Listen to extracts from a TED Talk about the phenomenon of “English Mania”, and learn some differences between British and American English.

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Introduction

This full length podcast is about international English and pronunciation differences between American and British English. luketeacher@hotmail.com

Hello everyone and thanks for visiting my podcast page. I’ve now got a YouTube video page with a few videos on it. You can visit it here: Luke’s English Podcast on YouTube.

I recently uploaded a video on “16 Ways to Say I LIKE IT” and it’s been very popular. It’s already had nearly 500 views. I will upload more videos soon.

The feature section in this podcast is about English as an international language, or English Mania! Here is the video of Jay Walker talking about English Mania at a recent TED conference:
[ted id=”554″]

Here is the transcript to Jay’s presentation

Let’s talk about manias. Let’s start with Beatle mania. Hysterical teenagers, crying, screaming, pandemonium. Sports mania. Deafening crowds. All for one idea. Get the ball in the net. Okay, religious mania. There’s rapture. There’s weeping. There’s visions. Manias can be good. Manias can be alarming. Or manias can be deadly.

The world has a new mania. A mania for learning English. Listen as Chinese students practice their English by screaming it.

Teacher: … change my life!

Students: I will change my life.

T: I don’t want to let my parents down.

S: I don’t want to let my parents down.

T: I don’t ever want to let my country down.

S: I don’t ever want to let my country down.

T: Most importantly … S: Most importantly …

T: I don’t want to let myself down.

S: I don’t want to let myself down.

Jay Walker: How many people are trying to learn English worldwide? Two billion of them.

Students: A t-shirt. A dress.

JW: In Latin America, in India, in Southeast Asia, and most of all in China. If you are a Chinese student you start learning English in the third grade, by law. That’s why this year China will become the world’s largest English speaking country. (Laughter) Why English? In a single word: Opportunity. Opportunity for a better life, a job, to be able to pay for school, or put better food on the table. Imagine a student taking a giant test for three full days. Her score on this one test literally determines her future. She studies 12 hours a day for three years to prepare. 25 percent of her grade is based on English. It’s called the Gaokao. And 80 million high school Chinese students have already taken this grueling test. The intensity to learn English is almost unimaginable. Unless you witness it.

Teacher: Perfect! Students: Perfect!

T: Perfect! S: Perfect!

T: I want to speak perfect English.

S: I want to speak perfect English.

T: I want to speak — S: I want to speak —

T: perfect English. S: perfect English.

T: I want to change my life!

S: I want to change my life!

JW: So is English mania good or bad? Is English a tsunami, washing away other languages? Not likely. English is the world’s second language. Your native language is your life. But with English you can become part of a wider conversation. A global conversation about global problems. Like climate change or poverty. Or hunger or disease. The world has other universal languages. Mathematics is the language of science. Music is the language of emotions. And now English is becoming the language of problem solving. Not because America is pushing it. But because the world is pulling it. So English mania is a turning point. Like the harnessing of electricity in our cities, or the fall of the Berlin Wall, English represents hope for a better future. A future where the world has a common language to solve its common problems.

Thank you very much. (Applause)

British & American English

Here is a link to a Wikipedia page about differences between American and British pronunciation. It includes the information I gave, plus more information too: British and American Pronunciation Differences.

That’s it!

p.s. if any of you are American, or speak American English and you think my American pronunciation is bad – please let me know. Give me some feedback! You could send me an audio file, or a YouTube video or something.

Nicholas Cage’s bad English accent (he starts doing it at about 0:40)