languages

I've lived in England most of my 49 years, and even *I* have problems with some English accents! Northern English and Scots accents are far less of a problem...

I don't understand Daniel Day-Lewis. It takes me half a movie to get used to his accent. I think he's a great actor, though, even if I don't know what he's saying. ;)

-- Anita --

I have trouble understanding Dr. Who sometimes! LOL I really love that show. Thank you Brits for a job well done.

My DH cannot understand anyone from Australia. They may as well be speaking French. I have to translate everything.

Cindy

Hahahahhaah! I thought Marissa was referring to Southern or New England accents. There's that old ego-centricity rearing it's ugly head again.

C>

You mean he TALKS in his movies? Who'd a thought! :-) Cindy

Just curious, does he understand people from New Zealand any easier ?

Some words are pronounced differently in different states. Dh moved from New South Wales to South Australia at about 2 and I was born in South Australia (Mum was born in Tasmania). We moved to Victoria in '86. DD has noticed that her pronunciation usually changes to suit her enviroment eg.at home arn-ser, at school anne-ser (answer) (make sense)

Dee in Oz

teleflora wrote:

LOL!

I speak, read and write 5 languages more or less fluently (English, Spanish, Dutch, French, and German). It's not accents I have problems with; I have problems understanding PEOPLE period. The things people will do to make each other miserable!!!

Claudia

Dr. Who is the *best and always has been - it's so good the film industry has been snitching idea's from the programme ever since it first came out!

and with the new series I have been glued to the screen just like I was when it first came out in the UK - I am *so* glad I lived in the UK to see the programme then!!!!!

I'm with you on that - some people are just plain odd when it comes to finding ways to hurt another!

Well, we don't KNOW any people from New Zealand! LOL. But if we did, he probably wouldn't!

Cindy

DH and I once stopped at a restaurant in Mississippi and neither of us could understand a word the waitress said. That was the first and so far only time I've had trouble understanding someone speaking English as a native language.

I had some friends from Chile once, the husband was a doctor. He had a really hard time understanding anybody from the South.

DrQuilter wrote:

My degree is in Cultural and Organizational Communication and I LOVE to listen to people who speak English as a second language. I have a fairly good ear and it doesn't take me too long to begin to understand another person's accent. Of course, being from the USA, I am only fluent in English (talk about an ethno-centric culture!!) but I can curse in at least four others -- LOL! Fortunately for me, I grew up in a closely multi-cultural family. By this I mean all of my "foreign" relatives were from Western European countries. I had uncles from The UK, Ireland, Scotland, Sicily, Portugal and an aunt from Poland. My older sister married a man from Holland, my younger sister married a man from Iran and my first husband's mom & dad were from Mexico and spoke very little English. I grew up listening to English spoken in lots of different accents so I do have a bit of an advantage. When we moved to Magnoliaville (aka Atlanta) from Lizard Land (PHX), it took several weeks before my hearing became adjusted to the very pronounced southern drawl *everyone* down here has. When DD was here week before last, I spent most of the time "translating" for her -- LOLOL! She started to tease me because when we would go through the toll booth on the 400, I said thank you the way it is pronounced down here -- one word pronounced thankew. I told her if you enunciated the common greetings too clearly, the people who had lived here forever didn't understand what you said :-)! I quickly became used to understanding the accents, it's the colloquialisms that were a problem. This makes me wonder if it's not the terminology used that you have difficulty with and not necessarily the accent? Of course, there are many, many different accents in this country -- you don't want to get me started on how the folks in Minnesota (DH is a born & bred Minnesotan) can carry on a lengthy conversation and at least half of it is nothing more than grunts, ahs, ohs, eh, fer sures, etc. LOLOL. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^<

If you thought that was a challenge, you should try Mexican / Cajun. That dialect is driving our Kate T over in west Mississippi crazy. We are not even sure they understand each other. Then, there's the yummy pizza place in Alabama. DH ordered a sausage pizza. The server asked " poke-uh-tallin ?". DH looked at me bewildered. "Pepperoni will be fine", I answered. Polly

"blackrosequilts" wrote > DH and I once stopped at a restaurant in Mississippi and neither of us

LOLOL -- "Pork or Italian?" CiaoMeow >^;;^<

ROFLOL!!

Back years ago when I worked in an office, one of my co-workers named Dave had a rather heavy southern accent. The joke around the office is that when he was on the phone and had to repeat his name a few times (this happened frequently), it sounded like we were in a submarine under attack -- to us it sounded just like "Dive! Dive!"

I've been on the other end of that, too. I learned my French in the south of France. When I got back to the States and took more French in college, my fellow students often could not understand a word. The teachers had no problem, but the students had never encountered that accent before.

When I was in Scotland, my friends and I ate at a wonderful Chinese restaurant in Glasgow. Talk about someone being hard to understand! I have a pretty good ear for accents (grew up in a Navy town) but the Chinese lady speaking English with a Glasgow accent on top of the Chinese accent...whew!! I got jasmine tea... I don't remember what I actually ordered but it was fine. I' ve loved jasmine tea ever since! Debi (actually picks up accents when immersed in it)

Just wanted to chime in to tell everyone how much I'm loving this little offshoot of a topic.

I'm getting ready to start my Master's in English Compositon in the fall. I'm planning on switching to a Doctorate in Linguistics later.

Quilting, accents, and languages........

Sweet Mother, but I'm in heaven!

Anastasia

--who bought another few yards today for the Rose Window Stained Glass Kaliedoscope quilt that will be made sometime in the next decade....