[Tuberoller]

I hope you guys understand that I'm only joking here and many of the people that I'm poking fun at are very good friends of mine.

I was talking to a guy on the phone a few days ago and he had the very thickest British accent I have ever heard. I swear I could'nt understand a word the guy was saying. He used the F-word so often that's all I could really decipher. I finally stopped him and explained that he had to speak slowly and ennunciate and he just said "screw you" and hung up. I have'nt laughed so hard in a quite a while.

I have been all over and I love some of the great accents I hear. Some of the coolest accents belong to my best friends. My good buddy Jonnie "Im not Japanese" Maka really cracks me up. He speaks very good english but he tries to sound cool and I can imagine him wearing his sunglasses with the Elvis cut and I just loose it on the phone sometimes. When he tries to use swear words in English it just brings me to tears and I can't stop laughing. He hangs up on me a lot too. Head-fi member Angel_Teres does'nt speak or undertand english very well and has a really thick accent. He does'nt like for me to make fun of him but I sometimes spend 10 minutes trying to explain simple stuff. He hates it when I laugh at him but sometimes he starts laughing too when I really get going. He laughs when I impersonate him and his wife thinks it's funny as hell.

I think Ray Samuels has the best sense of humor to go along with a very funny accent. He laughs at himself far more than I ever could and he's such a funny guy. He plays on his accent and has great comic timing. His mispronounciations have become legendary among those of us who know him well. I gotta think that he does some of this purposely, cause it's just too funny. Ray,his accent and his sense of humor have provided some of the most explosive laughs I've ever had.

My mom has a thick Jamaican accent and went she gets upset,I just nod my head,cause I got no idea what she's sayin'. My wife's Mom is even worse. her accent is very thick and she hates to speak english around me cause I'm bound to break out laughing at any moment.

I can't mention accents without picking on some of the domestic accents I hear everyday. If I do that I gotta pick on Todd Green. Todd says he's originally from Michigan but he sounds like a Canuck to me. Then I gotta move on to my good buddy Highwaystar and that heavy NYC accent. I never knew there were so many uses for the F-word. My good friend, Sosa "The Pimp" De La Gaza,has a heavy Cuban/American accent that also drives me to tears. Imagine if you will a Cuban guy wearing a green Pimp suit, talkin' like Tony Montana. His brother Rudy is even worse.

I know I got a pretty chunky Chicago accent but my 17 year old daughter has it really bad. Whenever we go on vacations folks know she's from Chicago.

Like I said,I'm having a laugh and I hope I'm not offending anyone.

 

[usc goose]

i watched way too much BET growing up and used to have a pretty ghetto accent. dropped that eventually for a more subtle los angeles accent. sometimes i'll spend all day with a northern irish or sometimes a backwoods arkansas accent too for no real decipherable reason. accents are fun.

(plus i did used to go to school to learn how to do accents and such)

 

[oneeyedhobbit]

After hearing about the automatic ER 4p I can concur that Ray is one hell of a cool dude about his accent. Fred, your mom sounds like she'd be a blast too--I'm a big fan of the Jamaican accent, and some of the stories you've told me....

 

[raymondlin]

I met a guy a few weeks ago here at uni that he's from near Chicago, and I love his accent, i dunno why, i find american accent quite cool.

 

[pbirkett]

If you think Americans have many different accents, you should see how many we have in the UK, astonishing for such a small country. No word of a lie, you can drive for an hour in this country, and people will sound almost completely different. I myself have a geordie dialect, aye!

 

[john_jcb]

Well I guess I slipped under the radar once again.

Actually I think those of us that are from the Pacific Northwest speak with no discernible accent at all.

 

[Mr.PD]

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_jcb ......... Actually I think those of us that are from the Pacific Northwest speak with no discernible accent at all.

That is very true.

edit
I do know some people here that grew up here and lived here all their lives, yet they sound like some guy from an old western movie.

We have a guy from Denver working here, that is originally from Chicago. He has a very strong Chicago accent. Every time he talks I keep thinking of Elwood Blues

 

[plainsong]

My accent goes all weird depending on who I'm talking to. I'm from Charleston, SC, so I originally have a southern accent. It was never that thick by southern standards, but easy to hear once you're on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line. So when I'm talking to my parents that accent comes back a bit, but it's mixed in with the accent that I've picked up from my husband, who basically has a Turku-Swedish accent (Turku is a city). The two can mix together sometimes to make a sound that even I can think is funny.

And yeah, it's pretty funny when I try to speak Finnish. In my brain it sounds fine, and comes out of my mouth and can have a completely different meaning. It's made me wary about speaking it, really. But of course you have to see the humor in it and laugh at yourself.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by plainsong ...but it's mixed in with the accent that I've picked up from my husband, who basically has a Turku-Swedish accent (Turku is a city). The two can mix together sometimes to make a sound that even I can think is funny. And yeah, it's pretty funny when I try to speak Finnish. In my brain it sounds fine, and comes out of my mouth and can have a completely different meaning. It's made me wary about speaking it, really. But of course you have to see the humor in it and laugh at yourself.

I was amazed during my time in Finland at how perfect most people's English was. I do know what you mean about the Swedish accent in Turku, but in Helsinki, we kept running into people, especially younger ones, who I would have sworn were British. The funniest thing was a salesgirl we met in the Stockmann store in Helsinki -- after talking to her for ten minutes, my wife and I still had to ask her to be sure she wasn't American, because she certainly sounded like it. (She blamed it on watching far too much American TV.

)

Tuberoller, here's a movie for you if you haven't seen it: The Limey. It's got Terence Stamp as a Cockney gangster visiting Los Angeles, and between his accent and his slang, there are many entertaining moments of total incomprehension.

 

[kunwar]

wait till you hear an Indian who has been in Aus for 5 years, knows all there is to know about Aussie slang and speaks it like a New Zealander who got marooned in Tasmania ( it is a part of australia)
That is how someone described me once.

then again people have confused me as being born here in Oz and not India.
Go figure!!

 

[plainsong]

My husband has a slight accent when he speaks English, but it fades more by the day, considering we speak English at home, his accent rubs off on me and mine on him...in a few years we'll have our own family accent.

His English is better than mine though, as his mom and stepmom were both English teachers!

Ah yes, Stockmann, will be going there tomorrow to get a new vaccuum cleaner. Our old one suddenly blew up. The prices are higher, but it's more convinient to go there.

When we went back home, salespeople in stores thought I was European... while here no one would make that mistake with me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dixie Flatline I was amazed during my time in Finland at how perfect most people's English was. I do know what you mean about the Swedish accent in Turku, but in Helsinki, we kept running into people, especially younger ones, who I would have sworn were British. The funniest thing was a salesgirl we met in the Stockmann store in Helsinki -- after talking to her for ten minutes, my wife and I still had to ask her to be sure she wasn't American, because she certainly sounded like it. (She blamed it on watching far too much American TV. ) Tuberoller, here's a movie for you if you haven't seen it: The Limey. It's got Terence Stamp as a Cockney gangster visiting Los Angeles, and between his accent and his slang, there are many entertaining moments of total incomprehension.

 

[jpelg]

Yesterday, I met a woman who originally hails from the Island of Bute, Scotland. I was entranced by her accent during the entire conversation.

*Heavy Sigh*

 

[arnett]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dixie Flatline I was amazed during my time in Finland at how perfect most people's English was. . . The funniest thing was a salesgirl we met in the Stockmann store in Helsinki -- after talking to her for ten minutes, my wife and I still had to ask her to be sure she wasn't American, because she certainly sounded like it. (She blamed it on watching far too much American TV. )

Several years ago, 60 Minutes did a piece on Nokia cell phones. They, of course, went to Helsinki because Nokia is a Finnish brand. They interviewed several young people in Helsinki about the use of their cell phones. I swear to God, these kids spoke with perfect California accents. Perhaps these kids were American tourists or something . . . the clear implication, however, was that they were Helisinki locals.

Scary.

 

[mbriant]

I once had a sales clerk at a camera store in Chicago guess I was from Canada by the way I said "roof".

Another time I was in a lineup for a Police concert in Pennsylvania talking with my ex-wife. A guy my age standing behind me suddenly asked where we were from. When I said "Toronto" and asked why he'd asked, he replied " you speak very well". I wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment or insult. Canada has various English dialects as well, the most noticable is the east coast or "Newfie" accent which is a blend of English, Scottish, and mostly Irish. Most of the country however has a fairly neutral accent ( except for "roof" ) and that's why you'll find a lot of Television news anchors and Radio announcers in the U.S. are actually Canadian.

 

[minya]

Canadians (or, at least, eastern Canadians) speak with a subtle Minnesotan-style inflection that I find entrancing. They also, of course, have the "out/about" thing going on. Contrary to popular opinion, though, it isn't "oot/aboot" at all; more like "aout/abaout" or something.

I'd say the funniest accent in the world has to be a thick Minnesotan accent. Fargo had me nearly in tears, mostly due to the accents. Darn tootin'.

I love Jamaican patois. It's incredibly difficult to understand, but it sounds amazing. I wish I could speak like that.

Coming from the middle part of California, I have no discernible accent whatsoever.

- Chris