... To answer some questions ...
Q: Which is the best accent?
A: If your intention is to be understood by the widest variety of listeners then this is really a false question.
To speak like a native and to be easily understood requires the use of correct stress and rhythm. English is a stress timed language. That means that the timing of each stressed word in English is rhythmic. Unstressed words must be shortened to enable the stressed words to fit this pattern. For example; I can hear you is generally spoken with three stressed syllable (in bold) whilst I can't hear you is generally spoken with four stressed syllables. I can hear you requires three timing beats whilst I can't hear you requires four. The former phrase is therefore spoken 25% quicker than the latter and this is achieved by not stressing can reducing the vowel sound to a schwa.
In fact, if you were to stress can native speakers might possibly think that you said can't because rhythm and stress patterns are used by native speakers to assist their understanding of what is being spoken.
Accent is generally a social identifier and whilst it may be easily understood within its social group it may hinder understanding outside of that group. The best accent to have, therefore, is a 'neutral' accent which might be defined as that which does not identify to any group.
Q:What the ə!?
A:The most common sound in the English language is the schwa (ə). It is the sound given to nearly every unstressed vowel and is sometimes written for pronunciation as (uh) or (eh). Examples of schwa (in italics) : written, signify, about, solution, supply, syringe.
The word schwa is pronounced "shva".
Q:Are you rhotic?
A: If you are American or Irish and you pronounce the 'r' in water you are a rhotic speaker. If you are an English RP speaker you are non-rhotic as you do not pronounce the 'r' in water. Non-rhotic speakers do not pronounce 'r' unless it comes before a vowel in the same syllable. This is why the spellings center (American) and centre (British) yield the same pronunciation whilst letter is pronounced differently
Q:RP this!
A: Ok, so it's not actually a question, is it?
Nonetheless, this is still the answer to the question. RP stands for "Received Pronunciation" and is close to the public English as spoken by the majority of middle class English people. However, most do not speak strict RP and RP itself is changing over time.
BBC description of RP
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