My Fair Lady

or Pronunciation Post II

Gliding, whistling and exploding through different British pronunciation videos made me feel very funny throughout the last couple of days. I had a very strange feeling that I could not quit detect until half way through “RP British Accent” – a quit good RP online lesson – I stumbled across this sentence:

“In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever happen.”

Finally I knew why I felt so special: I felt just like My Fair Lady. If you are as big an Audrey Hepburn fan as I am, I am sure you will recognize this sentence. For all of my fellow classmates who do not know Audrey Hepburn and are a little late with their Pronunciation practise or simply looking for an easy and funny way to do this here is my tip: Watch the musical film adaptation from George Bernard Shaw’s My Fair Lady, which was produced in 1964. In addition to a marvellous Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison you will find lots of possibilities to practise together with the main characters. Basically, this movie is about the arrogant and snobbish Professor Higgins (Rex Harrison), who is a teacher of phonetics. He strongly believes that a person’s accent determines his or her place in society. He states that he could teach any woman to speak so “properly” she could be passed off as a duchess. In order to prove his theory he selects the young flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) whose strong Cockney accent is keeping her from realizing her dream to work at a flower shop. Throughout the story he not only changes her pronunciation but also falls in love with her. But I have said enough already. See for yourself.

PS: Should you not know how to get access to this movie, write me: ailuj.seemann@gmail.com