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Please Excuse My American-ess

pridecity

pridecity

Patients took over asylum
I was reading the news on Yahoo (don't ask why) and came across one of their OMG articles about the Harry Potter cast. It included a video of them trying to speak the way Americans do. Just "common" phrases. Of course, I can't remember the last time I used the word "boo yah" and I don't know who Justin Bieber is, but it was an interesting video.

Is it only Americans who get a kick out of listening to words being spoken with other accents? I know most Americans are oh-so-proud when then can speak a few words in another language, even if it's just "To where is the bathroom please?"

Anyway, I thought it was funny watching this video. It's not only because the actors cannot pronounce things the same way I do (though that might be a large part of it). I do find it amazing how these simple phrases are so easy for me to say and so difficult to others to say the same way. It reminds me how difficult it really is to speak in general. I'm reminded especially when Emma (I think that's her name) kept trying to reform her mouth to pronounce it like I would. I wanted to do it along with her to figure out how the heck I manage to pronounce it. Maybe I'm weird.

Here's the link to the video: http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/crush/harry-potter-stars-jokingly-dis-twilight-while-speaking-american/507?nc
 
Haha! That was awesome. "Can I get an order of mozzarella sticks?" was especially funny. Emma was all "orrrrrder? Orrrder?" lol
 
Transatlantic accents can surely be a funny old business.

I enjoyed the way that Elijah Wood ended up with a permanent British accent around the time of Lord of the Rings fliming. He seemed to have it in all the interviews and also that ep of "The Osbournes". He had it nailed, but in the films Sean Astin wobbled wildly between Gloucestershire and California - sometimes in the same sentence. It's particularly noticable in the opening sequences of The Two Towers.

A number of times in my Stateside travels, I've had to adopt a US accent (as best I can) in order to be understood. Ordering in fast food outlets in a Brit accent is fraught with potential misunderstanding - either met with blank stares and "Excuse me?" (repeated several times) or given something completely wrong (how is it possible to mis-hear "coleslaw" for "gravy" in any accent?). The process proved trouble-free if I employed my best McGuyver impression from the get-go!
 
pridecity said:
... I know most Americans are oh-so-proud when then can speak a few words in another language, even if it's just "To where is the bathroom please?" ...
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Hey I survived a year in Germany with one phrase.

entschuldigen Sie ein pils bitte!

:roflmao:
 
Got to say that I enjoyed hearing English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh women speak! :sidestep:
 
Personally ANY UK accent just curls my toes, especially the rough gutteral ones with a Yorkshire flavor.

What really facinates me is how Simon Baker (The mentalist), and especially Hugh Laurie (House) can speak "American" so well. ESPECIALLY Hugh Laurie, he has it down!!
 
LOL! Very cute vid! My husband is from Scotland, so we "live and breathe" that accent thing every day of our lives. He gets VERY frustrated when he's trying to order at restaurants and people don't understand him--Mexican restaurants seem to be especially "interesting". I think that the Mexican and Scottish accents just don't "go together" very well :). He is always being asked by someone--strangers or my kiddos--to "speak Scottish", which means they want to hear him say "boot" for trunk and "bonnet" for hood, and "trousers" for our "pants" (which are underwear where he's from). He gets very shy about it, sometimes.
 
Irish Eyes (Mrs.Z) said:
LOL! Very cute vid! My husband is from Scotland, so we "live and breathe" that accent thing every day of our lives. He gets VERY frustrated when he's trying to order at restaurants and people don't understand him--Mexican restaurants seem to be especially "interesting". I think that the Mexican and Scottish accents just don't "go together" very well :). He is always being asked by someone--strangers or my kiddos--to "speak Scottish", which means they want to hear him say "boot" for trunk and "bonnet" for hood, and "trousers" for our "pants" (which are underwear where he's from). He gets very shy about it, sometimes.
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neeps and tatties..... He'll understand....
 
It's pretty funny with the regional accents & differences in America (and elsewhere, I'm sure). Some of the local ones Idahoans get twitted about elsewhere are jockey box (the compartment under the dash board of a vehicle) and creek, which we say cr-ik.
 
I have family in both New England and Alabama. I was raised in Colorado. It hurts my brain trying to decipher what my out-of-state family members say. And then there's the iced tea debate.... I like tea with my cup of sugar, ya know?
 
Okay, that was really funny... but what I'd like to hear is how THEY say it. I used to be utterly fascinated by speaking with the Indian and South African exchange students we'd get at VT.

Incidentally, my friend from Ohio used to get a real kick out of listening to me talk. Apparently there's a definite dialect to my voice.

I can say that I truly enjoy speaking with Bethany (Starsevol) and her hubby at Daytona... and their dialect made it all the better!! Trickster_pup (Jim) has a neat dialect, too!
 
Hypancistrus said:
Okay, that was really funny... but what I'd like to hear is how THEY say it. I used to be utterly fascinated by speaking with the Indian and South African exchange students we'd get at VT.

Incidentally, my friend from Ohio used to get a real kick out of listening to me talk. Apparently there's a definite dialect to my voice.

I can say that I truly enjoy speaking with Bethany (Starsevol) and her hubby at Daytona... and their dialect made it all the better!! Trickster_pup (Jim) has a neat dialect, too!
Click to expand...

LOL WE have a dialect? Naw we don't have a dialect!! :)
 
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