Do Brits have problems understanding Americans?

[MikePizzoff]

Every now and then when I watch something produced in the UK, there will be some characters that have such a thick accent I really have a hard time understanding what they're saying. I'm wondering if this happens for any of you from the UK when you watch American made media. Is it hard to understand the way certain people from the USA annunciate their words?

[Tricky]

Not really unless its a really thick southern drawl thats hard to make out. The way Americans pronounce words tends to annoy Brits more than anything else, like "mom" instead of mum, "toe - mate - oh" instead of tomato etc. I was at a zoo on saturday and we were just looking in the zebra enclosure when an american kid came running up with his family shouting "OH MY GOD MOM! ITS A STRIPED DONKEY!!" while his mum said "no, its a Zeeebra" (we say zeh-bra), my girlfriend was cringing as she's an english graduate & things like that really annoy her :lol:

[bassman]

I'm an American and sometimes can't understand American's.....

:p

[MikePizzoff]

I'm an American and sometimes can't understand American's.....

:p

Touch'e!

[Craig]

The only American I have to listen to a bit more intently is Georgian comedian Reginald D Hunter and that's only really because his jokes tend to be rather rambling, still very funny though.

[EvilNed]

"OH MY GOD MOM! ITS A STRIPED DONKEY!!"

Best quote ever? I do think so.

[krakenslayer]

We don't have problems with American accents as much because we are surrounded by them from birth in films, TV, music, etc. In fact, when kids are playing at soldiers or doctors or whatever, they will often try to affect an American accent in their games, because they see it as the accent of grown up fiction and make believe. So no - we grow up listening to, and even speaking with, American accents, so we don't have the same problems in understanding.

[Tricky]

Best quote ever? I do think so.


:lol::lol: we laughed too!

[Skippy911sc]

While watching my first Guy Ritchie film, I must admit it took me a bit to understand a few of the actors, but I had a Korean Economics teacher that was near impossible to understand at first also. I think the more you hear it the more you understand it. By the end of my economics class I could understand him plain as day. But my children I could understand as well while other had a hard time with them. It all about exposure...oh and I still have some trouble with the southern accent in the US...

[bassman]

While watching my first Guy Ritchie film...


Lock Stock and Snatch have some of the hardest dialogue to understand. Especially Mickey in Snatch. Funny character, though.

"yaliedags? Dags, yaliedags?"

[MinionZombie]

Best quote ever? I do think so.
:lol::lol::lol:

WIN.

...

Anyway, erm, no I've never really had a hard time understanding what any American says - you might get a little trouble with really thick southern dialects as has been mentioned before - but it is really more an annoyance issue as to the pronunciation of certain words (like aluminium, or Mum) ... or spelling certain words (like colour), that kind of thing.

I can imagine many Americans having a considerable amount of trouble understanding a variety of British accents - hell, even a British TV film about Scottish people (Glasgow I think), that was shown on BBC2 a few years ago was subtitled because the Scottish dialect on show was so insanely thick, that even I - a Scot - had trouble figuring it out.

There's a lot of Brit-only words, or slang, or Brit-only alternative uses/meanings for words - the most famous one probably being "fag". Each area also has it's own slang words, and then each generation has their own slang, and add on to the top of that all the variety of accents (and varying depths of said accents), and you've got a real melting pot of potential confusion for Americans (and others from foreign lands too).

[darth los]

I'm an American and sometimes can't understand American's.....

:p



It's funny that you say that Bassman.


You know how people make up little secret languages so that others can't understand them? Well, I've always said that in America if you don't want someone to know what you're talking about just speak propper English!! :thumbsup:




Just try it and you'll be disgusted in no time!! :hurl:










:cool:

[Tricky]

There's a lot of Brit-only words, or slang, or Brit-only alternative uses/meanings for words - the most famous one probably being "fag". Each area also has it's own slang words, and then each generation has their own slang, and add on to the top of that all the variety of accents (and varying depths of said accents), and you've got a real melting pot of potential confusion for Americans (and others from foreign lands too).

have you noticed accents in the UK are getting kind of diluted these days though?most people of our generation have gone to uni at the other side of the country,and none of us tend to stay still anymore with regards to travelling or moving around the country for work which is really breaking down strong regional accents. Most of my Yorkshire mates who went away to uni talk very differently to me when I speak to them these days, even though at school together we all spoke in a very similar way!

[major jay]

I think we've all become more similar because of mass media.
If it wasn't for a few slang words I'd think you Brits lived just down the street from me. Like they say in Videodrome, we're all patched into the motherboard. (or something like that)

[MinionZombie]

have you noticed accents in the UK are getting kind of diluted these days though?most people of our generation have gone to uni at the other side of the country,and none of us tend to stay still anymore with regards to travelling or moving around the country for work which is really breaking down strong regional accents. Most of my Yorkshire mates who went away to uni talk very differently to me when I speak to them these days, even though at school together we all spoke in a very similar way!

*woo, I finally bothered to figure out how to use Multi-Quote ... :p*

Aye I have noticed that - and actually my accent is very much a mish mash of various things. I'm Scottish, but when we moved away I was like 5, so I lost my Scottish accent quickly because it hadn't had enough time to embed. I still use some Scottish words, or occasionally pop a few bits of inflection in there, but sadly I don't have the accent to match my ancestry. :(

When I went to University in Norfolk I ended up picking up certain ways of saying things over there - one being the pronunciation of "sure", which we all seemed to pick up, but then drop after we graduated. Weird.

And yet there's plenty of accents on the BBC, although you're not really gonna find a scouser, you can walk 10ft blind folded in there and bump into an incredibly thick Irish accent by the looks of things ... and, to be honest, it does annoy me a bit.

I just want a generic newsreader voice, and I want the newsreaders to read unbiased news, and not have to refer to each other by their first names every ten seconds, and to not joke in between segments, and to not report the same shit every fifteen minutes ... ... but that's not gonna happen any time soon, is it? :p


I think we've all become more similar because of mass media.
If it wasn't for a few slang words I'd think you Brits lived just down the street from me. Like they say in Videodrome, we're all patched into the motherboard. (or something like that)

Indeed, I often say "zee" instead of "zed" for the letter "Z" - all because of Sesame Street. It depends though, if it's short for "zombie" then I say "zed" ... but then the additional character in I Am Zombie Man 2 was called "BenZee", so ...

Also, in the UK anyway, there's different ways of saying certain words - which pretty much boils down to a class differentiation, but again I use both ... for example:

Glass, or Class - can emphasis the "ass" - but it can also be said more like 'Glarse' or 'Clarse'.

Speaking of which, British people saying "ass" instead of "arse" just sounds wrong, unless in a proper context (e.g. "did you see the new Jackass movie?").

[SymphonicX]

Every now and then when I watch something produced in the UK, there will be some characters that have such a thick accent I really have a hard time understanding what they're saying. I'm wondering if this happens for any of you from the UK when you watch American made media. Is it hard to understand the way certain people from the USA annunciate their words?

Yeah as MZ said its a thick southern drawl that's hard for most people to understand - I wouldn't be bummed though, some regional accents in the UK are baffling to even me, and I grew up in East London me ol' China!

[ZombieGrrL]

Im not a Brit but I'm going to be cheeky and answer anyway :D American accents are easy to understand, most of the TV shows we watch are American. Thick British accents (don't ask me for specifics - I'm not good at regions etc) are harder to understand.

[sandrock74]

We don't have problems with American accents as much because we are surrounded by them from birth in films, TV, music, etc. In fact, when kids are playing at soldiers or doctors or whatever, they will often try to affect an American accent in their games, because they see it as the accent of grown up fiction and make believe. So no - we grow up listening to, and even speaking with, American accents, so we don't have the same problems in understanding.

This is really fascinating! I never realized this, but it does makes sense. How interesting.

[MoonSylver]

I always thought it was interesting how there are a lot of English actors who can sound perfectly American, but only some American actors pull off good English accents & the rest sound like they're doing bad Monty Python impersonations.

[Chic Freak]

I always thought it was interesting how there are a lot of English actors who can sound perfectly American, but only some American actors pull off good English accents & the rest sound like they're doing bad Monty Python impersonations.

Either that or as non-American people we *think* their fake American accents sounds really convincing... you know?

[MinionZombie]

Either that or as non-American people we *think* their fake American accents sounds really convincing... you know?
Kelly MacDonald (the 'school-age' chick in Trainspotting who gets banged-out by Ewan McGregor) has a very obvious Scottish accent - but you can't tell whatsoever from the likes of Choke, or No Country For Old Men.

Apparently fooled many Americans with her accent skills, so she did. :)