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| How difficult is it to understand an American accent? |
| Not difficult at all |
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79% |
[ 55 ] |
| Not that difficult |
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4% |
[ 3 ] |
| Fairly difficult |
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4% |
[ 3 ] |
| Quite difficult |
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2% |
[ 2 ] |
| Very difficult |
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8% |
[ 6 ] |
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| Total Votes : 69 |
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Message |
Chris2007
Joined: 20 Mar 2007
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 Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 6:42 am Post subject: |
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| PigeonFart wrote: |
When it comes to accents, the simple advice is to change the way you speak when you're speaking to people from "elsewhere" (other country/province/city)...just speak clearly and enunciate properly. Leave your natural accent and dialect for your old school friends and people you grew up with.
I get annoyed when some people claim that they don't have an accent....everyone does. Statements like "i dont think i have an accent" tend to be said by people from a particular region of the English speaking world....which shall remain nameless. [An understandable phenomenon though, given its insular focus and low level of passport possession]
These are the very people who i can geograpically place the SECOND they open their mouth (because to my ears they have such a profound accent). It's all relative. What arrogance to claim that your accent is neutral and accentless. |
True. Americans have one of the most identifiable accents in the world, and there is quite a variety of them too.
I guess people just don't think of their own sound as being an accent because they're just so used to it. But to others the difference is obvious. |
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Geckoman
Joined: 07 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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| samcheokguy wrote: |
| Dumbest thread ever...seriously... |
I assume your a Yank with a very thick American accent and have experienced not being understood by others.
Well, look on the bright side. The American accent is the most understood accent of all the English speaking accents. People all around the world get exposed to the Yankee accent from movies, TV shows, music, etc.
There is no reason to take offensive of this poll.
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ryunatkorea
Joined: 14 Apr 2009
Location: Sincheon, South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think I've ever had anyone having trouble communicating with me in English because of my American accent in Korea as well as KSA and Malaysia.
On the flip side, I apparently picked up an southern Korean accent with a dash of Jeju that drives Seoul Koreans mad in confusion. |
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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Sleepy in Seoul wrote: |
| Underwaterbob wrote: |
| While we're at it: South Africans seem to have the most diverse accents. I've heard all the way from near indecipherable to incredibly legible from the same country. |
I'm extremely impressed that you can hear a legible accent. |
Yeah, my vocabulary failed me. I was being quaint. |
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kiknkorea
Joined: 16 May 2008
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| Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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I'm American and I can understand most any American accent.
Speakers can be another matter if they mumble or use regional slang. |
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Gaber
Joined: 23 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:49 pm Post subject: |
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| I've never had a problem, execpt with a Texan girl saying "drawn". Or it may have been "Drawing", can't quite recall. Either way, I didn't have the slightest idea what she meant untill she wrote it down. |
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DrOctagon
Joined: 11 Jun 2008
Location: Chicago
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| Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:23 pm Post subject: |
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I've only had a problem with a few Southern African Americans. It takes a little while to get used to buy your ears/brain adjusts. At first it sounded like this:
Aye, shigala bom bom bang bang don dur mane den! |
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tophatcat
Joined: 09 Aug 2006
Location: under the hat
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| Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:18 am Post subject: |
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| bump |
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Muskoka's Own
Joined: 20 Apr 2009
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| Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:09 am Post subject: |
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| PigeonFart wrote: |
When it comes to accents, the simple advice is to change the way you speak when you're speaking to people from "elsewhere" (other country/province/city)...just speak clearly and enunciate properly. Leave your natural accent and dialect for your old school friends and people you grew up with.
I get annoyed when some people claim that they don't have an accent....everyone does. Statements like "i dont think i have an accent" tend to be said by people from a particular region of the English speaking world....which shall remain nameless. [An understandable phenomenon though, given its insular focus and low level of passport possession]
These are the very people who i can geograpically place the SECOND they open their mouth (because to my ears they have such a profound accent). It's all relative. What arrogance to claim that your accent is neutral and accentless. |
Sigh, obviously you're talking about Yankees. Being Canadian I know all too well what the accents there are like. However, when you're speaking to other people you adivise speaking differently? You say "change the way you speak." From where I am from, I have no accent, obviously this is a relative thing. However, because my "accent" in natural to me, I can't really change that when talking to other people unless I try to imitate another accent. |
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Muskoka's Own
Joined: 20 Apr 2009
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| Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:14 am Post subject: |
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| Geckoman wrote: |
| samcheokguy wrote: |
| Dumbest thread ever...seriously... |
I assume your a Yank with a very thick American accent and have experienced not being understood by others.
Well, look on the bright side. The American accent is the most understood accent of all the English speaking accents. People all around the world get exposed to the Yankee accent from movies, TV shows, music, etc.
There is no reason to take offensive of this poll.
|
I don't know if I agree with this. The accents on movies, TV shows, music etc. do not represent the whole of the States. In Canada, other than Quebec and Newfoundland, basically the whole country has a similar accent, and it is THAT accent that is shown on Movies, TV shows, etc. Yes, a lot of Yankees speak that way too, but very few in the South do, and then there's New York/Jersey, Boston, Minnesota....so many different ones!
I don't think you can say "The American accent" because there are so many. Canada (again other than Newfies and the Quebecois) has a mostly uniform accent. |
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aboxofchocolates
Joined: 21 Mar 2008
Location: on your mind
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| Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:24 am Post subject: |
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| Underwaterbob wrote: |
| Sleepy in Seoul wrote: |
| Underwaterbob wrote: |
| While we're at it: South Africans seem to have the most diverse accents. I've heard all the way from near indecipherable to incredibly legible from the same country. |
I'm extremely impressed that you can hear a legible accent. |
Yeah, my vocabulary failed me. I was being quaint. |
Quaint means odd. You were just being wrong. |
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nicam
Joined: 14 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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I'm a Yank from NY and I understand my English boyfriend from Brighton/Hove better than I understand southerners in the US, or Americans from Fargo counrty or Brokeback Mountain land.
I can't understand people from the north of Great Britain though, with the exception of my one friend who just sounds like the dude from Oasis. |
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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| Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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edit
Last edited by djsmnc on Fri Apr 24, 2009 8:04 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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