Spoken English And Broken English - George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw begins the essay ‘Spoken English and Broken English’ supposing that any foreign student of the English language; and desire to speak it well enough to be understood when you travel in the British Commonwealth or in America and think of speaking correct English for getting employment opportunities. Irrespective of the country that one belongs to, it is clear that there is no such thing as ideally correct English. No two British people speak English exactly alike. Shaw, being a member of a committee established by BBC, was given a position to decide how the utterances of speakers should be to make it as a model of correct speech for the British Islands. All the members of the Committee are the educated persons and they speak in a polished or refined manner in London. The Chairman himself is the Poet Laureate who is not simply an artist but a specialist in pronunciation of words. As a writer of plays Shaw was selected by the committee to superintend the rehearsal and to listen to the way in which way it is spoken by actors who are professionally trained speakers.  

Though that Committee  knows everything about the English speech, and yet its members do not agree with the pronunciation of some of the simplest and commonest words in English language i.e. the two words in any language are – ‘yes’ and ‘No’. It is made clear that no two members of the Committee pronounce them in the same way. Every member pronounces them differently. There are Irish members, Scottish members Welsh members, Oxford University members and American members – all recognizable by their differences in speech. They differ according to the country in which they were born. Since they all speak differently, it is nonsense to say that they all speak correctly. Similarly if you speak clearly you will be understood and recognized you will be understood and recognized as a person of good social standing.

Shaw very clearly states that as a public speaker, he has to take care of every word that he uses is heard distinctly at the far end of the hall consisting of thousands of people. But at home when he converses with his wife sitting within six feet distance that he does not bother about her words who says “don’t mumble and don’t turn your headway him as a deaf because he is more than seventy years old.

He further adds that suppose he forgets to wind his watch and it stops. He had to ask somebody to tell him the time. If he asks the stranger by what O clock is it? The stranger would hear distinctly every syllable. Shaw’s advice to the readers is that in England don’t try to speak English perfectly because if you speak, no one will understand you. (Though there is no such thing as perfectly correct English, There is no presentable English – Good English. Shaw argues that in London nine hundred and ninety nine out of every thousand people not only speak bad English but they speak even badly. Even if they do not speak English well they themselves can understand it when it is well spoken. But when the speaker is a foreigner, the better he speaks, the harder it is to understand him. In addition to this he argues that no foreigner can ever stress the syllables and make the voice rise and fall. In question and answer, in assertion and denial, in refusal and consent. (Therefore what you have to do is to speak with a strong foreign accent and speak broken i.e. English without any grammar.) Then every English person to whom you speak --- will at once know that you are a foreigner. If you say “will you have the goodness to direct me to the railway terminus.” At charring cross.” With pronouncing all vowels and consonants beautifully, he won’t understand you and suspect you as a beggar. (But if you shout "Please! Charing Cross! Which way!" You will have no difficulty. People will certainly lead to the direction.

In the concluding part of his essay the writer advocates that even in private intercourse with cultivate people you must not speak too well. Apply this method to learn foreign languages and never try to speak them too well. Even among English people to speak too well is a pedantic affectation. Eventually he argues that it is an insult to the native who can’t understand his own language when it is too well spoken.       

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