How to do an Australian accent with VCA Senior Lecturer Leith McPherson

Leith McPherson, Senior Lecturer (Voice and Movement) at the Victorian College of the Arts, shows you how to do a convincing Australian accent.
Find out more about Theatre and Acting at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne: finearts-music.unimelb.edu.au...

[@caesumcrimson6381]

This woman is like a juke box of accents. Seamlessly goes into so many different voices. What a mastery over her mouth! Haha

[@justagrrl1981]

Kate Winslet's Aussie accent is spot on, in this movie mentioned and Holy Smoke

[@gerryhouska2859]

Kate is a much better actress than most.

[@niamhcrosbie369]

Absolutely correct. Class in Australia is more determined by education than income. I have a "high" accent despite my parents bring low middle class.

[@jenhaley]

My mother (and extendend family) speaks Castilian Spanish in an area where Puerto Rican Spanish is the norm.

[@fractalign]

There is one Australian accent that knows no region, it’s the uni student accent. It’s a middle class accent with its own verbal cues. As many university students may be more educated than people who have not been to university, thier grasp of correct pronounciation is sometimes more advanced. An example of the Uni student accent post graduate, can be found in careers as diverse as human rights lawyers, art gallery directors, social workers and members of the Australian Greens.

[@joelmangan9923]

I believe this is what has been traditionally known as the 'cultivated Australian accent'. Think Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett et al. Very interesting points you've made and I think you're really onto something.

[@redfoxonstilts]

Grasp of correct pronunciation? Who decided which pronunciation is correct and which isn't? Saying natives are pronouncing words incorrectly is the same as saying some people walk in the wrong way. It's nonsense. People walk and talk in a way that is natural to them. There's no wrong way of doing it if you're a native.

[@BuzzLightyear9999]

I don’t agree. There are nowhere near as many native Australian accents present amongst Australian university students [or faculty] as there used to be with Australian universities now relying so heavily on foreign students in order to make revenue. The “university” accent is now every bit as diverse as in any other part of the nation since it incorporates such a large number of different ethnicities amongst its student and staff populations… (What you say may well have been true in the 70s and 80s, but those days are looooooong past…)

[@westaussie965]

So it’s shit?

[@isis-daisy3384]

After being away from Melbourne a few years, it's so lovely to hear this accent 💜 missing home

[@abilea4081]

Very true, since Aussie accents are found everywhere and are less divided by cities or states unlike most countries, they're less based around income or region and change a lot depending on educational background. I used to have a more bogan accent by it's changed sicne going to catholic school and university

[@omaronnyoutube]

Speaking of the Australian accent varieties, I remembered being corrected when I pronounced the word "water" when I was in Perth. I grew up in Sydney and when I was in Perth, I ordered water. I pronounced water as "war-dah" as any other Sydneysider would do, but the Perth waitress that took my order corrected me and she said "war-tah".

[@westaussie965]

I have never heard that any Australian would pronounce water like you are from southern US state😂

[@Furmily]

WT? "war-ter" is how you say it in Sydney.

[@omaronnyoutube]

@@Furmily Actually, the pronunciation is "war-dah". That's how many young Sydneysiders pronounce the word "water". Australians, especially the Broad and General Australian speakers, don't exactly pronounce "water" as "war-ter" like the RP speakers would.

[@jakejakejakejakejakejake]

That was so fascinating!!!

[@sanshaj]

Jude Law in contagion was supposed to be Australian?

[@jonyjony12345]

This is soo cool !

[@johnford3327]

bloody brilliant i think i got it mate

[@lisajay9512]

Wow! She’s great. Sign me up for lessons. 😂😂

[@MmeButtlicious]

I'm so sorry but I've seen Contagion, and as a born and bred Australian I can confirm that Jude Law's accent was 100% shithouse

[@Furmily]

Especially "Chicago" - that was terrible!

[@nickfatsis9607]

Have a listen to Robin Wright in the movie "Adore" for an American, she does an almost perfect Australian accent.

[@Jen.V843]

I just watched the trailer for this and she is spot on!

[@nickfatsis9607]

@@Jen.V843 Robin is amazing, I actually forgot that she’s American when I was watching it!

[@martinkuliza]

1.44 its just scary how she goes from Aussie to Scottish LOL Like .. Exorcist Scary :P it's like Mr Bumble from Oliver twist has possessed her then it's Dolores from the Cranberries then it's paul hogan I don't know who she is anymore

[@misskarinaleigh]

I had no idea there were different tongue positions with different accents!

[@samiullhadil9396]

U r so beutifull ♡

[@ElisaTayler]

Best example is Kath and Kim.

[@geoffw6007]

if you want to do an Aussie accent, try pronouncing melbin or melben for Melbourne

[@bernadettelanders7306]

I’m from Melbourne, born and bred and listened to how I pronounced it. Melbn. I couldn’t hear a vowel between the b&n.

[@Myrtle-ez3zd]

​@@bernadettelanders7306you do have a vowel there, it's the Schwa mentioned in the video. If you're not so aware of what a Schwa sounds like or where/how it occurs, then I can see how you would think you don't have a vowel there, but trust me (as a fellow Melbournian with a background in linguistics), you do have a vowel. It's nigh on impossible to pronounce Melbourne as one syllable.

[@frankfiocco8004]

Call everyone "maate" and drink beer that is just above freezing and drive on the left.

[@gennywayneegoy3527]

I'm here because of jake

[@TweedSuit]

7 Flamin' Galahs thumbed down

[@ropecharmer]

Deliver me from people who start almost every sentence with the word 'so'. >:-(

[@tappyoklahoma]

overcomplicating it quite a bit ---- cant you just just spell out an accent pronounciation?

[@Myrtle-ez3zd]

You can using the international phonetic alphabet. But you can't do it using this alphabet, unless the person I am explaining to also has my accent. This is because consonants don't change much between accents, but vowels do massively, so different people would pronounce the vowel in my attempted"spelled pronounciation" (transcription) differently.

[@timhutch6980]

Not sure someone with such a un-Australian accent should be advising on this subject. Key thing is that Australians don’t often use all the syllables. Clearly never been to the bush, as that bush accent sounds like it is from wales.

[@musicalneptunian]

Only Bob Katter knows the secret of the bush Oz accent. Bob's on the job, all day and all night.

[@themanagement69]

You don’t to sound like a bogan to have an Aussie accent

[@shaungordon9737]

What do you mean un-Australian? Many people talk like that. It's pretty common in Melbourne

[@timhutch6980]

@Zeta Hamilton-Durkin thanks Zeta - if you are Australian and have been to the bush it is not difficult to mimic the accent. As a person with two degrees, I can assure you that you are over emphasising the importance of formal education. I suspect Leith has English parents and or has never left the city. If you are advising on accents, I would suggest it would be a good idea to get within a bulls roar of it.

[@user-wb8wk8md5i]

Australian Accent sounds like a Weird British Accent. The North American Accent Sounds Much Nicer to the world so what's the purpose of having an Australian Accent 🤔😅😂🤣👏

[@MT-eo6tq]

What a r£tarded comment 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣