jwinch

My family come from East London/Essex Borders so I do not think that we have a particularly 'difficult' accent to understand. but quite often when we talk to australians they seem to have difficulty understanding what we are saying and usually end up on the receiving end of a blank stare or errrr!

My 10 year old son found a wallet dumped in our front garden, then contents of which including bank cards etc where still inside. On investigation we managed to find the address of the owner and i went with my son to return it. On knocking at the door and explaining the situation all my son received was a Whaaat errrr! then he prompltly took the wallet from my son and shut the door. no thanks, kiss my arse or nothing !!

Two days later we were walking along the beach when we discovered a dicarded diving flipper washed up on the beach, my husband put it on higher ground so it wouldnt be washed out again with the tide. On walkin further down the beach we came across the owner of the 'lost' flipper we told him where he could find it. again the only response we got was a grunt.

Its not that we expect a reward or anthing but just a bit of courtesy and thanks wouldn't go amiss

bridiej

Does seem very rude!

manxfamily

what do want? - a medal?



only joking, im sure the poeple you met were in a minority.

Siren & Brian

As for the accent thing.... it does take a bit of getting used to. I know that in the beginning I had some difficulty following a conversation because I found that most Brits speak very quickly and mumble a lot. (Like most people when speaking to countrymen.) The thing is... other Brits are used to it and fill in the gaps where necessary. Aussies can't necessarily do that.

After a while here, I find that most take care to enunciate and slow down a little so that other people don't struggle to understand, I know I do.
Kids, however, don't usually notice and are hardest to understand.

As for the other instances.... well, there are rude people all over the world. Australia is no exception. Try and let it roll off your back... there ARE nice, polite people out here!

Siren

baconmaster

I'm a Geordie and had much trouble buying bread in Hervey Bay in Qld 9 years, its not like my accent is dead strong too, all I said was "do you have any bread please ?" They looked at me like I'd asked how much it was to buy their daughter. After repeating the question another 3 times I added the words "to make a sandwich", this helped a lot and the issue was soon resolved. It was also quite early in the morning, and, by their standards quite cold (does temperature effect hearing) - 18 degrees, they laughed at me when I said I was off to spend the day at the beach.

Siren & Brian

Baconmaster! Geordie is one of the most difficult accents to understand! Followed closely by Glaswegian..lol
Both beautiful to listen to (can read a book to me anytime ) but forgive me if I don't understand a word you say.

Siren

baconmaster

my wife is from Glasgow and I can't always understand her, we are off to Melbourne for a recce in 3 weeks time, better take a pen and a note book if we want to communicate!!

Siren & Brian

LOL With that accent a charming smile and a pointing finger is all you'll need!

Siren

Carol in Oz

[
We are from West Ham and when my girls were younger we would phone my mum back there all the time. An expensive phone call as they couldnt understand her and she couldnt understand them! My girls, born here have aussie accents with a tinge of London but only on some words!

Sorry about the ungrateful people you came across but rest assured they are in the minority
Carol in Oz


QUOTE=jwinch]My family come from East London/Essex Borders so I do not think that we have a particularly 'difficult' accent to understand. but quite often when we talk to australians they seem to have difficulty understanding what we are saying and usually end up on the receiving end of a blank stare or errrr!

My 10 year old son found a wallet dumped in our front garden, then contents of which including bank cards etc where still inside. On investigation we managed to find the address of the owner and i went with my son to return it. On knocking at the door and explaining the situation all my son received was a Whaaat errrr! then he prompltly took the wallet from my son and shut the door. no thanks, kiss my arse or nothing !!

Two days later we were walking along the beach when we discovered a dicarded diving flipper washed up on the beach, my husband put it on higher ground so it wouldnt be washed out again with the tide. On walkin further down the beach we came across the owner of the 'lost' flipper we told him where he could find it. again the only response we got was a grunt.

Its not that we expect a reward or anthing but just a bit of courtesy and thanks wouldn't go amiss[/QUOTE]

Shellfish

This story makes me laugh, when I was working in the UK about 4 years ago, my boss was from Newcastle. He was one of the nice people you could wish to meet but I couldn't understand a word he said. After the 3rd 'pardon', or 'sorry, I didn't catch that...', I would usually just guess...I think the Geordie is definitely one of the most difficult accent's for foreigners to understand.

Badge

The irony is that Essex/London is probably closer to Australian English than most.....

the trick is to slow down, and relax. It's an intonation/delivery thing more than accent, if anything. If I call telephone banking in the UK they always sound so intense and quick by comparison. Your "ear" adjusts to Aussie speak.

This morning on ABC we had a UK academic on the programme.
He sounded extremely posh, even compared to the quite well spoken neutral tones (as compared to Ocker speak) of the Melbourne ABC hosts.

Badge

mlbonner

Probably true - born and lived in Surrey for my first 12 years, when I moved to Cheshire, more than one person asked me if I was Aussie (I kid you not!)

debsy

I thought that too lol Badge I will be ok then I have noticed that a lot of the slang words they use here are words that we used in the UK.