Reese

I watch the UK version of The Weakest Link on BBC america and I can't understand a frickin word they are saying. It sounds like they are mumbling. I have to turn the volume up and pay close attention just to understand the question. I figure it's because the accent is so different, do anyone else experience this?

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Pacifier

you haven't seen a german for a long time, eh?
Or you should realise that not all germans are bavarians (luckily)
Just like not all Americans are overall wearing hillbillies

Please, that the oldest, stupidest and annoying streotype about europe i've ever heart? almost as old as "France surrenders" jokes...
I know no one who doen't take at least a shower ervery day...

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"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death
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Drider_it

actually being a "southerner" there are three. the redneck drawl, the highter class southern belle drawl.. wish in entrated into thier system at an early age to make them think they are something better till they get out in the real world and wake up lol.. and the cajun.. the fast ass drawl to hell watered down french over the years accent.

and by god i got all three pluz the michigan one i self taught myself with my time up there. hahaha

just get on yahoo voice chat.. youll find all the accents you want.. and im just sick to death of hearing a asshat of a southern fool try to sound like they are from the land down under or from the UK.. give it up.. you suck..

comments and statements arent directed to anyone or anything herein.. matter of fact reading this has an underlying sublimbable message.. give me your ***** soon.. at 3 am on november the 3rd you will wake up and realize what the ***** was.. that is all...

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Stug

I've lived in the UK my whole life and the few American's I've met have unsurprisingly had easily discernable American accents (even those that thought they had none).

I met a lovely couple from Missouri who appeared to have a certain amount of Southern drawl in their tone and and intonation, they found it fascinating that this could be distinguished in their voices...

I agree with Ustwo's comment as well, about American's (generally) being really forthcoming with information about themselves/family/personal history etc... all within the first 5 minutes of conversation, which is a testament to their openess and general friendliness.

I've always found it funny that the 'baddie' in Disney cartoons carries an upper-class English accent, I guess this is because it is considered more 'reserved' and as Irateplatypus says 'intelligent'. Although I reckon that's a nice way of saying 'smug and superior', which is how I would have thought this type of accent would come across... Like in the Simpson's episode where Homer has a huge sugar pile and a posh, Englishman shows up drinking a cup of tea: "I nicked it. While you put your guard down for that splitsecond. And I'd do it again!"

Now as for me personally I don't consider myself to have an accent because I've never lived in a city or countyside long enough to pick up a city tinge such a chirpy cockney accent or a regional dialect such as a Dorset simpleton "I've eard umm zay" = "I've heard them say". But I feel sure that to anyone not from this rainy island I'd probably sound like someone from the Monty Python crew... Go figure!

She stole my accent!

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and so ends the thought process for another day...

lukethebandgeek

When I travelled to France by train from Germany, I shared a car with a nice German girl. We talked most of the night, and she informed me that I had given her a good impression of americans by the end of the night. The only German I knew was enough to get myself fed, so I was happy she knew english.

However, in France, my French teacher would make fun of my friend by calling her CARREEEE (Carrie). I always got a laugh out of that. My professer would bust out her American accent when one of us wouldn't understand her.

The French are nice if one knows francais. If you don't, they might just hate you.

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Lockjaw

It's not that we don't doubt that you guys don't bathe but it's the fact tourist wise many of your brethern do not understand that in most of the South and West it's substantially warmer and more humid all year than it is at home. And that simple deoderant is not significant to combat the smell nor is a bunch of cologne a good idea as an attempt to mask it.

Many don't really realize that 35 Celsius with a relative humidity 70 percent will quickly make you sweat away anything less than a good anti-persperant.

Lockjaw

That we will. But it's not just Texans. New Yorkers and Californians do that here a good bit.


We aren't? **Takes down Texas flag**

Rainy

I love all accients and the states has some classics:

southern = cowboy / redneck
northeast = gangster i.e. jersey

Being from the UK and my love of tv/films i tend to base my associations on this, as in csi:miami for redneck and sopranos for gangster.

I really like southern accient, Cally Dukane from csi:miami oh yes

Mephisto2

One thing I have to tell everyone here...

You (we) ALL have accents.

You're only fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

Me? I have an Irish accent. People from Ireland can generally discerne it's from Dublin. People outside Ireland would not, but would at least hazard a good guess as the country.

Why the urge to deny what's part of you? You're accent is nice, no matter where you come from.


Mr Mephisto

warrrreagl

Wow, what a beautiful thread! I have four observations:
1) Those fat tourists who come to everyone's mind are probably Iowans. Loud, obnoxious, and pushy.
2) As a sometime-actor, I know what I need to do in order to speak with a British accent, Australian accent, Swedish accent, or whatever. Certain letters, inflections, rhythms, etc.
3) I've noted that when British actors speak with an "American" accent, they over-emphasize the letter "r."
4) Foreigners who speak English with a heavy accent from their own national tongue are considered exotic in America. Americans who speak another language with an American accent are considered ridiculous in other countries.

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Squishor

I have like a California accent and I like totally know it.

divagrrrl

Like totally fer shurrrr, dude!!!

<<< another Californian with a hard-to-pin accent. Mother grew up in Kentucky, father grew up in SoCal, so my acccent is a bit bizzare, and for some reason no one can determine, my speech patterns tend to be more upper crust British than American. Sometime I even slip into British habits in spelling words like colour and behaviour.

Go figure. I have no clue. But I can speak with a very good British accent; so good that I fooled a native Brit and her husband. They got a kick out of it. But then, whenever I have learned a bit of a language for the purpose of travelling, I speak with very little American accent, so I have been told. I am a natural mimic.

vanblah

According to the American Dialect Society accent-central for the US used to be somewhere around Boone County, Missouri. The further North, East, South or West you go from there the more pronounced your accent.

I'm not sure how accurate that data is anymore because people are moving around the country a lot more. There is also the influence of TV and other media as kids grow up listening to it.

As for the Southern accent, I am a transplanted Columbian (Missouri) ... which is in Boone County. I'm now in Memphis. I can hear numerous Southern accents. The "regular", the redneck, the high-society, the lazy, the cajun and more. They all have a distinct intonation. Even different cities have different accents. There's the Memphis accent as compared to the Knoxville accent. Nashville doesn't count because of all the NY and LA transplants there.

In relation to stereotypical images, when I hear a Japanese accent I think "student."

Ustwo

It was a joke, relax, you will be happier.

I'm sorry but its true. I know know if you people don't use soap or what but a great number of europeans STINK. I've delt with it for years when I was at a couple of Universities. Even the ones that have lived here for YEARS seemed to have a problem with it. I can't describe the stench some of the younger european facualty had. I had to drop a class once because the guy stunk so bad you could smell him from the 4th row and the class only had 6 rows. Impossible to talk to the guy 1-1. Maybe you guys are getting better at it, but you are not there yet.

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Bill O'Rights

I grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania. As such I grew up not only with the accent (roof sounds like book, creek = crick, one hundred is a hunert), but I also left with words such as "rooching"=squirming; as in "Stop rooching around on that chair", "brootzing"=crying or whining; as in "Aw, stop your brootzing", and severel others that my Lwongg Iisland born and bred wife lwikes to make fwun of.

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Charlatan

Indeed no... Please carry on carrying on...

I have noticed that I can ususally spot an American at 60 paces by simply paying attention to what they are wearing... They are always neat and tidy in their crisp khakis and brightly coloured polo shirts... I suppose this has more to do with the polo and khaki look being the casual look of choice for most businessmen who would normally be in suits and ties.

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Ustwo

Bah, which nations discriminate against my native garb!

Though this does remind me of a story told by a professor I had many years ago. He was in Europe walking the beach with some friends from there (I think it was France but not clear) any ways he had on sandals and since it was a bit chilly he put on some white sox. Bad fashion but it was practical. They are walking and he kept getting weird looks from people and he didn't know why. Well after his walk his friends informed him that in local custom wearing white sox and sandals was how homosexuals would advertise they were available to other homosexuals.

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VitaminH

I grew up in rural Western Illinois on the IL/IA border. I've been at college in Chicago for the last 5 years. People in Chicago say I have a country boy accent. People back home say I have a Chicago accent.

I guess I'm some sort of freak hybrid.

I have no place in this world.


On the Americans as tourists comment, yeah, we're jerks. Even when I went on a high school trip to Canada I noticed both chaperones and classmates alike were all acting like complete fools and it irritated me greatly.

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warrrreagl

You are correct, sir! I can tell, with fairly efficient accuracy, which major Southern city someone grew up near when I hear them speak. Guessing which state they came from isn't even a challenge anymore. Of course, this is much easier with Caucasians than African Americans, although there are some very identifiable Southern African American dialects out there.

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Stiltzkin

I don't have an accent. I say all the sounds normal. R sounds like R. ^^

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djtestudo

I'm from Baltimore, so people to the south say I have a northern accent and people to the north say I have a southern accent. I also have a slight Baldamore Merlind accent, mostly in my "eho"s and some phrases, such as "downy ocean" and the classic "hon".

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Charlatan

By the way... I was in Munich (Bavaria) this year during Octoberfest and was shocked that there were so many men (young and old) wearing Liederhosen (or as Ustwo would say, "those funny pants") without a trace of irony...

I really thought it was just a stereotype perpetuated by film and television. I was wrong.

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Viros

Being from NC I hear the drawl as it were everyday. My old job used to send me to NY every few months, and everyone person I talked to just came at me like I was a inbred hick because of my southern accent.

Everyone at my college told me that mine wasnt as bad as everyone else here but I still cant get rid of it. Myabe if I moved away for 10-20 years. : /

Flaymin'

Now that the subject of tourists has been scratched:
I can spot an American tourist a klick away. (Finns don't use miles )
Those middle-income-middle-aged morons without their kids (probably already in college) who are actually afraid to test any food that isn't McCrap (we have several McDons in Helsinki) and won't even test a genuine woodheated sauna, are so obvious.
Their clothing is wery much last decade and their hair, too.
How do I recognize them? I spent 10 months as an exchange student in L.A (west San Fernando valley) back in -93-94
Very easy to pick in a crowd.

In September my Area Representative Phil came to Finland for one of his old excange student's wedding. We were walking around downtown Helsinki and suddenly he picked out a family at one market. We ALL knew IMMEDIATELY that they were Americans. Phil went to talk to them to see where exactly they were form and YES they were from L.A.

No, I'm NOT saying anything bad about a generic American, I'm just emphasizing the point that Americans are very easily recognized.

I have always (since the age of about 10) been very careful to speak accentless English. I know it's not perfect, but last year I was amazed that an American man told me in a game console convention in England that after I'd had a few servings of alcohol I basically didn't have an accent anymore. I was very proud of myself.
I doubt that any of you have heard a "normal" Finn speaking english, but at least to me it's the WORST accent.
An English speaking Swede is pretty funny, too. (long story, but a lot of my friends agree)

djtestudo

Just rememebr what Jeff Foxworthy says: they're going to be VERY suprised when they get to Heaven and St. Peter says, "Hey, ya'll git in the truck, we goin' up the big house!"

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