Daily Archives: 7 Dec 2015

A tour of the British Isles in accents

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Have you ever talked to a British native speaker and wondered why you didn’t understand them at all? I bet you have. That’s because there are so many different accents on the British Isles. Here’s a video that demonstrates some of them.

It starts with RP, or Received Pronunciation, which is the kind of ‘standard English’ that corresponds with “Hochdeutsch” in German. The next thing is Cockney, the traditional working-class Londoners’ accent, and then the speaker sweeps up and down the map at a speed of nearly one accent per sentence. Have fun!

© Andrew Jack, taken from YouTube

Across the UK on a train

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Your train route

There are 28 different rail operators in the UK. Here’s an announcement for a cross-country train operated by Virgin Trains.


And here’s a rail map so you can follow the train on its way through England. Take a note of all the station names you hear and find out where the train is going, and where it departs from.

Asking for information

Download and solve this task sheet. You will have to find questions for the answers given.