Do you become extra English??

[DavidUK]

Hey how ya doing??!!

I was making a PS the other day and my mum was taking the mick because i became Extra english on the phone, apparently i ended up sounding like a male mary poppins!!!

That made me think back to our last trip and i remember my mum doing the same thing and becoming MEGA english you know like Jane in Tarzan!

is this just us or do you find this happening to you!!!

David

 

[Bexx]

I swing between being very English and mid-atlantic!!! My DH manages to always just sound like himself and I really don't know how he does it.

I always feel so stilted when replying to someone with an american accent, but by all accounts they find our accent charming!

 

[signtalker]

LOL

I have been asked many times if Im Austrailian, both on the phone and in Person!!

Im english born and bred, and thought I had alittle bit of a Norfolk twang!

 

[JohnnySharp]

The Americans just cannot pick out our 'accents'.

I am from the North of England but in the past have been asked if I am from Wales, Canada and Australia.

Generally they think we are all supposed to talk like Prince Charles and Julie Andrews and anything that differs from this they just cannot handle.

 

[GarryK]

Have to say that's never been a problem for me (for obvious reasons !).

However, we do find ourselves often mimicking certain American phrases - usually starts with "Awesome"- and having to be very careful not to sound patronising.

After all, don't want to insult our hosts when we love going to their country.

Garry

 

[Tartan Tigger]

I always try to speak slowly when in America and they still don't understand my accent. I have been known to do an American accent over there, my most embarrassing was during my dolphin swim at Discovery Cove. It was only me and the trainer in the water and she told me to reach out and say, "I love you Roxy" to the dolphin. I did exactly as she said and in an awful American accent, her face(the trainer) was a picture.

 

[kazzie]

David,

My DH makes me speak to peple in the US because he says nobody can undersatnd him!Doh we both have London accents though? More often than not though someone will say to me 'excuse me?' because they don't catch what I'm saying either!

TT,LOL!

The trainers face must have been strained!

 

[juliebro]

We just got back from Orlando this morning. My son and I also have been amused by the frequent use of 'awesome' that we observed on our recent trip. However, I guess some of us in the UK are guilty of over-using 'brilliant' and 'fantastic'.

I am from Lancashire tend to slow down my speech and try not to use UK-English words when I am over there - and sometimes we haven't a clue what they are saying to us either. It can be hard to believe that we speak the same language!

We travelled back via Philadelphia and popped into Gap at Philly airport yesterday. The assistant I spoke to spotted that I was from England immediately and said my accent was 'cool' and he then asked if I was from Manchester - actually not too far from the truth! I was quite impressed. He then wanted to know all the latest about Posh & Becks! LOL

Julie

 

[Selina]

Yes, I think it comes naturally. "Ever so" is very english and a canadian once said to me he loved it when english girls expressed themselves using "ever so" as in "thanks ever so much" or "that was ever so nice" - he found it very sexy!

 

[daipp]

My family are Welsh and all the Americans "love" our accents and want is to continue talking - which isn't a problem for my daughter!

 

[***SandieUK***]

We got back yesterday! We found that by and large most Americans understood the English accent without any major problems. It was only a problem with people for whom American was not their first language, ie Spanish speaking people.

We were asked if we were Australian by some people.

Once, when I went to buy an ice cream, the assistant had to interpret my request to another lady. The conversation went like this:

Me: "A buttered pecan cone please"

2nd lady: "What she say she wan?"

1st lady: "Buddered pikahn"

 

[RUSHBURY]

Well I don't become English - coming from Scotland!

Last year we were in the fleamarket on the 192 and were asked if we were Irish or Scottish about 40 or 50 times and each time we said Scottish they said about how they love the Scottish scenery they'd seen in pictures but then added "does it always rain in Scotland!"

 

[TartanFan]

.... We were having breakfast in Tony's Restaurant in the MK and when our server learned we were Scottish, she said (and I'm not kidding!)

"Gee, my room-mate comes from Edinboro! Maybe you know her!"

My second favourite was when we were asked where Scotland was in relation to England! Have these people never seen Braveheart!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meaning no disrespect to the English (I live there and my DD is most definitely a Surrey girl!), it seems to me that an awful lot of Americans are desperate to claim Scottish or Irish ancestry - I wonder why?

 

[paulh]

we find that we are mistaken for asustralian and when we ask for butter they can not understand.When we tell them we are from england whe have been asked do we know bob from birmingham whats it like with all that smog.

We find that they think england is split into 3 London the Lake district and scotland most have never heard of wales.When you tell them that England is about the size of florida and 55 to 60 million live here they are amazed

when we bought a new property and it had a large back garden (200 metres square) i was trying to explain this to an ammerican he did not understand the metre square bit so i asked him how big is back garden was he said it was 5 acres at this point i told him 200 metres square was the size of a postage stamp

there are many qurks that we find funny like cutting up all the food and then using just a fork to eat a meal and even taking the meal home in a doggy bag even in a good restauraunt

But when we phone up i love there accent it allways reminds me of our holidays and when they say have a nice day to you you know that they mean it

Paulh

 

[SpecialK]

Died in the wool American here. I read this thread because I thought it would be interesting but I find myself becoming offended by the tone of some of the posts. I'm from Chicago. I can't tell what part of TEXAS people are from from their accents. Why would I be able to discern what part of the UK someone was from by his or her accent? Am I missing something?

By the way, what does "taking the mick" mean??

 

[paulh]

By the way, what does "taking the mick" mean??

I will give you a clean version ` making fun of someone`
Paulh

 

[Selina]

Originally posted by SpecialK
Died in the wool American here. I read this thread because I thought it would be interesting but I find myself becoming offended by the tone of some of the posts. I'm from Chicago. I can't tell what part of TEXAS people are from from their accents. Why would I be able to discern what part of the UK someone was from by his or her accent? Am I missing something?

Hiya....yes you are. I live about 27 miles from London, and I was born on the South Coast which makes me a southener. Generally out accents in the south are very distinguishable from those of people who live in the north of England....and......even southerner accents are individually distinguishable to areas of the South!! Example: in London you have people from all over the UK and obviously is multicultural with many people from all over the World - but to stick with just the Brits....you have cockney Londoner and the Queen's english. Now in many parts of the greater London area - you will have people speaking the Queen's english but go west, for example to Devon and Cornwall - the accent changes and is a recognisable change, similarly the more north you go the accent changes in the same way. The northeast and northwestern northeners are distinguishable from each other and to southerners. The midlands area is distinguishable from the south and the north. Wales have their own accent too! Scotland have their own accent as do Ireland. All are distinguishable from each other. And........that is a very broad generalisation of our accents. I could go even in greater depth regarding counties!! But to you.........we all sound the same.......just as your accents to us sound mostly the same - though we can distinguish your southern accents from your northern ones, but that's about it. Here....you really can distinguish one county from another!

 

[paulh]

one of the main resons why up north they have many accents in such a small area is when people used to work in the mills they used to mouth words and talk loud so people who worked in diferent mills would talk slightly diferently.where i live we talk differnt then people 3 miles up the road they inturn 3 miles from them and so on. In the areas of the country where there was not as much of this type of work the accent would be spread over meny more miles
Paulh

 

[Local Boo]

My favourite quote from an American to me (in Disney): "What language do you speak in England?"

My husband told him it was French.

The same American was very very impressed that I could see Windsor Castle from my office window. The first (and only) time I appreciated working in Slough!

 

[richard3330]

Originally posted by Local Boo
My favourite quote from an American to me (in Disney): "What language do you speak in England?"

My husband told him it was French.

The same American was very very impressed that I could see Windsor Castle from my office window. The first (and only) time I appreciated working in Slough!

LOL that is too funny!!!!!

Whilst queuing for the Polynesian Laua show about a week ago we were talking to some Californians who also thought we were Australian

Richard.