"wow... whenever I watch Harry Potter, I'd really like to speak that way"

"I met a British bird at the office and she was like 'what is your emergency?', what a fancy sexy accent"

"you see, I love Stacey Dooley (BBC Investigation). her accent and voice is really hot, when she'd go 'I'm completely gutted, such a shame isn't it', I really wanna hug her"

"oh yes. yesterday, I was taught of Non-Rhotic pronunciation and British-T on my tongue twister class. British accent is very interesting!"

well... anyone might ever think just the same that British accent sounds very class. I did. but yeah, since I gradually practiced it years ago by skyping, chatting, listening to any British podcast, reading any particular topic about cross cultural understanding of UK, and yes finally I got something: only a few Brits speak British accent.

believe it or not, you might ever visit UK, stayed in London or around upper countries instead, met bunch of Britons, I bet you'd left a great deal to be desired of something called British accent because you see that most Brits speak various accents, especially in Southern London, some of them speak Cockney, Mandem, Kentish, Sussex, Essex, etc.

okay, I'm gonna share somewhat of review about what British accent it would be on real spoken language and what "did you know"s are.

1. When you say "British Accent", it means "British RP"

British RP on wiki

British RP stands for "British Received Pronunciation". it's the pronunciation of the British upper class, the educated people who went to notable universities like Oxford and Cambridge. this is the pronunciation that you'll learn at any British language school; also the model taught in coursebooks and dictionary such as Oxford Dictionary. some Britons call it "Queen's English", because British RP refers to the royal family member (dukes, earls, prince, queen, etc) who speaks this way properly. it's also called as "Modern RP" to distinguish between British accent and Posh accent. maybe you can consider this like "Bahasa Indonesia yang Baik dan Benar" in Indonesia. it's almost never spoken on real life.

2. Only about 5% of Britons speak British RP

do you know what, only a few amount of British natives speak British RP. studies report only about 5% of UK's population speak British RP. they are upper-class people: academics, actors, TV hosts and newscasters, politicians, and English teachers. on real British life, British RP has got no place in society, I mean you'd find nothing but only broadcast. if you wanna be able to speak English fluently, get rid of British accent, almost never be spoken on daily life. yet with exceptions: if you'd like to take any scholarship of UK's college or university, or if you'd like to be a presenter, you should have been able to peg on your nose so that you're adequate for broadcast. LOL

3. Sounds class? Prestigious? Do you mean annoying and old-fashioned? Yes, it's Posh accent, not British RP

oh Hermione... I know your Posh is really sexy, prestigious, and also annoying! yes, some of you might suppose Hermione and Harry speak British RP. na'ah, absolutely NOPE. say: Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Matthew Bellamy, Keira Knightley, Felicity Jones, Eddie Redmayne, so on, they speak Posh. but their objective was for professional necessity. try watching some TV shows involving them as guest stars, they don't speak 100% Posh. Posh accent has also variety of accent based on one's local accent. for example, Felicity Jones sometimes speak Geordie accent and Chav accent while speaking Posh, combined with Cockney accent where we've almost never found her speaking out of Posh on her movies.

yeah mate I do agree that Posh accent sounds very prestigious and sexy (or dashing for gentlemen). but you know, most Britons hesitate to love Posh accent. because Posh accent is sort of British spoken by old-fashioned upper-class like socialites or millionaires, or mere old chaps, that mostly arrogant, pretentious, and even unfriendly. it's really annoying. if you wanna have got tons of Britonic mates, don't speak Posh ever! it would rather speak Javanese accent than to ever speak Posh. you might not agree with me, but bruvs yeah this is what British people really think about. most hate Posh accent.

4. Britons speak with their local accents, nothing difference with us

In UK nowadays, there are several local accents which actively spoken by Britons. just like us, for example in Boso Jowo (Javanese language). if you go anywhere else around Central-East Java than just Solo-Jogja travelling, and listen to Javanese natives speak on the street, you're gonna most likely hear something quite different from common Javanese you might have ever heard from earlier. say: logat Solo, Jogja, Kratonan (Mangkunegaran), Banyumasan, Tegalan, Kuningan (Cilacapan), Arek (Ngetan), Osing, Tengger, Madura, Misuh *LOL, so on.

and so in UK. most Britons don't speak British RP. they normally speak with their local accents in which could very hard to figure out by untrained ears. say: Cockney accent (Londoner), Chav, Thug, Jafaican Thug (Mandems), Geordie, Welsh, Mancunian, Scouser (in Liverpool), Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, so on. in London for example, they never go like: "Jyuno wottaymin?" instead of "Do you know what I mean?". nah mate, big no! they'd go: "jna'min?".

I show you a bit British local accents for instance as to follow:

- Cockney accent (most in North and East London)
"ey braf jnowa'? ifa wokdan d'stri' nyah, ad'ge' ba'ed! dewud kmon smakmi inefeys enda... awu'n ga'a mayk" (ey bruv, do you know what? if I walked down the street now, I'd get battered! they would come on smack me in the face and err... I wouldn't get out mate!)

- Chav accent (upper countries, unsure)
"dan feg' drav'n skam, hijazsed'st mi'n gow wedjugow haniban? wudefak, luk ifasi'im wans, awul snapis winek!" (darn faggot-driven scum, he just seduced me and go 'where do you go hunny bunn?' what the fuck, look if I see him once, I will snap his wee neck!)

- Thug accent (Wales, West London, and upper countries, unsure)
"Woa'? Ey mayk wijəz sya'a gwinamayk! widi'n bafəeniwoan paw!" (What? Ey mate, we just shouted out 'green army!', we didn't bother anyone pal!)

- Scouser accent (Liverpool)
"Mek ifye gawhə bakh, it'n fukhin bad! Nome'wwadasey" (Mate, if ya got her back, it ain't fuckin' bad! No matter what they say)

5. If British RP is the true English, I'm afraid it's lack of education on the issue

some racists in UK (most come from white supremacists scumbag) boast themselves as the true English people, defending England from massive immigration entrance and always shout out "English people! Green army!" jooking some brats asking them to join in any mass action. quite frankly, they even never speak British RP. since it was a Queen's English, yet they avoid to speak such an old-fashioned accent. where are their pride to the Queen instead of saying "we're true English people"? that's some bullshit that comes up these days. but regardless, most Britons couldn't speak British RP.

imagine if British RP was just like "Bahasa Indonesia yang Baik dan Benar" according to Oxford Dictionary, the "Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia". now I'm asking you, did you ever find someone speak Bahasa Indonesia yang Baik dan Benar? the President even don't speak Bahasa Indonesia yang Baik dan Benar. the words such as "nggak", "belom", "pengen", and also fillers like "ee...", "gitu", "kan", "nah", "dong", have already become like proper Indonesian. there's almost not found ones speak Bahasa Indonesia yang Baik dan Benar. TV newscasters and freelance public speakers are still better to speak properly than politicians, actors, scholars, and academics (college students). in any formal speeching, you might find Bahasa Indonesia yang Baik dan Benar, but yeah...... unless it was read. in daily spoken Indonesian, mostly speak based on our own local accent. logat Betawi, pinggiran, Jawa, Sunda, Melayu, Bugis, Sasak, Indonesia Timur, this is how language works in society.

so like obviously, if British RP is the true English, so why most Britons can't speak that? the best answer is because British RP is re-assigned as though just mere symbolic. as always, media contains the hype, and perhaps tourism gains more profit in sense of promote the UK's travelling by showing its "fancy"-ness.

well then.... anyone wants to add more about this?