Lately I’ve been receiving many requests from Australia for information about American English pronunciation. I thought that this was a bit unusual, especially since the requests appeared to be coming from native English speakers. I wasn’t sure what was going on ‘down under’ until I saw this piece from the Courier Mail. According to linguists Australian teenagers are adopting American English pronunciation patterns for both slang and everyday vocabulary. The teenagers perceive American spoken English to be ‘hip’ and ‘prestigious’.