irateplatypus

This is a question directed to our fellow TFP'ers outside of the U.S. and Canada. When we in America hear accents from Australia, Britain, France etc... certain caricatures come to mind. For instance... Australian dialects conjure images of the crocodile hunter in some. A refined British manner of speech suggests intelligence, while a cockney accent reflects crude manners.

Now, of course people aren't defined by their accents... but there are certainly some stereotypes associated with them.

So... what does the American accent sound like to someone who can hear it with a sense of distance that i cannot? what is associated with various American dialects? if someone asks you to speak like an American, which is the first to come to mind? i can usually place my fellow U.S. citizens geographic origins from hearing their speech... can international people make similar discernments?

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~ Winston Churchill

la petite moi

My friend from France says it conjures an image of a fat tourist.

irateplatypus

i'd tried to come up w/some joke about how that would be completely unexpected... but text won't convey the level of sarcasm necessary.

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~ Winston Churchill

TheBrit

They really do though. Every single fat tourist wearing a stupid stripey shirt with a large camera round their neck, anywhere in the world, has an American drawl. It gets so typical that it reaches a point where you can look at someone a couple of hundred yards away and think "Oh, an American."

SecretMethod70

What if you're a *skinny* tourist with a large camera around your neck?

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Charlatan

I agree... there is a major stereotype in the American Tourist... usually loud, uninformed, overbearing, uniformly dressed in polo shirt and khakis... Usually found pontificating in front of some tourist destination about said destination but getting it all wrong.

Whenever I travel abroad (which is quite a bit) it is inevitable that I will see this person, his wife and brood of simulacra (or children).

The other accents:

Upstate New York... I just think Tops Friendly Markets and Fires in Cheektawaga and Tanawanda...

Deep south... redneck

Ivy League Mass... snooty wasps...

These stereotypes are what first spring to mind when I hear the accent... thankfully I am mostly proven wrong when I actually meet and speak with these acccented poeple (except for the Tourist that is... )

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irateplatypus

an american drawl... curious. i only think of people in the south/southeastern part of the U.S. as having a drawl.

the camera is really a give-a-way for tourists of any type. when brits, euros (sorry for the general classification) and especially japanese tour in the U.S. they are distinctively dressed and often have a camera on the ready. i'll never forget a big group of camera toting german tourists crowded around a terrified armadillo on one camping trip. priceless. the only distinguishing characteristic for tourists that i would agree with is our size. especially overseas... some of us are remarkably bigger (and by bigger, i mean fatter) than the local population.

interesting... would love to hear some more about how our language sounds to a foreign ear. i know posting in text isn't the best medium for the discussion... alas, that is all we have.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Lockjaw

Northeasterners have a drawl too. Cah...,bah...,fah...,pahk...
It's there at least amongst the stereotypical folks it is.
As far as spotting a tourist...tourists from certain European countries you can spot quickly as well. Some you can smell coming. Won't say which ones...but suffice to say they aren't used to the heat and it shows. But one sure fire give away around here at least that says foreign tourist...socks with sandals...not sure what it is, but be they Canadian, European, or Asian...they wear socks and sandals.

maleficent

Don't pin that on Northeasterners - that's Bahstahn... there are two distinct accents within Boston -- the "southie" accent and the more refined, I think completely affected accent (think Charles Emerson Winchester on MASH) Most of Massachussetts is pretty much accent free, except parts of Maine, that have that downeastern accent going on - -it adds Rs to the ends of a lot of words where there should be none (ie Alaskar is a state, and Monicar was a character on friends)

I'm a Jersey girl, who's never been accused of having a Joisey accent, my mother however, grew up in Hoboken- before it was trendy - and occassionally has lapses - other areas in Jersey also have a pretty thick accent (ie Bayonne) but much of the state is accent free..

Your user name here, also brings to mind another rather entertaining accent, seen primarily Westchester county in NY- the Locust Valley Lockjaw -- not really an accent, but a speech pattern, where you cannot move your jaw when you are talking... it's quite funny.

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clavus

I've heard that to some asian ears, we sound like ducks.

The funniest thing I ever heard was when an Australian guy I knew did his "American" accent. He sounded like a retarded Texan. (insert obvious joke here)

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irateplatypus

yeah... i guess you could classify some NE accents (especially those crazy bostonians) as having a drawl. i suppose that word is associated with texans so much where i live i hadn't give it enough thought.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Janey

The LOUDEST, smelliest tourists that I ever met was when I got trapped on a shuttle Bus at LAX between about 30 upper middle aged Germans. Their BO was atrocious. and they were Loud. and bad breath. ugh. never again.

The rudest tourists, I am ashamed to say, were a group of Canadians at a youth hostel in Lucern Switzerland. I was mortified at their abonoxious behavour, I wanted to rip the flag off of their back packs.

Americans have been generally hospitable and will kill you with kindness if you visit them. So are the Dutch (to Canadians at any rate)...

mirevolver

With southerners, there are really two types of southern drawls. There's the high class drawl which you would hear from a southern belle. And there's also the redneck drawl that you hear so much of on Comedy Central's "Blue collar TV."

About american tourists.
As an American, I can't stand to see other Americans when I'm outside the US.

Most of my international travels take me to Germany, and while I'm there I blend in really well. My facial structure is very German and I also speak German with good pronounciation. I've even been told by a couple of Germans that I sometimes have a Hessian accent.

Last time I was in Germany, I was sitting in a Biergarten on the streets of Hannover when this family of American tourists came up and sat a few tables over. They were so obnoxious that I really wanted to go over to them and slap them all upside the head and say, "Do you realize how bad you're making the rest of us look?"

But that would have given me away as also being an American, so I remained at my table and did my best to tune them out.

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irateplatypus

so, i'm getting tourist, tourist... and a bit of tourist on the side. funny how that works. when i meet foreigners in my home state they are usually either tourists or exchange students, but i don't think many Americans view foreigners through a tourist lens. perhaps our demographics are so chaotic that a tourist from another country isn't as remarkable.

i'd still like to hear more from people overseas...

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Zeraph

Interesting thread. I'm from Arizona, so no drawl or obvious accent here. I'm also curious as to how a southerner with a heavy accent would hear someone like me with no "accent." I mean, we all technically have an accent to someone right?

So far the duck comment is the only thing come close to describe the none accented english.

raeanna74

I don't think I have the Common American accent. I've received comments from so many people, especially while I was in college. Most of them can't place where my accent is from. I believe a part of it is due to spending so much time with my Grandma while growing up, and the other part is due to my Dad's accent - which people can't seem to place either. My Grandma was from Baltimore, MD but spoke a good bit of French (her ancestors were from France). She had what I guess you could call a French accent mixed with Eastern America. Then there's my Dad who has some Native American in him. I think I picked up on both sides. I try my best to speak correctly and enunciate clearly and since college have not gotten the same response to my speach.

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splck

As soon as I cross the line into the states I notice an accent. It gets thicker and thicker the farther south I go.
Everyone around you will have an accent when you travel, that's one of the fun aspects of traveling.

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Suave

That's not really a drawl though. It's just a soft ending to the words. A draaaawwwwwwwl is more of a laaaaid back way of speeakin', like you've got all the time in the world. The first time I heard a Bostoner/Bostonian/Bostonite speak, I honestly thought he had a speech impediment, until I found out he was from Boston; not trying to be insulting, just relating my story here.

I've noticed that Calgarians (and most Albertans that I've talked to) share a very similar accent to people from the NorthEast of the U.S. (ie. none to my ears). In calling people in that area, unless they're from Brooklyn or something, they sound almost exactly the same as I do, to me; a specific area I can think of where they sound similar would be Manhattan.

Mr Cassata

Hi there!

To us Canadians (and we *do* get many American tourists), people often think of the "American" accent being an exagerated Texan accent...

We often associate that accent with arrogant, stupid, redneck cowboys (Athough I known several Americans, and they are none of the above! Please don't flame me... I'm just saying what some people think!)


My 0.02$(CAD)
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sadistikdreams

When South Park's dodgeball team went to China, the chinese sports announcers were making fun of the americans;
"I think I am going to use my credit card."
"I am going to drive my Sports Utility Vehicle to the store"
Very flat and monotonous.

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metalgeek

Don't have a drawl? to my ears (canadian) most people from the middle of the us all have drawls. (not as noticeable, but still there) montana, idaho, whyoming, kansas, all that area.

Halx

I don't have an accent. It's all of you who have the accent.

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Mephisto2

Americans in America are great. Very friendly, very hospitable. All round, some of the very nicest people in the world. And I've travelled a lot. Indeed, in some ways their friendliness and good nature is almost off-putting. Mrs Mephisto and I have often been stunned by, what in other countries or circumstances would be considered false and over the top, friendliness. I guess that, in some ways, "foreigners" are not used to it.

Americans outside of America are painful. They tend to be loud, self-centred, ignorant, insensitive and pushy. They think that if you talk LOUDLY AND S-L-O-W-L-Y at someone, then they will understand "American". They do not try to learn the local language, even if it's only a few phrases.

It's a strange dichotomy really. Americans in America = good. Americans outside America = bad.

The above comments are generalizations and stereotypical, but like all stereotypes have their basis in fact.


Mr Mephisto

Lockjaw

**Still chuckling at the Americans sounding like ducks comment**
I suppose with two languages as drastically different as those two it would only be natural for the two groups to think the others sound like some kind of animal.

Now about the Texas accent thing. We have a lot of different accents here. You can tell a Dallasite from a Houstonian from a person from West Texas.
Yes there are a lot of stupid inbred hick sounding folks but once you get into the more educated people the accent is still there but it's a bit more charming than annoying.
It's like the Georgian and Alabamian accents. The ignorant country folks sound terrible. But the educated Southerner while still thickly accented at least sound somewhat intelligent.
My Texas accent only shows up when I say things with r in them and of course y'all. Then it just comes out. I like to think a good Texas accent embodies not only our leisurely way of life(no we don't get into a big rush about anything), but also has a hint of quiet confidence. As we like to say..."It ain't braggin' if you can back it up."

JumpinJesus

Some years ago, I drove across country. I'm from San Francisco originally and was driving from there to Ohio to visit family. We stopped in Texas to get some Popeye's chicken. When I ordered my food, the cashier stared at me with this bizarre look on her face. Another cashier came over and did the same thing. When I asked if there was anything wrong, the first cashier giggled and said, "It's nothin'. Just that yew gahht a funneh acceyent."

I found it quite strange that she'd say that seeing as how I never thought of myself as having an accent.

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Squishor

I lived in Japan as a child and became very acculturated. I know that when I encountered other Americans, I had one of two responses. If the people in question knew how to act (read: been living in Japan for a while and had learned some manners) I enjoyed their company very much and wanted to talk for hours. However if they were newer visitors (i.e. tourists) I would run and hide so as not to be associated with them. I remember hiding behind some rocks in a garden at a temple when scary American tourists came walking down the path. They took big huge sideways steps like they were bowlegged, chewed gum with their mouths open and talked loudly like they were using a megaphone. If anybody had seen me near then and thought we were together, I would have just died from embarassment.

When my sister and I heard Americans trying to speak Japanese, we would make fun of their accents: "Wattarshi wuh ammurrikuh-jean desuuw" (watashi wa america-jin desu). Americans trying to speak Japanese sounded like they were trying to talk around a big rice ball in their mouth, only backwards. I can't say much about their English of course, being American myself, but I did notice that their use of the pronounced "a" sound as in "cat" and drawn-out vowels did not seem to mix well with the hard consonants. Of course that could have just had more to do with where they were from.

Squishor

I'm also from California, and when my girlfriend and I traveled through Texas we found that people stared at us like we were from Mars until we learned how to say, "thuank yeeeeuw." She and I sat in a diner and practised saying it together. As soon as we had that down to a reasonable facsimile, we got much better treatment. I'm not sure how I figured out that was the magic unlocking key to Texas.

Suave

Please don't generalize about stereotypes (hah, that amuses me). Not all stereotypes are based in fact, and many that are "based" in fact really only contain a tiny amount of factual information that does not justify the stereotype.

Also, all of the Texans that I have met to date have lived up to the Texan stereotype of loud, friendly, and obnoxious. Always amusing when you meet people who live up to their stereotype.

Ustwo

I'll have you know, sir, that you are making fun of my native garb. I think besides jeans, all I own are polo shirts and khakis, I wear it to work every day, I wear them out to dinner, I wear them walking the streets, and I damn well will wear them in any part of the world I please. Would you ask a Sikh to take off his turban? Would you ask a Saudi Woman to show you her ankles? Would you ask a German to not wear those funny hats and pants? I dare say no!

Now that my moral outrage is over.......

Living near Chicago there is a 'Chicago' accent, but ironically not many people in Chicago have it. I think at some point it was imposed upon the city by a movie, possibly the Blues Brothers.

Luckily my part of the country is mostly accent free. Not totally and I can do a good Chicago one when I want to (I need to say 'pulling cable' a few times to get it). Having grown up with a lot of Indian friends I do a much better Indian accent and was able to get my father to hang up on me a few times thinking he dialed a wrong number. He laughs now a lot more then he did then at it

As for American tourists being rude, I just have to say look at yourselves first. There is something about most tourists that make them seem rude, and god help you if you are in an elevator with a group of European tourists, my god people learn to use soap. Perhaps it is the sort of bravado that comes from being out of your element, perhaps its the little cultural differences on how you should walk, talk, and act. I think not bathing is pretty damn rude, but it doesn't seem to phase any Europeans. Likewise while most Americans only speak English and have VERY little contact with those who don't in the US, I'm sure we seem stupid and rude to Europeans who deal with several languages every day.

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Ustwo

People from Texas remind me of people who attended Notre Dame. If you don't know they are from/went there in the first couple of minutes of a conversation, they will be sure to tell you before the first 5 minutes are up.

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Suave

But they're not as bad as filthy hippies.

Mephisto2

Well, I'm European and I wash every day. Sometimes more than once!

I hope we all know these are sweeping generalizations.


Mr Mephisto

Ydde

I'm from south east asia, so I'm the person you are looking for.

Well, I must say that the first thing that come to mind is that Amercans are loud. I think that's because we speak relatively softly. It's considered rude if you speak too loudly in asian society.

The second is that you guys do speak very quickly and fluently. That's why many people here thinks that americans are articulate. You might want to keep in mind that most people's mother tongue is not english, so the typical asian here is not very fluent in english.

Well, I'm certain that most people in Asia can't distinguished the various american dialect. Heck, I don't think some of us can even distinguish between Europeans and Americans. In fact, to some of us, all caucasians sound the same

Fremen

Lot of Texas comments in here.
Y'all talk as if Texas is its own country.
And I ain't got no dumbass accent, neither.


/partial redneck

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spindles

I find it amusing that people think they don't have an accent. Everybody does, including my Aussie drawl.

g'day mate!

Also I wonder if you guys can stop american tourists wearing their stars and stripes track suits? That is one way to make yourself even more conspicuous!!

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irateplatypus

some good posts on here so far... thanks for the insight.

again, it's funny that an american accent conjures images of a tourist so consistently. i would venture to say that there probably isn't a single accent that we Americans equate with tourism or tourists. i think the loudness while traveling is partially part of our culture (i know it grates on me sometimes) and also because of unfamiliarity with our surroundings. being more used to talking to strangers at home, it's only natural that we be more extroverted in public than the locals are used to. i'll admit, we in the U.S. are insulated a bit... we have a large country and we do happen to export a lot more ideas/media/ass kicking than we take in. i don't mind saying some of us are much more ignorant of international norms... but few of us are outright rude. if you see an American making a fool of him or herself overseas... try to assume the best of them and do what you can to clue them in. we're used to strangers talking to us and would almost always appreciate a bit of insight from a local.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Mephisto2

All good points irateplatypus.

But let me add some further comments.

You're right that in most cases, "rude" American tourists are not being rude per se, but are just acting outside the local norms. Talking loudly in public is one example. They don't do it to annoy people, but some people get annoyed because it's considered rude or crass in that society. Ignorance of local customs (short sleeves and trousers in some Mediterannean countries for example). Again, it's not as if they are trying to annoy anyone.

Having said that, Americans are also used to a friendlier and/or higher level of service. So they are quite often put out by the apparent snotty attitude of waiters, shop assistants etc they meet on their travels. Again, these people are not trying to be rude (for the most part) to the American tourist, but it may appear so to them.

In other words, the vast majority of "conflict" that occurs is due to misunderstanding and differing cultural norms. Having said that, the tourist is the one visiting and it is incumbent upon them to adapt to the local conditions.

How often do you see a German, French or Italian tourist talking loudly in German, French or Italian at an American restaurant and getting frustrated they are not understood?


Mr Mephisto

PS - For the record, I love America and Americans. I think you guys are great. Just keep the voice down a little, and learn a bit about the history/culture of where you visit, ok?

almostaugust

Depends what regional accent of the US. We get so much american televison programs down here in OZ that i kinda feel like the tele is on when i hear one. I dont really get a mental image. I guess the overweight, loud abrasive sterotype might sometime come to mind, but all the americans ive met have been totally unlike this.

irseg

Dumbest accent I ever heard is where I grew up (western Maryland). They over-pronounce O's (as in "I'm goe-ing hoe-me"), "roof" is pronounced "ruff", "creek" is "crick", and "wash" is "warsh". At least most accents still have some sort of basis in how the word is actually spelled, instead of randomly adding/changing letters.

I'm in an accent-free zone here in Ohio. Go very far north, south, or east of here and people start sounding weird though.

d*d

In my experience this rings very true, my time spent meeting americans in america found them friendly (if a little insincere sometimes - you don't really care if I have a nice day or not) but outside america some of the most obnoxious people I have met have been Americans, and you know they're american because they will tell you within two sentences

"give me a beer goddamit - I'm an american"
"I'm an american, I'll have the steak"*

*genuine quotes