Repeat after me, class: Eliza’s elocution’s on the rise
SAY it loud and clear: elocution lessons are making a comeback.
Once considered a rather out-of-date preserve of the elite, tuition in the Queen’s English is on the rise.
Demand is being fuelled by foreigners anxious to fit in following the Brexit vote, according to some tutors.
Other factors include parents who fear children will pick up the lazy vowels of Estuary English, as spoken on TV shows such as The Only Way Is Essex.
And other people are keen to shed their regional accents – in the same way Professor Henry Higgins taught Eliza Doolittle to lose her cockney accent in the film My Fair Lady.
Henry Fagg, of the Tutor Pages directory, said the EU referendum had caused demand to rise by 25 per cent compared to the same period last year
He said: ‘I was surprised by how many enquiries seem to be from Europeans looking to adjust their accents. I could probably find an enquiry from just about every EU nationality.
‘That’s not something I noticed so much before. In the past it was usually people from the Midlands, or other regions looking to tone down their accents.’
Matt Pocock, from Elocution Lessons London, said half of his clients were from abroad, and also cited Brexit, saying: ‘If being born in the UK suddenly becomes more important, then having a British accent becomes more important too.’
But that is not the only factor. The parents of one 11-year-old boy said they wanted to teach him not to ‘develop the “Sarf” London twang he is picking up from his peers’.
A woman in her 70s felt conscious of her ‘Brummie’ accent when chatting to her ‘well-spoken’ grandchildren; while a pregnant woman didn’t want to pass her unclear speaking voice to her unborn child.