A YWS member bonding activity

Here in America we have regions that say things differently than other regions. Such as, we here in the South say 'ya'll,' while Northerners don't. And Northeasterners can have different accents from others. And Deep-Southerners have accents that are also different from others. I don't really have an accent(other than American). Although I did have a New Jersey accent for a while when I was little. And not only have I not been to the Northeast, but none of my family is from there.

What, and ya think everyone in England talks like a posh upstart sipping tea in his royal gardens?

Of course we have different accents in Britain! I have a Mancunian accent, can't describe it very well. Then there's scousers from liverpool (nice accent), cockneys from london (disgusting), geordies from Newcastle (not bad), brummies from birmingham (makes them sound like they're all stupid) and that's not forgetting the farmer yorkshire accent.

Yes, every single person in the United Kingdom has the exact same accent, dispite being separated by certain barriors and having different cultures. And everyone has royal gardens no matter what their heritage.
Of course I don't! I was just describing American accents!

Perra, I'm an American so I meant it in jest, and I was referring more to the bastardization of English into American over the past two hundred years.

I happen to have a Southern accent, being from the Southwest originally.

Easy guys. I don't think anyone is being malicious, just venting frustration over stereotypes.

And slightly off topic, but it's my thread so l don't care, does anyone else think the British accents in "The Sound of Music" are the best things ever? (Remember that SoM is set in rural Austria...)

Perra you're from Ar-kansas? Awesome!!
I'm from central Oklahoma originally.

Ah, I didn't know you were American! You confused me!!! And I wasn't yelling at you for that.

Only one person has told me that I have a hint of a Southern accent. But everyone else says that I don't. I do get an accent of some sort when saying some words. Like, I pronounce Mazzio's with a soft 'a,' and same thing with the first 'a' in Narnia. I think it's a shadow of my old New Jersey accent.

I wasn't being(nor trying to be) mean, just felt a little threatened that Americans were being stereotyped as stereotyping the British.

Haha. Those accents are cool. Actually, I find a lot of non-American accents to be cool.

Yep, I'm an Arkansan!! And proud of it, too!! Save for the stereotype some people have for us...
I have an uncle and aunt living in Oklahoma.

Oh dear Alyce, you would come up with something like this, wouldn't you? lol. no, im jk, i love you. I think that i Try to speak English, but living in Oklahoma, I just end up speaking American no matter how hard i try, lol. I don't think I have an okie accent though...do you? In fact A lot of people in OK don't have okie accents...have you ever noticed? -penny

Firestarter wrote:What, and ya think everyone in England talks like a posh upstart sipping tea in his royal gardens?

Of course we have different accents in Britain! I have a Mancunian accent, can't describe it very well. Then there's scousers from liverpool (nice accent), cockneys from london (disgusting), geordies from Newcastle (not bad), brummies from birmingham (makes them sound like they're all stupid) and that's not forgetting the farmer yorkshire accent.

(wish I'd come in earlier so I could comment right under that post)

...or that all Australians are uncivilised yobos sitting in the back of rusty utes drinking beer in the middle of the desert with Ularoo in the background?

Is the TV show Kath and Kim on anywhere else but here? Granted SOME people talk like that, but not everyone. For sure SOME people
say G'day, call everyone mate, call the sauce dead horse, use the phrase fair dinkum and sit around drinking stubbies at every oppertunity, but not EVERYONE does. Not EVERYONE lives in tiny towns in the middle of nowhere like Crocodile Dundee... must I continue?
Apart from the spelling, we're NOT really the same as the English at all...

PS I wasn't really being serious there, I wasn't particularly offended and was just trying to make a point.

PPS poms are brits (no offense) I don't really know who invented the term, but it stands for Prisoner Of Majesty and we use it quite a bit here.

I've been to Australia before (stayed mostly in Cairns, but had the chance to visit Alice Springs and Sydney as well) and the first thing that I noticed as I stepped off the plane was how American everyone talked, lol. I mean, there was some accent to be sure, but no one I met talked like Crocodile Dundee or had the stereotypical thick Australian accent. Mate was thrown around a lot, but I never heard "G'day" except for the "Say G'day" phone card that I had.

Anyways, I actually almost always use the British spellings for words, although I do so completely by accident. I've read the Economist (London based magazine) for so long that it's just natural for me to spell colour instead of color or defence instead of defense. Only word I can never adapt is programme. I mean, adding another m and an e just seems rather silly

With regards to American accents, the Gulf Coast is the worst. Most of my cousins come from that area and I can't understand a word that they say.

In the end, though, I speak American

Yes, every single person in the United Kingdom has the exact same accent, dispite being separated by certain barriors and having different cultures. And everyone has royal gardens no matter what their heritage.
Of course I don't! I was just describing American accents!

Eek sorry Perra! Didn't mean it like that, I was just joking. It just seems that if you watch an American film with a British person is, they all speak with RP and nothing else. It's really quite annoying. But I guess films always use stereotypes, it's quite sad really, most of them are based on the stupider breed of people....

I mean, adding another m and an e just seems rather silly

Well TECHNICALLY you took them off

i know a boy who actually marched out of spanish and said he couldnt do it and this is exactly what he said in his rich southern accent,
"i dont know why she tryna make us speak that mexican. i caint speak no mexican, i speak american!" and he was dead serious. nearly nineteen and in the 11th grade and bragged that he was older than all the seniors. sad, sad, commentary. *shakes head*

that is true about the stereotyping movies
for instance, the black people are always ignorant and wild (for the most part) and british are potrayed to be ever-so proper people and I KNOW thats not the case

I have a Mancunian accent, can't describe it very well.

Can you try?

I've been to Australia before (stayed mostly in Cairns, but had the chance to visit Alice Springs and Sydney as well) and the first thing that I noticed as I stepped off the plane was how American everyone talked, lol. I mean, there was some accent to be sure, but no one I met talked like Crocodile Dundee or had the stereotypical thick Australian accent. Mate was thrown around a lot, but I never heard "G'day" except for the "Say G'day" phone card that I had.

Were you terrible disapointed we didn't turn out like the movie? Because, movies AREN'T real. And let's face it, how many times do you meet someone exactly like the steryo type. OF COURSE crocodile dundee was exagerate (well, SOME people are like that, but that's still not common). That's why it's FUNNY here. But there are some people who do talk like that, I've got a kid in my class who's always talking like that, I haven't yet figured out if he's doing it on purpose or not...

And Firestarter's right, TECHNECALLY, you took the m and the e off, not us adding them.

(DANG! A lot of people have commented. I had to read fast.)

Am I the only one who's from the North-western corner of the US? I'm from the little-known state of Idaho.
Thus far, I don't think that anyone has had evil/mean intentions behind their comments. I don't.

When I went to Denver, Colorado, I met a handful of people who spoke down more in thier throat. They kind of slurred things together, too. Not unpleasant, but I had a hard time understanding them.

When I went to Irealand, I could easily forget all about the accent (I was the 'translator' for mom). I attribute the difficulty levels to my hearing.

Firestarter wrote:Eek sorry Perra! Didn't mean it like that, I was just joking. It just seems that if you watch an American film with a British person is, they all speak with RP and nothing else. It's really quite annoying. But I guess films always use stereotypes, it's quite sad really, most of them are based on the stupider breed of people....

I wasn't sure if you were being sarcastic or not. My post was supposed to sound more joking sarcastic than mean sarcastic. Unfortunately, you can't hear things through computers. Well, unless you have the technology...

I'm not that sure about what stereotypes other countries have for the US. Maybe that us girls are skinny blondes who don't think about important stuff and instead bad stuff and money and shopping...? I really hate that. And if anyone thinks that we're a bunch of stuck-up hard-heads. But I don't know, because the US is, like, the entertainment capital of the world, so we're exporting more than importing.
Speaking of which, I've kind of wondered if other countries watch American award shows?(I don't mean to sound stuck-up or anything, I know a lot of countries have their own)

I've forgotten anything else I was going to say.....