RobClubley

I'm from Yorkshire, and my accent gets misunderstood all the time.

I frequently say "four" and they hear "five".

paddy234

My Irish accent can sometimes be a pain when i have to repeat myself almost every-time in a restaurant, shop etc. This is still the case even when i consciously make an effort to slow down. I do find kiwis hard to understand sometimes, the only difference i hear in the New Zealand accent is the regular Kiwi accent and the Maori accent who speak quite differently at times. While i like the kiwi accent more than most i would much prefer my kids to be brought up in an Irish environment where people are more social and wittier in life

Celticknight

Have the same problem, Welsh Accent, spend most of the time having to repeat myself, while i get the Smile and nodding reaction knowing full well they have not understood me.
I just tell them it the accent and nothing much i can do about it.

my Wife is from Yorkshire, but according to her Brother who asked "Why is thou talking Posh"? gets the same reaction as me.

the only word that gets me wound up is the Kiwi plural for Woman........... Woman.

SSky

I'm from Leeds originally and I'm always getting asked if I'm Irish???
Folk often comment on how lovely my accent is and they wish they had it, lol! I wish I could get rid of it as I think it sounds really rough but whatever rocks their boat.
'Woman' sounds very cave man doesn't it when they're actually referring to 'women'

RobClubley

I hate the woman/women thing!

I also have been accused of being both Irish and Scottish.

Celticknight

the guess list of areas / countries usually starts off with


1 Tyneside..........answer . Im not even English
2 Irish.......... have another try
3 Scottish...... Close, I am a Celt


4 Welsh ?...... finally.. also not from the Valleys that's South Wales, im from the Hills. North Wales.






and now relax.. since ive bu**ered up laying a new patio im off to my DogBox to sulk.


Ian.

janiejones

Also Welsh. I frequently have to give presentations, and apologise up front for the odd accent. A friend of mine said she had no problem understanding me, but it was the maddest accent she'd ever heard.

It took me a while to figure out why the hairdressing place in the mall was called the Sharing Shed. Until I tried it in a Kiwi accent.

RobClubley

There's one near us called "Hair by the Sea" which took me a while to realise the Kiwis pronounce hair "Here".

Also a shipping company called "Air to there"

LauraNotts

There is a caller ID system - I think it might be the infamous Jitstar that requires you to say 'Yes' or 'No' to various options to navigate through the menus. After several frustrating rounds of 'I'm sorry, could you repeat that' in reply to my 'Yes' from the robot I finally drew myself up to my full height and bellowed 'YIS!' down the phone only to be put through.

LoCarb

I have the Spike Milligan LP record "Muses with Milligan" where he says "get the Scottish Voice".

e.g. it takes a few seconds to tune into what an accent is actually saying

Mishclark

Hysterically when I was in Northern Ireland in the early 90's staying with friends as part of my backpacking days, they actually couldn't understand my Australian accent, bless them!

It was whilst meeting people around UK and Ireland that I realised just how bad my slang was, I actually thought I spoke well! That Aussie slang really embarrassed me at the time, actually!

All in good fun, I met some great people !

BEVS

Shouldn't the thread title be " Iccents " ?

Justcol

my ex had a job as an Ear Nurse
lost count of the number of kiwis who would ask, Oh, you fly in the rescue helicopters, eh !!

Mishclark

My late husband was a Kiwi from Christchurch..

Even after 20 years I still got confused and thought he was saying "bear" when he meant "beer"!

scot47

We are not exposed to much NZ English in the media. Regional UK accents only started to appear quite recently on TV. Give it time !