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Post by bjd on Apr 25, 2021 17:58:11 GMT
I was just having a look at the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and saw an article about covid in Amazon "fulfilment centres". WTF! These are warehouses. Orders are filled, not fulfilled, and the jobs are certainly not fulfilling.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 25, 2021 18:14:07 GMT
That is a plague everywhere, as in calling janitors and cleaning people "techniciens de surface" ("surface technicians") in French. This might help their self-esteem a little bit, but it would be better if they received a technician's salary instead of just the title.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 25, 2021 19:38:40 GMT
Americans think Canadians say aboot, but not really, like those Mancunians. Where did the craze for setting cars on fire originate?
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 28, 2022 20:51:06 GMT
I'm sure we all have reactions to various accents. Sometimes they appeal to us, sometimes they repulse us. And of course there are the accents of those damned foreigners trying to speak English. Sometimes it is charming, sometimes it is painful.
I have nothing against English accents, but certain American accents repel me -- not the standard newsreader accent, but the Bronx, Brooklyn or Boston accents come to mind. Some California accents are also unbearable. A lot of people can't stand southern accents, but since I grew up in that accent (and even had it myself when I listened to old tapes of my voice), it doesn't bother me. It is also the only accent that I can imitate credibly. And some people love the way it sounds. We all have our druthers.
Going back to England, I am completely incapable of identifying English regional accents, although probably I can identify Cockney exaggerations. Yet I absolutely love Scottish and Irish accents. Why? People are speaking the same language, so there must be a psychological element involved, but what? If we had no idea of the origin of any accent, which accents would we prefer?
And of course that brings us to the idea of foreigners (meaning non native English speakers) speaking English. I quite like Italian and Russian accents (but why?). German and Spanish accents appeal to me less. I know that a lot of people like French accents, but I am not qualified to judge them, although some of them make me cringe. All of the people who speak 'excellent' English while still sounding foreign (Scandinavians, Dutch, Baltic; Greek...). I myself am often guessed to be Dutch or Belgian or Swiss when I speak English. I have no idea whether it is meant as a compliment or not. After living in a non English speaking country for almost 50 years, it would certainly be weird if my accent had not changed. And when I go to the United States, everybody says I have a French accent.
So what about the rest of you? Which accents do you like or abhor? I know there are a lot of different accents in England (probably even more than in the United States) and that reactions are quite divergent.
Oh, I should close by saying that I quite like the Australian accent. The New Zealand accent is a bit weird, like the Canadian accent, but no real problem.
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Post by bjd on Mar 1, 2022 7:49:19 GMT
I find it interesting that you mention "unbearable California accents". I basically don't hear an accent when people from California talk. They sound like me to me! I find strong New York accents amusing, but don't mind them. But speaking of druthers, I really dislike southern US accents. As for Britain, I prefer a light Scots accent to any other. I'm influenced about Irish accents because we have a rather disliked Irish sister-in-law, but when we were in Ireland, I found that a lot of the people sounded almost Canadian. (And no, people don't say aboot!) Some English accents are okay, although the very posh sort of talk (royal family type speak) is nails on the blackboard. And some younger Brits I find totally incomprehensible, with their glottal stops and swallowing half the letters. To me, Australians sound as though they are talking with their teeth clenched. Both in Kenya and Quebec I was told how well I spoke English.
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Post by whatagain on Mar 1, 2022 8:37:19 GMT
Of course we all know accents around us but can't spot accents from elsewhere. I love southern french accent, i dislike accent from rappers...
Back to english accents. First let me remark to Kerouac that being told he has a belgian accent is fantastic but tarpeian rock being close to the capitol, having a dutch accent is not 🇧🇪🇧🇪🇧🇪.
I love most english accents and dislike most US accents. When it becomes nasal and less articulate, that is when i cringe. but this is valid for flemish accents too ! I have a cousin with such an accent...
In foreign accents i dislike Korean one, but like chinese accent. I love most of all italian and hate belgian accent (of course since it sounds like mine ?).
French accents can be really awful.
The worst of all, for me, is the accent of Jane Birkin when speaking French.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 1, 2022 9:52:21 GMT
Because I'm used to Germans speaking English I can identify them as German pretty quickly, and I'm not so keen at all on the sound of it. People like the F1 Mercedes principle, Toto Wolf, sound very German. I can also generally identify those from Holland, Switzerland, Bayern and Austria. When speaking in their own language I can't say I'm keen on their accents either. Same with Afrikaans, always sounds arrogant for some reason. I can't really identify American accents of which some are reasonably neutral to me to those I dislike, especially this grating sound in the back of their throat which seems to be the fashion nowadays. French sounds classy, I hear Spanish a lot and that's quite good to my ear, same as with Portuguese. Slavic languages I also hear a lot, some are ok, some not so.
Mild Scottish is fine to hear, but not the harder Glaswegian type. Irish is the same depending on north or south. I had an Irish uncle who had a harsh accent and it put be off from a young age. My accent is mistaken a lot and there's no getting away from how an accent promotes preconceptions in the listener. I can identify the different accents from the towns and villages around where I grew up and a big clue anyway is the way you are greeted and some of the dialect words used in general conversation. Brummie, Mancunian, Bristol, Liverpool, Norfolk, Somerset etc, all fairly easy identifiable, Cornish for example, less so. Those from 'up north' and 'daan sarf' vary a lot but usually can be placed reasonably well. My father spoke BBC English and always gave the impression of being a 'gentleman'. My mother had a tint of her locality but was generally quite neutral.
Best accent ever that makes me weak kneed is a young woman speaking the sing-song lilt of Welsh (not the exaggerated High di High woman though).
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 1, 2022 17:01:07 GMT
... there's no getting away from how an accent promotes preconceptions in the listener. Totally true, but those reactions speak more poorly of that listener than of the speaker & his/her natural speech. I can't really identify American accents of which some are reasonably neutral to me to those I dislike, especially this grating sound in the back of their throat which seems to be the fashion nowadays. The new ways of speaking -- which include introductions from California -- are violently annoying to me. They aren't really accents, but affectations apparently learned from television. I don't know how the hell people manage to incorporate that stupid hkkkkkk sound, but I guess if you really study Kardashians & other "influencers", you can do it. Another young-speak addition, in US speech anyway, is the insertion of pauses and inflections which attempt to make any sentence, no matter how mundane, sound weighty: "I had [pause] toast [pause] for breakfast." All American and English Canadian accents sound normal to me, for the obvious reason. I can have trouble understanding English from the rest of the English-speaking world sometimes because some of it is spoken faster than I consider necessary and because of different inflections on some words. "Controversy", for instance, is different to the way it's said in US English. I don't usually like or dislike the sound of any foreigner speaking English, as I'm more lost in admiration of the fact that they've mastered it. Admittedly, it's harder for the native speakers of some languages to completely shed their accents when speaking English, just because of the ways our brains are hard-wired by our mother tongues. I sometimes have to really listen closely to a French friend, even though her English is perfect, whereas I have no trouble understanding a German friend & even like his accent. That said, the French friend's accent is quite charming.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 1, 2022 17:45:19 GMT
My stepfather was born and raised in North Carolina and always had an accent from that region. What was funny was when my parents moved there for a couple of years (they thought that the winters and summers would be milder than north or south of there -- big mistake -- although in the end what really drove them away was the religious obsession of the residents). But also my stepfather said he could not understand the accent of the people there. My mother and I found this hilarous because we could understand these strange people. And I took my parents to a company reception once in Paris where they talked with a number of my colleagues, all of whom spoke English reasonably well. At least two of them told me afterwards "I couldn't understand a word of what your father said."
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 1, 2022 20:03:05 GMT
Totally true, but those reactions speak more poorly of that listener than of the speaker & his/her natural speech. Yes it does. But also it can be in a positive way the listener reacts as in a Fish Called Wanda. "I had [pause] toast [pause] for breakfast." Just to mention that toast is important no matter the time of day.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 1, 2022 21:01:29 GMT
Just to mention that toast is important no matter the time of day. I admire your ability to go directly to the crust crux of the matter. can be in a positive way the listener reacts as in a Fish Called Wanda.
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Post by whatagain on Mar 1, 2022 21:26:01 GMT
Totally off topic but mentioning A fish called Wanda reminds me of a scene where John Cleese asks Wanda what she did and she basically answers she killed the guy.
John Cleese is stunned and says 'Wanda !' Then recovers himself : ' i wonder ...'.
In French dubbing : 'Wanda' (with a w pronounced as a v) Then 'avant d'aller plus loin ...'.
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Post by fumobici on Mar 2, 2022 2:51:15 GMT
Having grown up in California, I naturally don't hear the accent. Californians sound pretty much like Washingtonians or Arizonans or Ohioans or even Canadians to my tin ear. I am occasionally accused of sounding Canadian and I don't even know what that means! K2, you've got a pretty standard American accent in English if I am remembering correctly.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 2, 2022 3:11:49 GMT
I was told by a Polish woman in Colombia she liked the way I spoke English and I did it really well. My accent was understandable. This was before she knew I was English. She asked how long I'd be speaking it, I replied, I started at about two years old forming proper sentences. She'd heard me first speaking German and made an assumption as she thought my German speaking accent was just a regional accent from somewhere in Germany. She didn't recognise my heavily accented German is done with an English accent. I gave a Colombian hotel receptionist I was managing to string a couple of coherent sentences to in Spanish my UK passport. He looked at it and said. "So that's where your accent comes from."
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 4, 2022 2:43:14 GMT
Just came across this clip by accident & thought it would fit well into the recent posts in this thread ~
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Post by patricklondon on Mar 4, 2022 7:08:31 GMT
Just came across this clip by accident & thought it would fit well into the recent posts in this thread ~ They were re-making Dallas all along!
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Post by questa on Mar 4, 2022 7:14:36 GMT
Three different British people have told me I have an accent like people from Kent. Is this good or bad? My Dad had me read to him while holding a pencil between my front teeth. This makes you have to use your cheeks, lips and enunciate clearly. Generally Oz speakers don't open the mouth much when chatting but are better if talking to the Boss. The old joke is that the old bush dwellers daren't open their mouths in case a bush-fly flies in.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 4, 2022 15:43:35 GMT
They were re-making Dallas all along! Okay -- laughing, but resentful that you ruined one of my favorite shows for me!
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Post by patricklondon on Mar 4, 2022 15:50:11 GMT
Well, I'm not in a position to judge how well they get the accents, but in that bit they certainly got US-style soap acting down to a T. I wonder how much time they got to think about it and rehearse. My blog | My photos | My video clips | My Librivox recordings"too literate to be spam"
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 4, 2022 16:14:52 GMT
The accents are perfect. It certainly looked as though the scripts were sprung on them & that they invented the interpretations on the spot. Not only were they "American" accents, Dockery's and Leech's were amusingly trendy. The Earl of Grantham transformed into an all-American businessman was brilliant.
American actors aren't always good at accents, particulary US southern accents which they all think they can do but all just induce full-body cringing with their horrible deliveries. (big exception: Julia Garner in Ozark, who is perfect)
English actors -- with the exception of Oliver Reed -- always seem to do a credible US accent. When I started watching The Wire a friend pointed out that two of the leads -- Dominick West & Idris Elba -- were both English. Their accents were both so perfectly fitted to their characters that I had to look it up before I believed her.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 4, 2022 16:18:40 GMT
How did you rate Hugh Laurie in House?
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 4, 2022 16:34:36 GMT
Actually, I found two of the three accents in the video a bit off, but it it was really sprung on them as a surprise, it was quite good. And gosh, at the movies today they showed the trailer of the movie Downton Abbey II. Looks like one of them inherited a villa in the south of France. Oh god help us!
Meanwhile, I have never been satisfied with Ewan McGregor's American accent.
Hugh Laurie's accent is quite good, but every now and then you can feel him forcing himself.
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Post by bjd on Mar 4, 2022 17:06:43 GMT
Speaking of accents and language, I just turned on the news and I am getting a UN meeting about the attack on the nuclear plant in Ukraine. Why can the US ambassador to the UN not pronounce "nuclear"? It's not "nucular". She's not the only one who does that, of course, but I should think she should know better.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 4, 2022 17:10:38 GMT
Aluminium, Aluminum....
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 4, 2022 17:14:13 GMT
...pronounce "nuclear"? It's not "nucular" Maybe it's a Midwest thing? I've known more than one Midwesterner who says "simular" instead of similar. Mick, since I never watched House, I went & looked at some youtube clips. I'd say that if it wasn't known that Laurie wasn't American, his accent would not be questioned. edited to say that aluminum/aluminium are not examples of mispronuciation because they're pronounced correctly according to the spelling in the respective countries
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 4, 2022 17:22:03 GMT
I stand corrected re spelling....
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 4, 2022 17:23:51 GMT
Do we mention Dick Van Dyke?
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 4, 2022 17:40:07 GMT
Shouldn't we have had this discussion in Febuary?
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 4, 2022 17:54:10 GMT
Oh gawd, Dick van Dyke ~ *orp!*
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 4, 2022 18:05:27 GMT
People talk about cultural appropriation all the time when a white person is playing a latino or an Asian or straights are playing gays or hearing people are playing deaf people and it appears that a lot of people find this unacceptable.
So why are we accepting British or Australians playing Americans, or Americans playng British or Irish? Shouldn't this be banned or can white people do whatever they want to the culture of other white people?
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