location: Leicester
- Warning points: 1000
Re: I want to speak like Richard Dawkins(Original post by Bellissima)
david attenborough
Stephen Fry, checkmate. -
- Reputation:
- Benevolent Member
- Location: The Ether
- Posts: 685
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsI had a North American accent for a while, due to living in Canada as a child. I wanted to change it, so I listened to Radio 4 and other similar things, and just practised speaking differently. My old accent is totally gone now without a trace!
-
- Reputation:
- TSR Idol
- Location: Solihull
- Posts: 9,155
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsThis can't be trumped. Thread over.(Original post by Bellissima)
david attenborough
Patrick Stewart makes it a close run thing though.
Edit: And Christopher Lee -
- Reputation:
- TSR Demigod
- Location: your mum | Posts: 109,543
Re: I want to speak like Richard Dawkinsnooooooo way... attenborough cannot be beaten.(Original post by Oh my Ms. Coffey)
Stephen Fry, checkmate. -
- Reputation:
- Thread Starter
- Respected Member
- Posts: 185
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsI am a northerner so surely that gives me the privilege of being allowed to criticise my fellow northerners, in much the same way that black people can use certain racial slurs without generating offence. Or am I a traitor to the cause?
I do actually like the north by the way. I prefer Dawkin's voice to all the others people have listed.
Last edited by BACTSR2; 11-05-2012 at 23:58. -
- Reputation:
- Banned
- Location: China
- Posts: 1,238
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsI have succesfully changed my accent.(Original post by BACTSR2)
I have a slight Hull accent and it's keeping me back, socially, especially when I'm living abroad.
How feasible is it to change one's accent? I'm 21 years old. I know you can get lessons, but I imagine I would have to move to London especially for them, which would be a real pain and would mean waiting another year. Don't get me wrong, I'm a proud Yorkshireman but I don't think coming across as rough will put me in good standing. I think it might help my job prospects if I can speak correctly, as well.
Taken me about 5/6 years, but I am happy I did it. -
- Reputation:
- Peer Of The TSR Realm
- Location: London
- Posts: 1,945
Re: I want to speak like Richard Dawkins(Original post by najinaji)
'Nuff said.
Or alternatively, Sir Ian Mckellen as Gandalf:
Yoouuuu Shalllll not Passssss!!!!!!!Last edited by Blutooth; 12-05-2012 at 16:59. -
- Reputation:
- TSR Deity
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsI resemble that remark.(Original post by Bellissima)
richard dawkings voice isn't anything special... he sounds like the well spoken skinny know it all a the back of the class... -
- Reputation:
- Exalted and Worshipped Member
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsA bit too effeminate/frail for my liking. Sounds like an elderly primary school teacher. Prince Charles sounded much better presenting the weather.(Original post by TheSownRose)
versus
Please, there's no contest. Morgan Freeman has a nice enough voice, but it's not what I listen to when I want to be relaxed and fall asleep...
-
- Reputation:
- Peer Of The TSR Realm
- Posts: 1,778
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsListen and repeat. Every day. For years.(Original post by BACTSR2)
I have a slight Hull accent and it's keeping me back, socially, especially when I'm living abroad.
How feasible is it to change one's accent? I'm 21 years old. I know you can get lessons, but I imagine I would have to move to London especially for them, which would be a real pain and would mean waiting another year. Don't get me wrong, I'm a proud Yorkshireman but I don't think coming across as rough will put me in good standing. I think it might help my job prospects if I can speak correctly, as well.
It works. I changed my accent from General American to RP when I moved to the UK. Took me a few years to get it completely right but it's absolutely possible. Although I must say Richard Dawkins in particular speaks a very old fashioned type of RP. I have roughly the same accent as Prince Harry (which is still RP but a lot less "posh" to use the common word) and still get dirty looks all the time when I go up north in the summer. I imagine if I had Dawkins's accent or the Archbishop of Canterbury's the Northerners would just spit at me... -
- Reputation:
- Adored and Respected Member
- Location: Islington
- Posts: 537
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsErrh nerrh! Imagine what yer sound like on fern curls.(Original post by BACTSR2)
I have a slight Hull accent and it's keeping me back, socially, especially when I'm living abroad.
How feasible is it to change one's accent? I'm 21 years old. I know you can get lessons, but I imagine I would have to move to London especially for them, which would be a real pain and would mean waiting another year. Don't get me wrong, I'm a proud Yorkshireman but I don't think coming across as rough will put me in good standing. I think it might help my job prospects if I can speak correctly, as well. -
- Reputation:
- TSR Demigod
- Posts: 6,966
- Warning points: 10
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsHe is. All the time. On TSR.(Original post by ROYP)
Richard Dawkins sounds like he's having his arse tickled -
- Reputation:
- Vengeful, Imperial Overlord of The Student Room
- Location: Swindon
- Posts: 3,714
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsTosser, it doesn't matter what accent you have if you know what you're doing.
Sick of these pretentious dickheads "I want a cool accent"
Not to mention you can tell when an accent is put on. -
- Reputation:
- TSR Demigod
- Posts: 6,477
Re: I want to speak like Richard DawkinsInteresting.(Original post by somethingbeautiful)
Depends, I'm Northern and working class but people interpret me as middle class and cannot distinguish my hometown based on my accent (in most cases). I speak with a very soft accent, not a broad one. See the difference between the way that Noel Gallagher (especially in the 90's) speaks and the way that Morrissey speaks. Both are Mancunians and working class but Morrissey sound's less broad, I think he is more well read than Gallagher and I think education really is a big factor in accent. For example, at uni, most people develop a non-distinct accent (I don't know if it's a conscious decision for everyone) and they are around lots of people from different places. But if you're working class and never went to college/uni and you work on a building site or something then you're usually surrounded by locals and your accent broadens.
In school we were told to pick up our H's like in "'ave you 'eard the new 'arry Potter film is....'', and pronounce words fully, so instead of ''yv'' it should be 'you've' (or even 'you have'!). 'Yes' instead of 'yeh'. There are so many more but I'd probably end up writing an essay
. So yes, you can still be Northern and not be 'chavvy' but chavs do tend to have the broadest and unintelligible accent because they just don't give a toss whether people can or can't understand them and they seem to have no idea that their accent has class connotations.
So while I would argue that everyone who is a chav has a broad accent that doesn't mean to say that everyone with a broad accent is a chav. It like one of those logic brain warm ups - 'if all cats have eyes does that mean that everything that has eyes is a cat?' No, it does not.
I think I'd be
because I couldn't understand the dialect 
I do actually like the north by the way. I prefer Dawkin's voice to all the others people have listed.
. So yes, you can still be Northern and not be 'chavvy' but chavs do tend to have the broadest and unintelligible accent because they just don't give a toss whether people can or can't understand them and they seem to have no idea that their accent has class connotations.
because I couldn't understand the dialect 
