Do some people speak with a half-british half-american accent?
Of course. Happens all the time. From personal experience, I've met people with mixed accents heaps. For instance, I know this guy that lived in Australia till he was 10, then lived in Canada for 6 years and came back sounding.. different. Not SO different you couldn't tell he was Australian, but enough that certain words and vowels he said were obviously different sounding. Same thing again happened with my best friend also who came from England (Yorkshire) when she was 11. When I first met her, she had a really strong accent. Now, we are both 19 and she sounds MOSTLY Australian, with a clear hint of an English accent. She says many words differently to how I say them still, but mostly if anyone had met her, first impressions are mostly that she was born here. It's only when you get to know her more you hear the obvious English in her voice. Also, when she's around her family too, her English slang and accent seems to come out a lot more, but even then she still sounds at least 60% Australian to me. But also, please remember though, these people came/went to these places at pretty young ages. When you are young, it is more likely your accent will change but the older you get, it gets less likely to happen. While my friend sounds different, her parents don't sound any different at all from when I first met them.
Why are the British able to speak with American accents so flawlessly with seemingly little effort?
As an American who watches British TV all the time, I can assure you that this is not the case. Brits who do American TV tend to have pretty good American accents, the same cannot be said for Brits who do British TV (it goes the other way, too - major props to Kyle Soller in Poldark). For one thing, the vocal coach is more likely to be American. More importantly, the accent has to be good because American viewers will have more familiarity/higher expectations for American accents.Some issues I often hear with fake American accents:hard consonants where they shouldn’t be (eg “letter” instead of “ledder”).vocal placement too far forward in the mouth (the voice is placed differently depending on the region)Over-pronounced Rs (we pronounce our Rs unlike some British accents, but many actors go too far in the other direction and really harden those rs. It sticks out.Do generic accents (eg, “a British accent”) without any real idea what they’re supposed to be. With any accent: do your research. What state is your accent from? What part of the state? There are some pretty big regional differences.Slip ups with words that are pronounced differently (massage, pasta, aluminum, etc etc etc).Remember, accents are hard work!
Do American people can understand British accent?
well, I'm not sure what language you used to ask this question, because I'm not familiar with it.
Would you rather speak fluent English with an American accent or a British accent, and why?
I'm Nigerian. We were colonised by the British and gained our independence in 1960. So for a period of years the ideal has been to speak with A British accent Queen's English (as against Jordy, Yorkshire, Scottish, Irish or Welsh accents) and many variations of the English painted by our various traditional dialects. (There's a tribe that interchanges P with F. Our Fresident is from that tribe). Another one always mix up the positions of L and N. Melly of them have been to Nodon in UK.Now in the recent past, 20 years or so, there has been a rise in Americanism in our country. Maybe linked to the rise in Pentecostalism which seemed to originate in America, the ubiquitous use of Personal computers, Microsoft products and networking equipment. And we've found ourselves saying things like Side Walk (American) as against Pavement (British), R-OUT- TER (router) as against ROOTER and “correcting” our learned British spellings with American English default MSWord spell checker. We do still “correct” the date back to dd/mm/yyyy format as whatever Bill Gates and his friends put in Windows does not make sense to us and our children.Our youth do use a lot of American slangs from the influence of hiphop music videos but I can't tell if that is the default American English as used by Americans, if it is the cool English used by the cool Guys ( Lads & Lasses), or if it is any form of English we should teach in schools. Quora English seems largely American but then we can't hear the pronunciation.So it is a mix for us here and it's getting more confusing in our meetings and official documents. After watching the movie, My Fair Lady, a couple of times as a kid, I remain British biased and would pass this on to my children.
As a non English person, is it OK for me to speak American accent? Do Americans or British don't like it when the latter speak with their accent?
I agree with Lara. Speak with the accent you have. Work on your pronunciation as much as you can. What Americans and the British don't like is when you try to speak like them and get the accent wrong. They will either think you are being a phony or are making fun of them. For example, I don't think the British have ever forgiven the American actor Dick van Dyke for using a British cockney accent in the Disney movie 'Mary Poppins' and getting it wrong. This marred an otherwise stellar performance. It might even have cost him the Oscar he was nominated for. He lost to British actor Rex Harrison for 'My Fair Lady'; which is a movie about accents and speaking English properly. Despite the fact that van Dyke had a lot more to do and did a high quality level of dancing and singing in his part; which was a much more demanding role that Harrison's. At best Harrison could do a sort of talk singing, not the best for an actor in a musical. This audience annoyance is the case with many actors that attempt certain accents in certain movies and just don't get it right. It would have been better for them to use their own voice. The audience can suspend disbelief when they hear someone speaking in an accent other than what the character would use, much easier than they can forgive an annoying attempt at an accent.
Why do Filipinos speak with American accents?
Yes...what is your problem? The Philippine English is based on who has occupied them the longest.They do not do it to be cool or "try to do that general american accent" to sound more acceptable for the sake of the almighty americans.FFS grow up !
Is it possible to be able to speak both British English and American English? I mean, to master these two accents and not get confused? I want to learn them both and shift between the two accents freely. Is that possible?
yes, I used to sing with an American woman who had spent some time in the UK. When in the presence of British people, a she spoke as they did, and the rest of the time (in America) she spoke American. I've also worked with many people spoke standard American English at work, and when off work, spoke as they did in the neighborhoods where they grew up and lived. You don't say whether you natively speak either. A lot depends on your own facility in identifying and mimicking two sets of related but different pronunciations, and also differences in local idioms and usage. For example elevator, eraser, and gas (gasoline) in American are respectively, lift, rubber, and petrol in British. Singers who sing in different languages tend to be good at this. It would be helpful to work with a language coach or even a speech pathologist who does this. Part of doing it successfully includes vocal placement. American English vowels can sometimes sit in the throat, whereas British English vowels tend to have a higher, more forward, and nasal resonance/production, with many consonants (r,d,t ) more on the tip of the tongue. A good study tool is to actively listen to people who speak each and identify the differences and record yourself to hear/study what you sound like doing each. Good luck.