India: Monsoon Wedding (2001)

A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, an event planner who is in love, and relatives from around the world all prepare for an arranged marriage in India.

Ireland: Waking Ned (1998)

When a lottery winner dies of shock, his fellow townsfolk attempt to claim the money by pretending that he is still alive.

New Zealand: Whale Rider (2002)

A twelve-year-old Maori girl who wants to become the chief of the tribe. Her grandfather Koro believes that this is a role reserved for males only.

Wales: The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain (1995)

When an English cartographer must tell a Welsh village that their mountain is only a hill, the offended community sets out to change that.

Scotland: Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2003)

Harbour and his suicidal brother Wilbur inherit their father's used bookstore in their native Glasgow. Their lives become entangled with Alice and her daughter Mary after the two women visit the shop.

Jamaica: Cool Runnings (1993)

Based on the true story of the first Jamaican bobsled team trying to make it to the winter Olympics.



(descriptions partly based on IMBd and Wikipedia)

Read about different varieties of English

This webpage by the University of Duisburg offers a lot of information about different varieties of English, including maps, historic background, and sound files. To look at individual varieties, click on "Varieties of English".

Also Wikipedia has a list of all varieties of English and information about them.

Listen to different accents

Listen to English accents around the world in the Speech Accent Archive and the British Library.

For accents in Great Britain only, see the BBC voice recordings, which also give you more information on the speakers' background.

If you want to listen to a Scottish accent, you can also do this here.

You may also look at how English spread throughout the world.