What does a "correct" English accent sound like?

This question comes up a lot.  Lots of English language learners feel that "British English" is the "authentic" or "original" version of English and that the "British Accent" is the best way to speak English.

Most people are familiar with "Received Pronunciation" - this is the kind of accent that you might have heard on recordings when you are learning English or on the BBC when listening to or watching the news.  For many years, it was considered to the sign of a good education and broadcasters like the BBC only used journalists with this accent.  You can watch the video below to find out some more about Received Pronunciation:

Of course, Received Pronunciation is just one of the big family of British accents.  Think of bands like the Arctic Monkeys (from Sheffield), the Beatles (from Liverpool), Oasis (Manchester), none of whom use Received Pronunciation.    Here are some videos giving examples of some other accents you can find in the British Isles:

And what about Shakespeare????

Shakespeare is often performed with very formal Received Pronunciation, so it would be easy to think that people in Shakespeare's time spoke like that.  But if you look carefully, you'll notice that a lot of rhymes in Shakespeare's plays don't rhyme.  For example, here's the prologue to Romeo and Juliet:

Two households, both alike in dignity
(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage—
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

According to the rhyme scheme used here "scene" should rhyme with "unclean" and "love" with "remove".  But in modern English (and received pronunciation) they don't rhyme!

Can you think of a way of pronouncing "scene" and "unclean" or "love" and "remove" so that they rhyme???

Here's another example from the final scene of Romeo and Juliet:

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Do "head" and "punished" rhyme???

Take a look at this video which explains how one of the world's most famous Linguistics Professors, David Crystal and his son, Ben Crystal (an actor who specialises in recreating Shakespeare's original language and theatrical practice) worked out how Shakespeare's lines were originally pronounced.

So, if you are a language learner - what does all of this mean?

First of all, try to listen to recordings of different accents.  This will help you when it comes to doing Listening exams (even Cambridge exams now use a variety of accents).

Secondly, if you have the chance to travel to an English speaking country, don't limit yourself to the typical trip to London, Kent or Brighton.  Try other places, like Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and even... Scotland and Ireland.  In fact, why limit yourself to the British Isles???!!