GAFlyer4Fun wrote:.. it is becoming impossible for others to learn proper English irrespective of their origins.
In my youth and learning foreign languages I recall the importance of getting the pronunciation correct .. we seem to be getting sloppy with English.
A topic which interests me as a nomad, but for the same reason I am loth to criticise, or to define anything comprehensible but outside others' norms as 'wrong', let alone to ascribe it (as some seem to do) to 'laziness'. A narrow interpretation of 'proper' and 'correct' pronunciation of English is a relatively recent phenomenon, occasioned by the technology of broadcasting and 'the talkies'. The latter, especially Hollywood from '30s on, also had the opposite effect of making American pronunciations go from 'exotic' through 'trendy' to 'acceptable and even normal'.
Shakespeare gently mocked 'Fluellen' for his Welsh accent, but was himself mocked in London for his Midlands one. Lloyd George and Ramsey Macdonald were mocked by political opponents for their Welsh and Scots ones, and more recently Brian Mawhinney and Kate Hoey for their Ulster ones, even within their own (UK national) political Parties.
A cassette tape sent by us in '80s from US to grandparents at Christmas showed that our then small children then had US accents. They then progressed (via Canadian!) through Gloucestershire ones at school to approximate 'British RP' ones. The one now in NSW sounds a bit Australian to us while (I'm sure) sounding distinctly Brit to Australians. But I expect my children's French is still tinged with Canadian, as mine is (having been Swiss in my childhood). And I've probably lost all my Liverpool, but it might well come back if I were to resettle there.
(mere guide at) Jet Age Museum, Gloucestershire Airport
http://www.jetagemuseum.org/TripAdvisor Excellence Award 2015
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction ... gland.html