Neutral North American Accent?

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
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Seen this post on FB. Requires English teachers to have a neutral North American accent. I’m intrigued by this, British would be BBC what’s US?

We are now hiring teachers in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taichung.

We provide:

-starting pay $1000/hr with yearly raises

-pay ceiling up to $1350/hr

  • thorough, paid training $650/hr

-up to 28 hours per week

-paid holidays and vacations

-profit-sharing (after 3 years)

-work permit, health insurance

-labor insurance and pension to those eligible

-stable career

-teacher-owned foreign management

We are a high-discipline, serious learning institution for children 7-14 years old. We emphasize self-discipline, correct pronunciation and proper grammar. Teachers use Mandarin in the classroom to expedite learning and increase precision. This is not an easy job. Our teachers work extremely hard and take this job very seriously.

Interested candidates MUST comply with ALL of the following qualifications:

  1. Possess a university degree.

2. Be a native English speaker with the ability to teach a neutral North American accent.

  1. Speak at least intermediate Mandarin and desire to improve.

  2. Be able to commit for at least 3 years.

  3. Be passionate about teaching and curious about learning.

  4. Enjoy being a positive influence on children.

  5. Have strong moral character.

  6. Be willing to go through an intensive 3-month training program.

  7. Demonstrate a high-achiever’s work ethic

If you are sure you meet all of the above qualifications, especially the native English speaker and Mandarin ability requirements, please email your resume including a phone number to rickfrance1@yahoo.com.

We will not respond to those applicants who do not meet these requirements.

American/Canadian-born Chinese are very welcome in our company.

We offer a professional environment and long-term career potential.

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  • Standard middle America accent (Midwest/Western)
  • Also what every newscaster sounds like
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I saw this on FB too. An interesting angle they are taking with such high pay potential and such intense prerequisites…cool to see the offer open to American/Canadian born Chinese as well. I have known buxibans/schools to categorically reject them even if they sound exactly like native speakers.

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Sounds like a HCFRB.

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British would be RP (Received Pronunciation), sometimes labelled as Queens English, BBC English or Oxford English. The last 3 can getaway with using non-standard grammar, RP users will only use standard English, that is why it is used for phonics in the dictionary.

Just to add, I have a regional accent but was briefly taught RP as a tool to help with my Dyslexia.
I think these standardised accents have their use but are really boring, I was happy when the BBC dropped RP in the 90’s.

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Off the topic: U.K. Channel 4 regional accent essential it seems.
How times change.

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This makes me wonder what standard Australia is supposed to sound like? Basically everyone from the inner suburbs haha?

There used to Australian RP which is what reporters spoke in the 50s but is now extinct.

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I don’t know why so much deference to Chinese and none to Taiwanese!

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Do you think they’ll mind if you shoot up between classes?

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honestly was wondering the same thing. Was it unintentional? Was it just throwing everyone into the same bucket? I guess we will never know…

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Asking for a friend?

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I think it’s just laziness. Taiwanese Americans are often referred to as “ABCs.”

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My accent. Cascadia. West Coast Americas.
Cascadia (bioregion) - Wikipedia

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I have a serious question about English English.

Why do you cut he “R” sound off in words like “mother”, “father”, “park”, “car”, etc?

Also, why would you add an “R” sound where it absolutely doesn’t belong? Like in the words India, Indonesia, Buddha, etc?

I’ve asked people from Indonesia how to pronounce their country name and it sounded exactly the way it’s spelt. However, I’ve heard the English say “Indonees-ER” and India “Indee-er”! Even on CNN Asia.

Why, why why!?

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So they won’t be mistaken for ugly Americans.

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There’s a prestige thing in r-full and r-less ness. You can look it up cuz there’s actually a decent amount of research into it. Basically, people in the UK were training it out of themselves cuz it wasn’t snobby to have r’s and the opposite happened in the US (hence the mockery of the Boston accent)

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They call me Mother Superior

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I love the old Boston accent–just not when nouveaux riche upstarts like the Kennedy’s use it.

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Wikipedia summarises it well.

Australian English is non-rhotic without excepion

We were colonised after southern england began dropping their rs and it stuck.

Although no-one pronounces an r Indonesia… however many Americans think we have an r in our pronunciation of ‘no’ which isn’t true.

American movies also have a reputation for disgusting fake Australian accents (The Good Place is probably the best example of this)