Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

I think his bosses boss is just ignorant. Especially since we live in NYC where there is paractically every accent you can think of and plenty of immigrants run major businesses over here with much heavier accents than his!

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

And yet the whole thing is still smaller than Oregon. :huh:
The cowpokes don't talk all that dif'runt from us city folk up here.

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

Ah, you city folk, with your fancy ways...;)

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

But they are... aren't they???

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

They don't know what RP is :lol:

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

Right, that's it! I'm going to TP your house, over the Internet... ;)

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

:lol:

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

I'm an American from California living in the UK and I'm often told by people over the phone that they love my accent or that I don't sound American. I think it's because I don't have a New York accent or a Southern accent as I think alot of people associate America with those accents from what they see in the media in the same way that I think most people in America think the English accent is the Cockney accent or the "posh" accent. After 5 years in England I'm still not good at differentiating regional accents but I know that there are differences.

I'm also mistaken for Irish, Scottish, or Australian over the phone.

After living here I've picked up the English way of saying some things and sometimes my family back home catches me on it but I still sound American.

I can honestly say I've never heard chock-a-block until I came here. :)

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

I have to say, having just got here I've only had mild problems so far. I think sometimes it's not that people don't understand you or want to give you a job but that they are expecting you to sound American when you talk and when you don't, it knocks them for six.

I went to meet some of my husband's family when I first visited and his uncle and aunt physically stared at me for like, 3 minutes! Of course, the more they stared, the more nervous I got and the faster I talked and if you've ever heard a Scottish person who is nervous speak it's like trying to listen to a drunk person talk through mouthfuls of vomit. Needless to say, I'm going to make an effort to slow down next time.

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

The other day at work I was telling a new guy how to do something faster and easier. After about 30 seconds of staring at me I thought he was going to give me the whole "I can do it faster my way" speech.

When he finally said something to me it was "Are you ****ing with me?".

I replied "No, I'm serious it's faster that way"

He then said "That accent, you putting it on to **** with me?"

I started laughing and said "No, that is how I talk"

He started laughing then and realised I wasn't taking the piss out of the new guy.

Sometimes in comfortable situations I totally forget I sound different.

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

I got back from London in July and I couldn't wait to get back to Seattle where people understand me.
Never spoke to an English person in London for a whole week and it was a real struggle to understand and be understood.
I was foreigner in my own country and I was using sign language sometimes.

In the restaurants here in Washington State they do a cockney accent to impress me and I reply with some Barnsley which I learned from my mate Keith. That usually puts a stop to that while they reach for their Serbo-Croat phrase book... 'whistle atter look sharp ' .. 'taluv' ???

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

POSH: Port out, Starboard home.......the best cabins on board ships are/were situated in that position...affordable only by the posh, rich people.

Would Americans generally have any clue about that kind of stuff?

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

Hopefully not...... because thats a load nonsense from
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

No, we don't have ships here yet, or rich people. But we have similar sayings for the stagecoach, which we still ride regularly.

Re: Is your accent a problem here?
 

lol I was just thinking that...good song though