cindyabs

I trust you don't mean Yanks are stupid in a generalizing sort of way.

surly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT-284TagXI

surly

When people don't understand me it must be because they're stupid. What else could be the reason.

cindyabs

They have a "pin" stuck in their ear?

Ridski

I'm also an accent chameleon, always have been. Though there was a weird time when my middle-class North London accent started slipping into a country-fied Norwich accent (not bath, not barth, but baaath, no idea why), and people from Norf London didn't believe I came from there. Anywho, I've been here for 10 years and still have a mostly British accent but I speak fluent American.

Oddly enough, whenever I go back to the UK, my accent goes all Cockney, and I never spoke like that before. It's like I'm overcompensating in order not to get screwed over by cab drivers.

Ridski

I was in Brum with my US wife once and we were helping a friend buy a new TV. We got to the car park (I nearly wrote parking lot, there) and she overheard a mother screaming at her kids. Suddenly my wife's pumping her fist in the air and whispering "yes!" to herself in excitement, so I asked her what's up.

"I just heard my first real Brummie 'Owroit!'," she explained.

We high-fived and got in the car. Everyone should be so happy to hear their first "owroit'.

wtkp0u

Spot on guv. Also seems that when groups of expats get together in the US it often sounds like an Only Fools and Horses/Sweeney reunion no matter where they're from.

Hobnob

According to my family my accent has changed a bit....Oh maann,,,I guess,,,etc.
When we are out she normally steps in and translates for me because she knows I get pissed off repeating myself.
Case in point....
"Pack of Marlbra please?"
"I`m sorry"
"Pack of Marlbora perleasee?"
"I didn`t catch that"
"Pack of Marlboro in a box please.......Thank You.
"Oh ok"
"Are you from Australia?"
"Nope Virginia"
Still it could be worse, she smokes Benson and Hedges Deluxe ultra light menthol...Thats when I get the blank stare.....

britvic

I feel your pain, so thought it best only to buy them by the carton and that way I only have to suffer the embarrassment once a fortnight.

miss scouse atl

Now why didnt I think of that!.

To be honest I make my hubby buy them cos I still go to say "20 whatever please", instead of a "pack" of. He didnt believe me at first when I told him we can buy packs of 10 in the UK. anyways.........

paddingtongreen

If you think the yanks are off for not understanding.... We went back to England for a visit a couple of years after the currency changed. Imagine the looks we got from bus conductors and shop keepers, we had our English accents but were totally lost with trying to figure out the new money. You'd have thought we had just escaped from the loony bin, they weren't shy about saying it either.

cindyabs

I was, . When my DH and I got engaged, I was doing JCB NA's travel so talked to fair few Brits on a daily basis. When they heard that I was engaged to a Brummie, they immediately started in about how awful the accent was etc, etc. I hadn't noticed anything special, and DH didn't sound awful. I asked him what was he "supposed" to sound like and he gave me an example. I don't know, I still think it sounds like northern Cockney-which is probably fighting words. My SIL does sound more Brummie than my DH though,

surly

Well you are in America. Didn't you know Americans accents are different before you came. Must have been a huge shock to you.

LuTziE

I noticed that after being here 5 years and only going back to the UK once that my friends all now seem to have posh English accents. I know this cannot be true as we are all from the Midlands area (Nuneaton and Cov). This means that although I can recognize a few thick English accents my ability to pinpoint them is disappearing. Anyone else notice this?

Tracym

You do realize the person you said that to IS a yank.

We're not all stupid if we have trouble with an accent - my Scottish fiance sometimes has trouble with a southern or hispanic accent, and I don't call HIM stupid.