English Leads To Sex???

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
meegannie said:
If you go abroad/to a different region in the US for a while, you'll probably be able to hear the accents really easily.

That's true-I can definitely tell when someone has a southern accent, and the northeastern U.S. people have a bit of one, too (that whole New York City/Boston/Jersey-ish type of thing).

Originally posted by meegannie
Now I don't notice most English accents (except maybe Liverpool ones and Geordies [because of the inflections of Scousers and I can't understand some Geordie accents at all!]), but American accents are sometimes REALLY noticable and some sound way too nasal/grating to me now. :huh: Last year a friend of mine from college (in Kentucky) was in London, and her Kentucky accent seemed very thick, while I always thought she had a little to no Southern accent when we were in college.

LOL, oh, yeah?

I'm originally from northern Iowa...have you ever had any experience talking to anyone from my area of the country? Or has anyone else?

My dad likes to go online and look up radio stations from other parts of the world-we came across a New Zealand one tonight...it almost sounds like they're mumbling at times down in that area of the world, like they don't open their mouths fully when they talk or something, LOL. It's a neat accent, just a bit funny to hear at first.

Angela
 
Moonlit_Angel said:


That's true-I can definitely tell when someone has a southern accent, and the northeastern U.S. people have a bit of one, too (that whole New York City/Boston/Jersey-ish type of thing).



as an East Coaster with one parent from new york (mom, brooklyn) and one parent from boston (dad, all over mass, but mostly south shore) i am just so offended that one could possibly conflate the "noo yawk" with the "pahk tha cahr" boston and the "noo joisey" accents.

just becuase we're 40 million people crammed into a relatively small area doesn't mean we all sound the same.

do we? ;)

actually, its curious. it drives me CRAZY when actors try (and fail) to do Boston accents, which i'm told is the toughest american accent to emulate. notable failures: Tom Hanks (catch me if you can), Tim Robins (mystic river ... along with the rest of the cast). people who can do it: Matt Damon, Marky Mark ... i mean, Mark Wahlburg. obviously, since they're from there.

as for our friends in the UK -- it's taken me a while, but i can tell the difference now between, say, Liverpool and London accents, and i can even tell the difference up in Scotland between someone from Edinburgh and a Glaswegian accent. i have Sir Paul to thank for the Liverpool recognition, and i think most people could recognize a Cockney accent because it's a fairly common stereotype in films for decades.
 
what's worse is when some actor tries to do a southern accent. reese whitherspoon can pull it off, because she's from tennessee (she went to my church in nashville and called me the cutest thing :cute: ) other than that, any actor trying to do a southern accent is like nails on a chalkboard. like in the NE different regions have different accents. i can tell if someone is from the city of richmond or from the country.
 
Irvine511 said:
as an East Coaster with one parent from new york (mom, brooklyn) and one parent from boston (dad, all over mass, but mostly south shore) i am just so offended that one could possibly conflate the "noo yawk" with the "pahk tha cahr" boston and the "noo joisey" accents.

just becuase we're 40 million people crammed into a relatively small area doesn't mean we all sound the same.

do we? ;)

Haha, oh, geez, I'm sorry...I didn't mean to try and cram it all together, 'cause you're right, there is something of a difference between the three ways of talking over there.

Originally posted by Irvine511
actually, its curious. it drives me CRAZY when actors try (and fail) to do Boston accents, which i'm told is the toughest american accent to emulate. notable failures: Tom Hanks (catch me if you can), Tim Robins (mystic river ... along with the rest of the cast). people who can do it: Matt Damon, Marky Mark ... i mean, Mark Wahlburg. obviously, since they're from there.

Oh, yeah? I haven't seen those movies with those who can't do it, so I can't really say how accurate it is, but I could imagine somebody botching up your way of talking would be rather irritating.

Originally posted by Irvine511
as for our friends in the UK -- it's taken me a while, but i can tell the difference now between, say, Liverpool and London accents, and i can even tell the difference up in Scotland between someone from Edinburgh and a Glaswegian accent. i have Sir Paul to thank for the Liverpool recognition, and i think most people could recognize a Cockney accent because it's a fairly common stereotype in films for decades.

See, I'm not that well-versed in differentiating between the accents in certain towns-I just know that the Scottish, British, and Irish ones all sound different, but I can't tell what exact part of Britain or Scotland or whatever that somebody's from just by hearing them talk.

Angela
 
i was just teasing you a bit, if you're not from the NE then there's no reason you should be able to distinguish between, say, a Boston accent and a Maine accent, or a New York and a New Jersey accent. what was new to me was when i went to a funeral in Philadelphia -- there's a Philly accent that i was hitherto unaware of.

i'm only able to differentiate some accents in the UK due to having spent a good deal of time over there, and also paying attention in movies from the UK to the different accents.

i'm also interested when UK actors do American accents. some are damn near perfect -- Cate Blanchet, Jude Law :)heart:), and pretty much all the Aussies -- and some are terrible -- Kenneth Branaugh, Ewan McGregor. and the same applies to Americans doing the British thing. i'm told that Renee Zelwegger and Gwyneth Paltrow do quite well, and others not so much (the whole cast of that Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie).
 
Irvine511 said:
i was just teasing you a bit, if you're not from the NE then there's no reason you should be able to distinguish between, say, a Boston accent and a Maine accent, or a New York and a New Jersey accent.

Heh, I know...but you are right about there being something of a difference anyway. I can get an idea of where in the northeast somebody is from by hearing them talk.

Originally posted by Irvine511
what was new to me was when i went to a funeral in Philadelphia -- there's a Philly accent that i was hitherto unaware of.

Oh, really? Huh...never heard that one before.

Originally posted by Irvine511
i'm only able to differentiate some accents in the UK due to having spent a good deal of time over there, and also paying attention in movies from the UK to the different accents.

Ah. Well, then that would explain why I'm not as good at that, 'cause I've never been to Europe :)sigh: :(), and haven't seen many European movies.

That's another thing I find interesting in regards to those whose ancestors came from Europe here to America-how'd we lose the European accent along the way? How'd the southern accent, and the northeastern accents, and all that, come about?

Originally posted by Irvine511
i'm also interested when UK actors do American accents. some are damn near perfect -- Cate Blanchet, Jude Law :)heart:), and pretty much all the Aussies -- and some are terrible -- Kenneth Branaugh, Ewan McGregor. and the same applies to Americans doing the British thing. i'm told that Renee Zelwegger and Gwyneth Paltrow do quite well, and others not so much (the whole cast of that Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie).

I've heard the same thing about the American actors affecting the British accents-yeah, a lot of people say that there's some Americans that are just horrible at doing that. Haven't heard many comments about people from other countries affecting an American one, though. I'd be curious to hear how they do, 'cause I don't think I've ever heard a person from another country doing an American accent.

Angela
 
Irvine511 said:



how far would an american accent (just a sprinkling of "noo yawk" vowels) get me over there?

i promise i sound nothing like Bush.

Depends:

Rich + American accent = any man/woman

Poor + American accent = no man/woman

Yes, we really are that shallow.

Actually, I can be more specific with our women (<25 mainly), there anything less than:
Rich + Any accent + A white shirt with a blue pattern + A ridiculously over-the-top amount of hairgel + Absolutly self-absorbed idiot = Any woman



hey, who can guess what sort of mood I'm in? Roll on the 25th birthday......


( /\ Ignore this post. OK, continue)
 
Last edited:
Moonlit_Angel said:




I don't think I've ever heard a person from another country doing an American accent.

Angela

Kate Winslet does a perfect American accent.
 
The trick with accents is to listen and repeat again and again and again. The smaller nuances that you hear but don't conciously notice can be picked up by a lot of repitition ~ I learnt that and won myself Unreal Tournament 2004 for my William Shatneresque Karaoke skills :wink:
 
This study proves that if you want to get laid, pointing at your penis and sporting a sly grin probably won't work as well as verbal communication. It shouldn't be any surprise that hispanic teens in Arizona who can't speak English are less likely to get laid since most people in Arizona happen to speak English. Without doing a costly study, I could also conclude that hispanic teens who live in France and don't speak French won't get laid nearly as often as those hispanic teens living in France who do speak French.
 
Back
Top Bottom