What's the easier accent for Germans to learn- British or American?

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Alwin E

As a German, I'm happily speaking a mixture of both. School education is aimed at a British accent rather than an American one, although I think that's stupid, if you compare the population of Britain to that of America. -- But, on the other hand, WHICH American accent exactly should we take to teach the children?

I think, in conversation, you automatically adapt to the accents of the persons you often talk to. You even do that within your own language; I brought some "Berlinerisch" back home to Bavaria after I had lived there for a while.

Also, I think only the most talented will ever succeed in speaking a foreign language without their own accent. I guess I'm pretty good at it (even in French, which was really, really hard to learn for me and took me a lot of practice), but even if people don't recognize your home country immediately, they hear that there's "something strange". I usually let people guess where I'm from. Usually it's something like "Scotland", "southern France", or, mostly, "Italy". One guy once said "Russia", but I guess he was joking.

And why must it be British or American at all? Why don't they teach Australian English? I'm listening to Australian radio stations on the net quite frequently, and I like that accent.

Don't tell my boss I'm on here

Persoanlly I think American English would be slightly easier to learn. The reason for this is that American English spells a lot of words how they sound - Like Center would make more sense than Centre, and Color would make more sense than Colour.

However I don't think there would be a huge difference as most of the words are spelled the same.

Alex K

No doubt- American is much easier to learn because of its pronouncing. Americans don't "eat" vocals

Miss USA 2009

An American accent

alexandra p

ok i'm german and i learned british english in school and had a hard time never was really good. then i got married to an american and i think is way easier to learn american english.

beppi

Most Germans speak English with a distinctly German accent.
Nominally, British English is taught at schools in Germany (but almost none of the English teachers are native speakers, because civil servants must have German citizenship).

celebrate_me_home_2000

What american accent?

Not English speaking . . . an accent . . .

It is easier to learn a British Accent. You can hear the phonetics.

If you live hear, (I am an american.) Americans sound, in general, like they are chewing gum when they talk. I am sorry, but I guess I have been living here too long. That is what is sounds like.

IN terms of SPEAKING English, I think Germans feel more comfortable speaking "no accent" English which would be probably closer to california style of speaking without all the "valley girl" jargon. I guess you can classify that as "American" English. Most Germans carry a heavy German accent with their English abilities. Often say things a little backwards.

Like:

Are you going there?

Go you there? (german)

Kind of falls into the format of German speaking.

Germans carry a accent of their own. My oldest son speaks fluent German and English. He does not speak with a German accent in his English. In fact, he probably sounds like he comes from California. I am from Hawaii, but I studied in California. His German leans towards Schwabish, but he hids it pretty well because he studies at the university. My younger sons all speak with heavy southern German accents for our region which is Schwaben and with German accents when they speak English.

I am going to be teaching ESL for several different schools this coming year. I will learn more about how germans evolve in their English speaking abilities.

Lory

I guess that the American accent would be easier (I learned that one) and it's also not as noticeable if you don't get it right (not that anyone ever loses their accent completely). In my opinion, someone trying to speak 'British' who isn't sounds a bit silly. I'd definitively go with the American English.

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