Today you will learn some resources for becoming familiar with Canadian accents, so that you can understand IELTS Listening exam audio. Go to allearsenglish.com/keys to get the 3 Keys IELTS system for every IELTS Exam.
Today we’re talking about Canada!
I love Canada - I lived in the province of Quebec for a couple of years and that is where I first discovered my love for teaching ESL.
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We have YouTube videos explaining why it is important to prepare for accents, and Jessica has posted videos with resources for British and Australian accents.
A subscriber commented on one of our YouTube videos asking for resources for Canadian accents.
You could hear a Canadian accent in the audio of the Listening section.
The good news is it will be fairly similar to our accent here in the United States.
However, there are definitely some differences!
When I first moved to Canada, I noticed right away that they use a lot of different names for things.
For example, in the United States we call knitted winter hats beanies and Canadians call them toques.
Also they have one dollar coins they call loonies and two dollar coins they call toonies.
Canada does have different accents. Most Canadians will tell you that Alberta has an accent and Toronto has an accent, but they are subtle enough that many English speakers just think of Canadians as all having the same accent.
Most Canada natives have what’s called Canadian Raising, where the diphthong in “how” is raised before s, t and other voiceless consonants.
For example, in words like about and house. For most Canadian accents, about sounds like a-boat. But in Toronto it sounds like ‘a-beh-oot’, while in Western Canada it’s ‘a-buh-oot’). For words like pasta and Mazda, Canadians often use a short a like in “cat” for the first vowel sound - pasta, Mazda. They’ll also say 'It's not fa-her to the ca-her instead of It’s not far to the car.
There are a lot of good resources if you want to get familiar with these differences.
Movies!
Waynes World and Strange Brew are two of my favorites.
In Strange Brew, the accent is especially thick as a parody of it.
Some of my favorite comedic actors are Canadian: Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy.
They are in Christopher Guest’s films such as Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and a Mighty Wind that are hilarious comedies that feature their Canadian accents.
Podcasts!
SNL Afterparty has Canadian hosts,
English Teacher Melanie is about life in Canada, featuring her very strong Canadian accent.
In Quebec, most people speak French, and it’s a very strong French accent, Quebecois.
The city of Montreal is extremely diverse, with large communities of people who have immigrated from Asia, Europe, the Middle East.
It is a short drive from New York City, so if you’re there and can make the time, drive up to Canada!
And with today’s resources and tips, you’ll be able to fit right in.
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