What's your favourite accent?

[Patricia55]

This month has been great for bookings... if a little tough on my ears 😉  [NB not complaining!!]

Out of 6 guests, all but one had English as their mother-tongue, the other was French. The accents were: California, RP English, Dublin, Belfast, Welsh. To be honest, I'm not sure it's any harder for me to decipher a foreign accent than an “English” one! Ah, it's all good, keeps me on my toes, love a good accent, me. I rather pride myself on figuring out from someone's accent, as to where they're from 🙂

Does anyone else enjoy accents?  Any favourites? 🙂

[Stephanie]

@Patricia55 

Me mam was born raised in Heaton so am familiar with the crack! 

What a great topic by the way, makes me want to meet all of you lot all the more to hear those accents in real life!

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Patricia55 

Ooooh~ fun topic 🙂

I'm bilingual, English and Korean. 

I have an east coast American accent - I grew up in Maine and Pennsylvania -when I speak English, and a *standard Korean (a.k.a "Seoul")* accent.

I can pass as a completely native speaker for both languages  - a few people who I met thru conference calls first, then later face-to-face admitted to me that when we first met they were surprised to hear "such an American accent" come out of someone who looked like any other Korean in the office. They assumed I'd be somewhat noticeably different somehow - which is kinda hilarious if you think about it. 

Since I work as an interpreter I am exposed to all sorts of English accents and after listening to someone speak for 5~10 mins I usually catch on pretty easily. Based on my personal experience I've found English with a Japanese accent very difficult to get used to, and also there were a few people from the U.K. and Australia that had very unique accents that I found quite challenging. I had to concentrate twice as hard just to grasp the gist of what was being said. 

Regardless of accent, I like people who pronounce words completely and don't mumble 🙂 

[Patricia55]

@Jessica-and-Henry0 

Ah, Jessica, you are one of those of whom I am in awe 😉 Sure it helps to be bilingual from childhood but, even so, I reckon it takes a lot to become proficient in one language, let alone two! When I was making a determined effort to improve my French, I was convinced that for every French word I acquired, I was losing an English one – brain just not big enough 😉 Are you any better at one than the other? Or maybe it varies over time.

Me too, I appreciate it when people enunciate and, given my poor hearing, a bit of volume is good too 😉 I'm afraid I'm at the point with mumblers or low speakers (eg my beloved ;)), that I give up on saying “pardon?” all the time. It can just be too hard work! But, yes, accents seem to be something one's ear gets attuned to quite quickly.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Patricia55 

I'm more comfortable with English than Korean for most reading and writing. I also prefer to watch TV, movies in English than Korean although I have absolutely no trouble or difficulty with Korean. This has always seemed a bit strange, even to me, because I only lived in the U.S for 6.5~7yrs, from age 4 till end of 5th grade. I lived in Korea and attended normal, typical Korean schools from 6th grade all the way up to Grad school. How can 7 years have this much influence on me???

If a monolingual speaker's language proficiency is 100, then I was told (by several former teachers/professors) that my English is probably at about 85~90 and Korean at about 80~85. For reference, anyone at 80 or above is considered native ~ near native. The types of people who are extremely fluent but not quite native would be at 75~80. 

People ask me, when I think (in my head) does it happen in English or Korean? It's a mix, I'd say English (60): Korean (40). And when I take those personality tests about which side are you on, eastern vs. western way of thinking...... it's always 50:50. 

[Patricia55]

@Jessica-and-Henry0 

Wow, that is fascinating stuff. I'm guessing the early seven years of language acquisition would have been more ingrained in the young brain...? But you must have continued English study, because I've heard people say they were fluent in one language when they were a kid, but then lost it afterwards because they went on to live in a new country/language.
I'm interested in the personality test you mention (eastern v western thinking) – do you have an example of one? Must say, I enjoy doing vocabulary tests 🙂

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Patricia55 

http://korslang.blogspot.com/2015/05/which-mindset-do-you-have-asian-or.html

[Patricia55]

@Jessica-and-Henry0 

Thanks, I'm going to give that a go...

[J-Renato0]

Jessica & Henry1 in South Korea (The @ name is not working properly so far....)

You say - "How can 7 years have this much influence on me???"

Comparing with computer science, I would say your brain were firstly formated in English in the US in the north of the east coast as what you have said.

I think we acquire culture in the first years of ours lifes. We have to carry our roots forever. Only an actor can disguise perfectly its roots. We can change, learn languages, know other philosophies and others cultures. But our roots will remain the same.

I was born in Minas Gerais State in Brazil and lived there the first years of my life, so I will carry my roots forever. 
I think it applies to anyone that were born in any region in the world.

[Susan17]

@Patricia55 

Great topic! 

I'm very partial to a Geordie accent me, Pat! I lived in the Toon myself for a couple of years, back in the day, when I was working the casinos. Suffice to say, a lot of fun was had! 

Just this weekend I had an extended family of 10 Texans to stay, including 82 year old Grandpa. Poor Grandpa was completely wrecked after the long journey, and wasn't able for much of anything at all for the first couple of days. Obviously, the rest of the clan wanted to make the most of their time in Dublin, so I told them to go off and do their thing, and I'd hang out with Grandpa and keep him company. 

I admit, I struggled a bit with grasping what he was saying to me at first, because Grandpa's accent was strooong - a mix of Kentucky and Texas, he told me - but after an hour or two of chatting, my ears were tuning in just fine. Then he stumbled across Sky Gold on the telly... 

Turns out, Grandpa absolutely looooves British comedies. And even more, he loves imitating the accents of the characters in British comedies... Last of the Summer Wine, Blackadder, Dad's Army, Ab Fab, Keeping Up Appearances.. you name it, he mimicked it... to varying degrees of success!

Have to say, it was one of the most surreal - and entertaining - moments of my hosting career, sitting on my sofa with an 82 year old Texan bloke, listening to him laugh uproariously at his own parodies of Hyacinth Bucket, Patsy Stone and Edmund Blackadder's accents.. Comedy Gold, indeed... 😉

[Patricia55]

@Susan17 (not sure if tag is working)

That's a great story, I can literally see gramps, slapping his thighs and cackling... Hope you got video 😉

Gan canny, pet!

PS BTW, so nice of you to hang out with him 🙂

[Jody79]

I work with a guy from Britain that has lived in Canada for nearly 20years.  He still has a strong (what I call) British accent.  He’s fond of telling us Americans that we can’t speak ‘proper’ English. Lol

on another note, I pretty much grew up in Colorado. When I was 16 we moved to northern Michigan. I was often told I had an accent. I must have picked up the midwestern ‘accent’ as I haven’t been told I have one in years now. Lol

[Sarah977]

@Jody79  OMG, my ex used to do the same thing- he was born in Canada but grew up in London. He was always pedantically telling me and my American and Canadian friends how we didn't speak "proper" English. I asked him why then, when it's spelled Worcestershire sauce, they pronounce it "wooster" and why he pronounced "strawberry" "strawbry". 

I had a friend in high school whose mom had a super strong, what sounded like a German accent, so I asumed she was foreign and asked my frind where she came from. My friend told me her mom was born and bred in Wisconsin.

[Patricia55]

@Jody79(ooh, name tags seem to be working, as if by magic...)

I can't imagine telling anyone they don't speak proper English - hopefully this guy is just teasing you.. 😉

It's probably cos we get so much American TV, I don't know, but most American speakers sound the same to me, except New Yorkers and people from southern states.  I'm a massive Seinfeld fan and I loved the "drawl" of the (I think) Marlene character who practically hypnotised George and Gerrrryyy with her accent 😄

[Beth80]

@Patricia55 

I love listening to different accents!  I must say it's one of the things that I enjoy about hosting. 

I'm an American with a southern accent but have lived in Brazil for over 25 years. I'm considered fluent in Portuguese, but I have a horrible American accent, it's strong enough that when I talk on the phone I rarely have to identify myself anymore. 😕  

I can tell where Americans are from by their accents but sorry, all Brits sound the same. 

[Stephanie]

Breaking my British heart over here @Beth80 !