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Mail Online: Too many actors are mumbling their way through lines leaving audiences struggling to understand them as they attempt to 'copy American film stars', according to some of the great and good of theatre.
So, while I'll admit I chuckled at the blurb of this article, it's actually quite sad to hear that Americans are being thought of as mumbling and unclear, and that that is a way that actors in other countries can embody "American" in their characters. Yes, as the article says, there are still schools out there like RADA (and us...) who teach real diction, but they are becoming fewer and far between. And part of what leads to this is that respect for the english language and especially its rules of grammar has been severely diminishing. And that's just sad.
It is unfortunate that mumbling is now "popular," and though I certainly believe it, I can't help but wonder if how much, if any, of the mumbling is just a particular style, or even just difficulty understanding due to differences in accents. I don't think that it can be attributed entirely to "Americans" as a whole. More lamentable, to me, is the lack of education that was mentioned towards the end of the article. The degree of ignorance described was pretty appalling, especially for people who planned to continue training in an area that is language-heavy -- It's really pretty mind-boggling.
This article does a good job of pointing out this issue of mumbling in acting and also being able to trace it back to the fact that it is just one symptom of the bigger issue, which is that our education system is failing to teach us English. My grammar education was pretty limited once I got to high school, which at the time I had no complaints about. Learning grammar is boring, but it is important too. People have come to take language for granted, and this cavalier attitude towards it means that we no longer feel the need to be bothered proper grammar or speech. And its especially sad to know that this is an issue in theatre, a discipline that should value language more than most.
3 comments:
So, while I'll admit I chuckled at the blurb of this article, it's actually quite sad to hear that Americans are being thought of as mumbling and unclear, and that that is a way that actors in other countries can embody "American" in their characters. Yes, as the article says, there are still schools out there like RADA (and us...) who teach real diction, but they are becoming fewer and far between. And part of what leads to this is that respect for the english language and especially its rules of grammar has been severely diminishing. And that's just sad.
It is unfortunate that mumbling is now "popular," and though I certainly believe it, I can't help but wonder if how much, if any, of the mumbling is just a particular style, or even just difficulty understanding due to differences in accents. I don't think that it can be attributed entirely to "Americans" as a whole. More lamentable, to me, is the lack of education that was mentioned towards the end of the article. The degree of ignorance described was pretty appalling, especially for people who planned to continue training in an area that is language-heavy -- It's really pretty mind-boggling.
This article does a good job of pointing out this issue of mumbling in acting and also being able to trace it back to the fact that it is just one symptom of the bigger issue, which is that our education system is failing to teach us English. My grammar education was pretty limited once I got to high school, which at the time I had no complaints about. Learning grammar is boring, but it is important too. People have come to take language for granted, and this cavalier attitude towards it means that we no longer feel the need to be bothered proper grammar or speech. And its especially sad to know that this is an issue in theatre, a discipline that should value language more than most.
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