[RayChuang88]

I think today's modern communications networks managed to kill a lot of regional dialects. As such, we now consider fluent speakers of English as those who can speak with the BBC English accent (if you come from a Commonwealth country) or the accent-free American English you hear on radio and TV broadcasts in the USA. When I was working in the Bay Area, I used to know a Russian émigré at the workplace that spoke such perfect BBC English if it weren't for the Russian surname you'd think he was born in the UK. He admitted that he started to learn English at age six using materials provided by the BBC English language programme, and if it weren't for the breakup of the Soviet Union would likely have pursued a career in the Soviet diplomatic corps or as an English-to-Russian translator.

[holden]

But of course, certainly not as a KGB spy among Brits or Americans. /sarc

HF

[firebrand]

Since people in other countries are advised to learn English from a Brit rather than from an American, we have the double accent phenomenon here: the accent from the original country with a British overlay. Can be very charming.

[OldPossum]

I think today's modern communications networks managed to kill a lot of regional dialects...

I can certainly understand why you would make that observation, but I don't think it is true. If it were, then the folks down South (from which I hail) would have lost their Southern accents long, long ago since the standard the networks have demanded from their announcers and other personnel (think of the actors and actresses on the soaps) is the Mid-West accent.

Since the invention of the radio and televison there have been steady bombardments of that speech into the homes of people all around the USA and yet there certainly are regional accents through this country. The reason? People learn their speech from their peers, not outside influences.