rupert_pumpkin

does anyone understand them?

i'm moving to auckland in august and am a total weegie, people from england struggle to understand me, my girlfriends family don't understand me on the phone, how will i cope over there?

Roger

I haven't understood my wife from Greenock in 16 years, but the Kiwis manage too. They have problems with me if I speak too fast. I'm from Hants. As long as you don't have a strong accent you should have no problems.

There are folk here who have strong Glaswegian accents and they've been here 40 years.
Roger

annaerb

Hi Rupert_pumkin,

Where are you from? I came to NZ when I was 3 . My Dad is from Dundee & my Mum is from Fife and have been here for 30+ years. Some people still have a wee bit of trouble understanding my dad but that is mainly because he mumbles. When they first came here Mum went into a shop and asked for a peppermint bar and they gave her a Newspaper as they couldn't understand her LOL.

NZ is full of different Cultures so I don't think you'll have a huge problem.

We just had family here from Scotland and we all understood them even my children. Our friends thought the accent was facinating and were trying to copy them and vice versa and we had a right laugh.

Where abouts are you going to in NZ?

Carol

annaerb

Sorry didn't see the Auckland bit.
I noticed in another post that you were thinking of going to Australia?

scottish

PMSL.... we lived in NZ for just under a year and Im afraid the Kiwis struggled with our accents.... and we thought we were quite well spoken LOL.... you have to really slow down for them, more than what we had to do for our English friends......

One guy at work actually asked me if my partner sounded like Billy Connolly as he thought all Scots guys must sound like him.... oh and if you have reason to swear from time to time they thought it was hilarious... oh well what ever makes me people smile eh

So to sum of being a Scot in NZ the Kiwis struggled with our accents.... did we change it ... did we heck as like ha ha.

rupert_pumpkin

evenin' all, thanks for the replies

born and bred in glasgow so have a really fast gutteral accent. not quite billy connolly but similiar, i can do an uncanny impression of the big man though.

planning to visit auckland in june and move in august all being well, no intention of going to australia except maybe for a visit, as my gf is not a big fan of aussies.

annaerb - is your dad a dundee united fan cos i am!

clydegirl

I'm also from Greenock .How long have you been in NZ ?
Where did she live in Greenock?

Deb+Chris

The Kiwi's struggled with my OH's broad Lancashire accent.. he used to say that their eye's would glaze over and then he'd ask "you didn't understand a word of that did you?" and they would reply "no" .

No-one ever struggled with my Mancunian accent.... ever! so that was good, and I never struggled with theirs either.... exceot when I thought someone was talking about cheese and they were really talking about chairs!! ha ha.

Deb+Chris

Mind you, have you heard the Ozzie accent!!!! :scared: wow !! we met an Ozzie in NZ and we could tell the second she spoke she was an Ozzie and not a Kiwi! soooo different... kiwi accent much more subtle.

Damages

yiss oi nigh!

Deb+Chris

Nah.. you've lost me.

Tayberry

Ho ho ho ho ho!!! Are you in for one wake up call or what chief!!!! I was born and bred in Kirkcaldy for the first 17 years of my life, then moved up to Dundee and lived there for the last 15 years (with 2 episodes in London). I've got a very mixed accent now but believe it or not, given my heritage, I've got a very soft accent and without sounding horrifically snotty, I consider myself to be "well-spoken". I've purposely had to stop myself from using colloquial terms because the Kiwi's just wouldn't understand it i.e things like "wabbit", "blether", "gadgy" "glaikit" "gowk"-you get the picture?!!!

Anyway, so far, I've been asked the following:
Are you English?
Are you Swedish?
Are you Irish?-this is the most common one-a lot of Kiwi's cannot distinguish between Scottish and Irish accents. They are also completely unaware that we all have very distinct regional accents. In their eyes, a Scottish accent is a Billy Connolly accent. Just to highlight this point, our secretary at work, who has now known me for 8 months, said to me last Tuesday, "where in Ireland do you come from"? She was deadly serious and went blood red with embarrassment when I corrected her!!! She then said, "but you don't sound Scottish, you don't sound like Billy Connolly...........". I rest my case. You should be okay though!!
Are you Chinese-hmmm, now this isn't a wind up. A work colleague was talking to her daughter on the phone at work and the daughter heard me talking in the background. She asked her mum "who's the chinese lady"...
Are you Yugoslavian? That's even more worrying given the fact Yugoslavia hasn't existed for around 15 years.

I've had a very mixed response to my accent. To be honest, it's the Pacific Islanders who are tickled pink when I talk!! To be fair, most of them get it right first time when they guess where I'm from. It's the NZ European Kiwi's who are the worst offenders I've found!!

Oh, and while I'm on this rant, another thing which really gets right up my Khyber Pass is this. WHY DO MOST KIWI'S THINK BRITAIN IS ENGLAND?? This issue never ever troubled me before but oh my god!! What's even worse is when I've explained the concept of the UK being comprised of 4 nations, not 1, they STILL ask me things like "How does your work differ from here to England?". My favourite question posed by my work colleague was "Do they have the Euro in Scotland?"!!!

At the end of the day, I think I've arrogantly assumed the Kiwi's would know a bit more about the UK but evidently they don't. I know this is a swooping statement but in my experience, I've been left astonished at their lack of knowledge.

The best bit is, I'm still not terribly patriotic!!

annaerb

Rupert_Pumpkin - Dad is a Dundee United suporter. Don't worry about your accent you'll be fine.



TayberryTayberry
Your post made me laugh. my cousin was over in Jan they got asked if they were Irish & my cousins girlfriend who was Irish got asked if she was from English!!

My Mum is from Kirkcaldy & my Dad is from Dundee. Where exactly did you live?

Carol

Tayberry

HO ho ho!! That is hysterical Carol!! I'm in central Auckland-leaving in May though!! Where exactly did your mum come from in KDY and your dad come from in Dundee? Where do they live now? I really miss Dundee. I've got a real love/hate relationship with the place-spent my entire adult life there so I'm always going to have an affinity with the city but I'm not moving back there. To be honest, I don't know what I'm playing at!!! I don't think anyone in my family or my friends know what I'm doing!! I'm moving back to Kirkcaldy temporarily but now have mega plans on going to Paris next year!! A slightly different move in comparison to Auckland-ho ho hoh!!!

Where are you living Carol?

Tayberry

Oh and another thing, was watching the Kiwi "Breakfast TV" show yesterday. Ooooh, I just love this.....the interviewer was talking to a Kiwi arts director about various shows to have visited NZ. The interviewer, whilst talking about the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, then proceeded to say it was one of the best shows to have come out of England....... Enough said...