the RP accent(uk people)

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That definitely happens to me.

I can speak in at least 10 UK accents, possibly 15, one of which is RP (though I would place my global accent count closer to 35). It's ridiculously easy - just listen and repeat. Of course practice helps, but only if you don't immediately take to it. Or if not practice, exposure to.

As a note to people discussing the pronunciation of the letter 'r', in the more regional accents, the 'r' is omitted or replaced with a schwa at the end of a word. In fact, just compare the word 'better' in RP and non-RP - you get the first part the same, but then come a glottal stop and a schwa for the non-RP.

My daughter is having trouble understanding some of the news reader types on TV. A prime example is this insistence in pronouncing 'year' in a way that sounds like a Californian hippy from the 60s saying, 'Yeah, man, cool'. She keeps saying, 'Mummy, what's a yeah' (in a slow drawl). It's so annoying. You want to shout at the TV, 'Talk properly, please'.

A person from my necks of the woods, who speaks standard English, can come across as highly educated and very well spoken. I don't speak RP, as I always have a Scottish accent and pronounce all of my 'r's, but I speak in a way that most people would understand. I'm from Glasgow and many people across the globe need subtitles to understand the dialect here, but my standard English is as clear as it gets.

The Glaswegian accent has its own quirks. Take this word:

"Better."

An RP speaker would pronounce it:

"Betah,"

whereas a Glaswegian would probably pronounce it:

"Beh-[insert gutteral throat noise here]-er."

In other words, the RP accent is guilty of omitting most Rs and pronouncing the Ts, whereas many Scottish accents are guilty of substituting Ts for gutteral noises in the throat and pronouncing the Rs.

There is no "right" or "wrong" when it comes to accents. All are unique, and all are equally interesting. An accent that may be annoying or hard to follow when the listener is not used to hearing it may be an accent that sounds perfectly "normal" to a native listener. Hence mummy_of_peanut's comment that she wants the RP newsreaders to speak "properly." The RP accent is generally considered to be the epitome of "proper," but judging by your comment, your definition of "proper" is the way you talk yourself. Personally, I am fascinated by different accents, and enjoy observing how they differ. I think that exposure to a wide range of accents is desirable, since it enables you to converse easily with a wide range of people.

An interesting thing I've noticed about Glaswegians is that they tend to construct the present perfect tense incorrectly, using the preterite as though it were a past participle. Here are a few example sentences which use the present perfect tense correctly:

"I've been to that place before."

"I've never seen that person before."

"I've done my homework."

That is how an RP speaker would say those things. However, a Glaswegian would likely say:

"I've went to that place before."

"I've never saw that person before."

I've did my homework."

To anyone who knows anything about grammar, that makes you wince. It's clearly wrong according to the rules of English grammar, but most Glaswegians do not observe English grammar. They use Glaswegian grammar instead.

Please note, mummy_of_peanut, I am not trying to imply that you talk like that, nor am I implying that there would be anything wrong with talking like that if you did. It's just an observation, since you brought up the interesting subject of Glaswegian.

As someone who grew up on the West Coast of Scotland, I can testify that most people in Ayrshire use Glaswegian grammar. As an English person residing in those areas, unless you want to be wincing every few seconds while listening to somebody use the present perfect as though it were the preterite, you just have to get used to it - and even learn to relish using Glaswegian grammar yourself!

A minority of them are aware that it's wrong to conjugate the present perfect tense that way. Those in the know will speak that way when interacting with others, but will switch to speaking and writing correctly when talking to an English person or writing a formal document. However, the vast majority of them do not even know that the above sentences are grammatically incorrect. To them, constructing that particular verb tense in that way is not deemed to be incorrect; it's just the way they talk in their particular accent.

^^^
at the risk of some political incorrectness, could it be said that many Scotland people are using at least a bit of a Scottish equivalent of ebonics?

I talk like a Glaswegian but with a Manchester accent.

In fact most attempts at any british accents by north americans tend to be painful to listen to by native speakers of the respective accents, or by other UK residents who know what the accents should sound like.

Ah, the messages! The infamous messages!