Americans can't understand us?!!

[D_Hammond Happydipper]

some people just suck with accents mate lol

Here in Los Angeles we use Proper English. (so-cal accent)
it's considered a accent. To the rest of the US.
I remember when I was in Spokane, Washington, every knew right off the bat where I was from due to my so called "accent" & sun tan not to mention what I was wearing.
I am guessing 99.999% of the people up there are pale white. :lmao:

 

[Bbucko]

I never understand Scousers

YouTube - scouse accent is horrible

Something tells me that the accent highlighted in that vid is just a little put on. I'd follow along until completely lost until I caught up. By about half-way through it was comprehensible though entirely inexcusable

Part of understanding any language is anticipation: I got lost when the speaker began speaking about the route he was traveling, as I couldn't have anticipated that (never having been to the UK). But that nonsense about "blue car" and the rest was disguised but not incomprehensible.

 

[D_Relentless Original]

Something tells me that the accent highlighted in that vid is just a little put on. I'd follow along until completely lost until I caught up. By about half-way through it was comprehensible though entirely inexcusable

Part of understanding any language is anticipation: I got lost when the speaker began speaking about the route he was traveling, as I couldn't have anticipated that (never having been to the UK). But that nonsense about "blue car" and the rest was disguised but not incomprehensible.

Maybe Bbucko, but I never can follow the accent and that video was a posh speaking scouser!! hehe.

 

[erratic]

Whenever I see an English-speaking person getting subtitled in an English-language program I stop watching. Same thing goes for a movie that gives you an establishing shot of something totally fucking obvious, like the Eiffel Tower, and throws up "Paris, France" at the bottom of the screen. I don't like being insulted.

 

[unzipped]

sorry but the news kept playing some interviews with Prince Wills and his fiance.... I could barely understand them..

 

[JustAsking]

I am sure that there are accents in the UK that I would not understand. But I have no trouble with any UK accents that I am normally exposed to through different media. I have a fondness for UK accents.

I can even understand Geordie if I listen hard enough. "Wey aye, howsit gannin at the match?"

I have recently become a fan of Lark Rise to Candleford. Those accents are crystal clear to me, but I don't think they are meant to be obscure on that show.

LR2C is on the same sentimental level as an American tv show called The Waltons, but it is made interesting to me because it is a kind of period piece. What humor there is is made all the more funny to my ear when delivered by Minnie or Twister in their accents and the slightly archaic word choice.

 

[Zeuhl34]

I can understand most accents, but there are a few people with particularly brutal accents (Lemmy, for example) who I simply cannot understand without really investing a lot of energy.

 

[superbot]

sorry but the news kept playing some interviews with Prince Wills and his fiance.... I could barely understand them..

I sincerely hope you're joking?!!..

 

[798686]

Something tells me that the accent highlighted in that vid is just a little put on.

It's not a real scouser - not a bad attempt tho. Sounded like Steven Gerrard in places.

 

[deleted3782]

When I was in Australia, one of my co-workers asked me what it was like to live in Boston. He commented on the fact that Boston was famous for cheese. I cocked my head, and thought...is he confusing Philadelphia Cream Cheese with Boston Cream Pie? I was bit lost, and he grew more frustrated with me. "Cheese! You know...cheese!" I just didn't get it. Finally he said "The TV show! with Sam and Norm, the bar! Cheese!" I felt so stupid.

That's what usually gets me...context. If I understand the basic flow of the discussion, I can follow an accent. If the subject is unknown to me, or I don't make the connection...such as Boston cheese, I'm pretty dense with accents.

I might be clueless with them...but I really enjoy accents and 90% of the time find them fascinating and enjoyable. When staying in Australia...I began to think to myself with an accent. Theirs, to me, is a very lazy accent that indulges the tongue and I find it quite familiar being from the American South (which I also think of as a lazy mouth accent). Here in the South, accents tend to tie closely with socio-economic groups. Those with thicker accents are generally more vernacular and less mobile. There are instructional classes here to teach people to temper their accents in order to become more attractive to potential employers who might have lower expectations for those with heavy accents. In the context of my region I have no accent at all...and people often assume a host of things about me because of that.

The fascinating world of linguistics!

 

[Kotchanski]

It took me two years living in Bristol before I could happily go out without my husband there to translate for me... If it wasn't me not understanding them, it was them giving me odd looks because they assumed I was speaking Welsh (Shut it Joll!) when they couldn't understand me.

Most of the British accents aren't too bad though for me, but I've worked all over and probably picked them up as I went.

American accents are "ok" but I do run into a few from time to time that make about as much sense as Bristolian did when I moved here.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

In the context of my region I have no accent at all...and people often assume a host of things about me because of that.

I would say your accent is perceptible but not particularly marked at all.

 

[798686]

It took me two years living in Bristol before I could happily go out without my husband there to translate for me... If it wasn't me not understanding them, it was them giving me odd looks because they assumed I was speaking Welsh (Shut it Joll!) when they couldn't understand me.

You can take the girl out of Swansea, but... :wink::biggrin1:

 

[kit_kat]

...is this true? It has struck me how often I've come across people in the States stating that that they can't always understand British people when they talk,and that they require something called 'close captioning' (?) when viewing British DVD's.When did this all this happen? I'm staggered!!

Most of the time it's not bad enough to require subtitles but British English and American English are different. Not only are the accents different but there are a lot of words and phrases that are used in one and not the other, there are also cases where the same word means different things or where there really isn't an equivalent for that word or for what you are trying to say in the "other" English. You know that dictionaries for American English and British English are different right? Well, translation dictionaries, from English to another language are also starting to differentiate between American English and British English and with good reason. I noticed this when I was deciding whether to buy the Amerikanska (American-Swedish) or Engelska (English-Swedish) dictionary for my Swedish language classes. I had to go for the American-Swedish dictionary (from Norstedts) - I got the meanings of the Swedish words better with the Amerikanska-Swedish dictionary, the words were more familiar and also I knew what all the words in the American dictionary meant as opposed to some translations which weren't clear for me in the British English dictionary, I'd look at the American and then think "Oh that's what it means". Both dictionaries contained more of less the same number of pages and words.

It's nothing to fret about though, as you've heard British people would need subtitles to understand what some Americans were saying.

 

[B_stanmarsh14]

Yes there are some British accents that I cannot understand at all...its true. I only understand about 75% of this guy YouTube - Cockney Accent

I know there are other northern accents that I wouldn't understand a word...

Way aye man, is canny like? :biggrin1:

Best Geordie accent (North-East / Newcastle) I can do :wink:

Most who have spoken to me, know despite myself living in Nottingham all my life, I actually have a Sheffield / South Yorkshire accent, and it can throw some people (Think Emmerdale), after spending many years at a college there.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

You know that dictionaries for American English and British English are different right? Well, translation dictionaries, from English to another language are also starting to differentiate between American English and British English and with good reason.

When I was in France, I noticed in some translated American books that the text had been "translated from the American by XXXX."
There seemed to be an explicit assumption that "the American" and "the English" were different dialects.

 

[kit_kat]

What do you think of Australian English then? I definitely need sub-titles when Australians are speaking.

 

[invisibleman]

...is this true? It has struck me how often I've come across people in the States stating that that they can't always understand British people when they talk,and that they require something called 'close captioning' (?) when viewing British DVD's.When did this all this happen? I'm staggered!!

I wouldn't take it personally. I don't understand a lot of dialects. Slang. If you aren't exposed to them, you aren't gonna understand.

 

[Calboner]

Maybe they need to attend the Monty Python Language Laboratory. Ee, ecky thoomp!

 

[LaFemme]

I've noticed some subtitles on American shows when someone with an accent is speaking - it blew me away! I don't think we do that in Canada - at least not that I've noticed.

I'm pretty good with accents, but perhaps that's because both my parents had very thick accents themselves as both were from different countries with very different languages. It has to be a very thick accent for me not to understand.