Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6470095.stm

Apparently we should all be coasting along on our accents. I know the accent topic has produced many threads before but now it's official according to the BBC. I know personally I don't get as many references to the accent now I am in downtown Toronto as I did when I lived in Newmarket ON just north of the city. There is such a density of immigrants in Toronto that nothing is unusual. Smaller towns though with lesser immigrant populations and that's when the waitresses in resteraunts etc. are astounded. I recall the first time I came to Canada and going out to dinner just at a regular neighbourhood bar and grill type place and the waitress was in disbelief that someone from England was sat there ordering a cheeseburger and a coke.

I didn't realize until my last few trips back to the UK just how much my vocabulary had changed and how that changes perceptions. I don't think I sound Canadian as far as an accent goes but just using words like parking lot and sidewalk etc. which seem so normal now are so "American" if you are in a northern town in England that people think you sound "American" or "Canadian" more because of your word usage than your accent.

Anyone else here feel that making fun of British accents is more acceptable? I recall when I first started at my work everytime you spoke to anyone they would affect a stereotypical English accent and do their cliched phrase. I kept asking them if they would do the same thing in a fake Chinese accent to someone from China and they look aghast at the thought of something so politically incorrect or 'racist' but then go right back to the British accent cliches. I don't know if it's the ex empire thing that make it more acceptable but you hear the phrase ' visible minorty' a lot but not the phrase 'invisible minority' where everyone presumes you are Canadian until you speak, but the subject of racial assumptions I guess is a whole other thread.

Funny accent stories along the lines of "You speak English quite well for a new immigrant" and "Where is Wales, is that in France?" etc.

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

Oh I get it all the time. "I just love your accent!" etc etc. My first boss in Canada, highpowered female CFO type would listen to how I was saying whatever I was saying not what I was saying. Which was frustrating at times!

Currently I have a colleague who can't help adopting an attempted English accent everytime he talks to me. This is despite me taking the piss out of him repeatedly every time he does it. Ah well never mind! Similarly the Newfoundlanders that work for me get a real kick out of me using local colloquial expressions (such as 'What's on the go?', 'Whattayat?' and 'Lord tunderin Jeesas!') in an English accent!

I'm rather perversely proud of my RP BBC type English accent anyway which I acquired despite growing up in Norfolk, going to Uni in Devon and then working in Essex for 16 years. I rather suspect that it'll survive Newfoundland as well. I take it as a reassurance that I can always fallback on a career as a voice over artiste!:D

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

Here's one to keep in reserve. I don't lay claim to it but I have used it.

"I love your accent".

"I don't have an accent; this is what English sounds like when it's spoken properly".

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

I've been told I "talk funny" - whether this refers to my accent or my sense of humour, I don't know.......... ;)

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

I've never had anyone make fun of my accent in front of me only comments about how much they like it although that makes me cringe. I hate going into stores and simply not being understood and that frustrates me.

My daughter works part time at McDonalds and sometimes she operates the drive-through. Every so often after she takes the order she hears through the intercom the people in the the car mimicking her accent without realising she can still hear them.

As an aside when it comes down to making fun of people I suppose it would be great if it never happened to anyone because we never really know what hurt it can cause. It happens rarely but it's alway surprised me how over the years people though it was acceptable to joke about my loss of hair. I'd grin and accept it but completely resented it. I hated the fact that it had happened (and still do) so it really bothered me to be a target of a joke every now and then. But it's the world that we live in.

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

I, too, have heard the "talking funny" discourse. The funniest reply, though, was when a lady from Saskatchewan showed me a document (after a couple of hours of chit-chat) and gently asked me "Can you read English?" I blinked in amazement and said "Er... beg pardon?"
"Well", she replied, "with this French accent of yours..."

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

Me too.

Sadly people now (on both sides of the pond) are commenting that Im starting to sound more native.:ohmy:

I expect its cos Ive caved in after numerous drive through skirmishes and now say tomehtoe, and refer to footy as "soccer":o

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

Sweet mother of God! What kind of redneck hicks are you running into?? I'm from small town Canada, and I don't think I've ever had trouble understand someone from England due to their accent. Maybe it's because my mom watched Coronation St. when I was growing up?:huh:

I do believe that people make a big deal of your accents, though. I love languages and accents, so I've been known to comment (not to strangers, though). We had exchange students from everywhere when I was in high school. The only time communication became an issue was when there were vocabulary differences.

Here in Hong Kong, most British people I've met have been great. However, I met this one #$%$ from London. She proceeded to rant and rave about how Americans don't speak English, they speak American. Finally, I said 'well, Canadian accents are very similar to American accents, so does this mean that I don't speak English?' She said 'that's right'. Even though I was seething, I calmy informed her that if I didn't speak English then there's no way we would be having this very civil conversation. Is this a common sentiment in the U.K.? I mean, I can understand all of you getting pissed off if people tell you that you 'talk funny', considering you're from the Motherland, but still....

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

I used to get the "love your accent" etc when I lived in Australia and New Zealand, and I speak pure Canadian, so I think people just like to hear people speaking differently than the norm for the area. Now that I am here in Canada, with a NZ husband, I struggle to remember to use diapers, sidewalk, gas etc when speaking to Canadians, made especially hard because my husband and I use the NZ (or British, or Australian) words at home. I casually said "In a fortnight" the other day to my mom and I know she thought I was putting it on.

The worse part about having an accent different from the locals is that you are never anonymous ! I hated that everyone knew it was on the phone, or remembered me after a brief introduction--I wanted to blend into the crowd a bit more than I did. Now that we are in Canada, I can make all the obscene phone calls I want and no one knows it's me--freedom!

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

I'm aware that my vocabulary has changed a bit. That is usually most apparent when I go to the UK and get odd looks ("can I get....?". "I'll call you from my cell..." etc). I can also be a little too free with the "F" word. It's not considered rude here and I sometimes forget that.

I'm not sure about accent. It's not something I've ever discussed with anyone who has known me long enough to notice the difference. People I have known with very strong regional Brit accents do not seem to have changed at all, even after decades.

Odds are, though, that my accent has changed. I'm a bit of a Zelig and I spend all my time with people who do have strong accents. I dare not think what my French accent would sound like to a Parisian.

I avoid the verb "travailler" like the plague and try to find alternatives to any word with "tr" in it. Think Jonathan Woss. Bummer that my house number is 33.

Souvette, despite my best efforts at remedial speech therapy, still can't get the hang of "th". She is well-careful about when and where she uses the word "third".

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

She should learn the Noo Yo'k twang, then, dontcha tink ;-)?

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

I remarked to the OH that in the country, where we now live, it's remarkably easy to get things done; buying things, arranging insurance, it all goes much more smoothly than it did in Toronto. She responded "That's because the people here speak English" which at first struck me as being stunningly racist. She's right though, my estuary, her southern drawl, the tractor salesman's Irish brogue, the insurance broker's RP are all accents of native English speakers. None of us are unhypenated Canadians but we all speak English. The people we deal with in Toronto were mainly born in Canada but almost never anglophones and the fact is that even Geordies are more intelligible than people who grew up here but who have no background in the language.

I dunno if I like dealing with people in the country better or not. The advantage of buying things with gestures is that no one bothers you with chat, after years of going to a shop in Toronto one might hear "it warmer in my country" (actually the country of the speaker's parents), whereas in the sticks people you don't know from Adam openly opine that "at least you don't have to shovel it" which seems to need some sort of time consuming response.

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

That should be People you don't know from Adam YET.

In time you might even enjoy chatting to these people, they might even become acquaintances, or heaven forbid, friends.

Life's a bit different in the sticks;)

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

"""the fact is that even Geordies are more intelligible than people who grew up here but who have no background in the language""""

hmmmm im a Geordie, thanks hahah

Re: Sound Familiar to anyone?
 

I was aiming at Novo but you're welcome.