msnapz

Hey guys,

I've been in the states for about six years now and I just wanted to ask you all. Do Americans understand you when you talk?

When I first came to America it was a lot worse, I mean, people would say "what"? All the time, it still happens but I wonder if we just catch people off guard and they're listening to the accent more than what we're saying!! I've learnt to talk a lot more concisely without slurring my words.

For sure though from my experience, when you pronounce the "t" in a word such as "water" or "Betty" instead of "Beddy" people don't quite seem to understand what you are saying. It's not a complaint just an observation!

What are your experiences?

Noorah101

I'm American, and I have a friend from Surry whom I can barely understand. We've been out of verbal touch for a long time, but I saw him every year for about 5 years in a row, and I never got better at understanding his accent. LOL

Super nice guy, though. . We are now friends on Facebook where we understand each other completely!

Rene

NoOfficialComment

Most people in the US seem to really like my accent. I don't have any regional UK accent at all, very news-reader English.

The thing that confuses most people is just the Britsh colloquialisms. My two most continually confusing so far being 'Cheers' as a way of saying thank you (especially for someone holding a door open) and 'Are you alright?' for enquiring how somebody is. Has been met several times with the person wondering if they look sick! ;-)

civilservant

Most people understand me now, although sometimes I have to repeat myself. My other half tells me that my accent is going away, although I always say that that is because she hears me talk all the time - because when I have to page she says she hears it still.

jtj1

No one understands a word I say, arrived a month ago from Yorkshire, having to constantly repeat or explain words, lol

Pulaski

I have a mild, but still distinctive, Sheffield accent that has still survived although I left Sheffield when I was eight years old. I lived ten years in Gloucester, until I left school, where I picked up nothing of the local accent, then 15 years in London, also picking up nothing. Now after more than a decade in the US I don't believe my accent has changed either, though I have picked up some local expressions and idiom, and switch "t's" for "d's" in water, butter, etc, and the invisible "r" for a "y" in tomato.

I still get comments on my accent most weeks, sometimes several times. I think I have been asked about it 3-4 times in the past three days. Mostly it is women who ask, they usually "just luuurve my accent" which I will never grow tired of hearing, perhaps because my accent apparently had the opposite effect when I Iived and worked in London.

rpjs

"Cheers" for "thank you" does seem to be establishing itself here - may just be a New York thing.

Mrs Danvers

The phone can be difficult because I refuse to supplement t's with d's. I think I had a moan on here a couple of months ago about the time I was asking for Katie over the phone.

"K.T?" the receptionist said. "We have nobody by the name of K.T!"

I relented and asked for Kaydee and she says "Oh, you want to talk to Katie"

I also won't say tomayto. I'm from Cambridgeshire. I don't think it's as difficult as the northern accents to understand. I don't understand some northern accents either, particularly Tyneside or folks from Carlisle.

N1cky

I had terrible problems in LA, but not so much in Silicon Valley, I think because there are so many foreigners, people are used to listening to different accents.

I did go to the cinema with my daughter the other day, and asked 5 times for some caramel popcorn, eventually I said to my daughter, you ask, she said caramel, and the woman just said oh ok. The man behind us was laughing, he said he couldn't hear the difference in what we'd said.

Pulaski

You should have asked for car'mel popcorn.

Or perhaps not! Popcorn is the only thing I know of that the British usually slather in sticky sugary goop that Americans habitually eat savoury.

username.exe

I'm from east London, but the accent is pretty soft, just a regular London accent.

At least once a day I'll say something to my boss who will then stare at me for about three seconds with a rabbit in the headlights look whilst he internally computes and translates what I just said. Super nice guy though.

Some people can just adapt to accents easier than others.

msnapz

So funny, yea I think some people just don't understand accents as well as others. I seem to have no problem with pretty much every accent I think maybe it depends on where you grow up. The wife says she thinks it's growing up around different accents that does it here as some people might live sheltered lives! Personally I don't see how people can't understand t's in words as they aren't spelled with a t, like "Katie" isn't spelled as "Kadie"

kimilseung

Cheers provides no surprises here in Seattle, it seems to be understood but still a bit of a novelty. Always gets a cheers in response.

I am mostly understood. I never have misunderstandings over words like water. I get a bit frustrated when people who consider themselves widely read and have a global outlook, dont understand something. I hate it when I hear "...oh that must be a British thing", especially when it is not uniquely British, just their ignorance. Someone claimed that the view of a Fox being sly must be a British thing.

Being from Liverpool, it is wonderful to hear all these people telling me how much they like my accent.

kodokan

I grew up in Hertfordshire, and probably have as close to a 'standard Brit accent overseas folk know from the BBC' as it's possible to have. I mostly don't have a problem, although it still helps to make some accommodations.

For example, if I'm asking for something in a store, I can't just launch into 'Can you tell me where the sugar is, please?'. I need to give the other person a filler sentence or two so they can mentally adjust to tuning into an accent: 'Hello... can you help me find something? <pause> I'm looking for sugar. Can you tell me where to find sugar, please?' This especially works if I'm collaring a youngster who's filling shelves, and might be a bit less worldly than an older adult.

I also adopt more of the local rhythm, and use more hi-lo tones throughout the sentence. I know from living in French in Switzerland that a great deal of understanding hinges on the rhythm of the words in the sentence as a whole, rather than simply as individually pronounced units (French has a kind of three syllable 'da-da-daah' rhythm with the stress on the last syllable; using a similar pattern here sometimes breaks through any understanding barrier).

They still stare blankly if I say 'sHedule' rather than 'sKedule', mind you.

kins

I do this too. I have yet to say either tom-ay-to or y-oh-gurt in my 8 years here.