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American or British accent more popular?

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tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
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Joined 4657 days ago

1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 33 of 70
30 May 2012 at 5:44pm | IP Logged 
COF, you throw out a lot of statements that you assume prefaced with "I suspect" and talk a lot about what perceptions you assume other countries have of Britain and of the U.S.

So I have to ask: how many Italians have you talked to about their perceptions of the U.S. and UK, and of their varieties of spoken English? How many citizens of the other countries whose views you want us to believe that you know? Your ideas have to be coming from somewhere, so tell us, are have you actually had a significant number of interactions with people from those nations about this topic, or are you pulling your assumptions from somewhere else?

Edited by tastyonions on 30 May 2012 at 5:45pm

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COF
Senior Member
United States
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262 posts - 354 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 34 of 70
30 May 2012 at 5:52pm | IP Logged 
On other forums, I have noticed Italians and other Europeans have a tendency to talk about the US a lot more than the UK and clearly be more influenced by US English than British English. It seems to me that the UK is pretty inconsequential to most Europeans, especially considering it is outside the Euro currency.

Also, I often read El Pais, Le Monde and Le Figaro and rarely do either of those newspapers report UK news, and if they do its usually some feature on the Queen, Kate Middleton or Pippa Middleton.

Edited by COF on 30 May 2012 at 5:53pm

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jazzboy.bebop
Senior Member
Norway
norwegianthroughnove
Joined 5410 days ago

439 posts - 800 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian

 
 Message 35 of 70
30 May 2012 at 6:29pm | IP Logged 
Ha ha ha. COF, for some reason you've highly amused me. Guess that makes me a traitorous Brit. Then again I am emigrating to Norway in August so guess that's no surprise.






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tiyafeh
Pentaglot
Newbie
Israel
Joined 4770 days ago

12 posts - 31 votes
Speaks: English, Modern Hebrew*, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin
Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Arabic (Written), German, Greek, Aramaic, Arabic (Levantine)

 
 Message 36 of 70
30 May 2012 at 6:43pm | IP Logged 
COF wrote:
Also, I often read El Pais, Le Monde and Le Figaro and rarely do either of
those newspapers report UK news, and if they do its usually some feature on the Queen,
Kate Middleton or Pippa Middleton.

Really? I don't read Le Monde, but a quick look reveals several news items pertaining
to the UK which have nothing at all to do with the Queen, Kate Middleton or Pippa
Middleton. I also read El País regularly, and I must say the UK features rather
prominently, what with the Gibraltar dispute and all that, which, again, has nothing to
do with Kate Middleton, her sister or her mother-in-law (or am I missing something?).

As another speaker of RP, I must say I have never been called stuffy, unfriendly and
uptight (well, I have, but that has nothing to do with my accent), not in Israel, not
in America, not in the Far East and not even in Europe. I'd even say the opposite is
true.

Also, COF, out of curiosity, what languages do you speak?
7 persons have voted this message useful



Camundonguinho
Triglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 4741 days ago

273 posts - 500 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish
Studies: Swedish

 
 Message 37 of 70
30 May 2012 at 6:50pm | IP Logged 
The Hollywood accent (Western US) is what most people are in touch with.

I'd say that the Midwestern US English (Midwestern: think Columbus rather than Chicago)
is not heard much in Europe or Latin America, because we normally don't watch American news or channels like ABC, NBC or FOX which feature newscasters with a bland Midland accent (Midland = from Omaha to Columbus, where they speak with a '"General American accent'').

In sitcoms, soap operas, movies, it is the Hollywood/Californian accent which imposed itself as the ''new standard ''. You don't hear bland US newscasters' accent in Hollywood production. It's more like 75% Californian + 25 % New York City /New Jersey accent.

The Midwestern accent of Chicagoan type is along with the Southern US accents, the accent you hear the least in Hollywood movies. Most Chicago-born actors acquire a Californian accent (I guess accent coaches have something to do with it). In that sitcom''Married with Children'' all actors sounded Californian (even though the show was set in Chicago...and the daughter [Christina Applegate] had a strong Valley girl accent; no way you can hear a Valley girl accent in Chicago in real life LOL ).



Edited by Camundonguinho on 30 May 2012 at 6:58pm

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Sebed
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 4731 days ago

12 posts - 29 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: French, Korean, Esperanto

 
 Message 38 of 70
30 May 2012 at 6:52pm | IP Logged 
COF wrote:
Elexi wrote:
and the quite frankly racist assumption


Oh dear. That statement alone tells me what sort of person you are. You don't like what you hear, so you pull the race card. So British.

Sorry to break it to you Britisher, but most Italians feel far more link to the USA than they feel towards the UK. It's probably the same for most other Europeans too.

For Italians, the USA is the land of hopes and dreams, where you make it big. The UK is just a wet, damp, overcast isle full of boring people, bad food and silly pomp and ceremony. Ok for a visit, but no place to live.



An apology wouldn't go amiss here, sir. You're doing fine work at perpetuating the American stereotype.

I'm wholly unimpressed. No class, no knowledge of the facts, and clearly a huge interest in making the US sound as great as possible, whilst making the UK sound as bad as possible. Keep your posts researched and bias-free or don't post on this forum.
6 persons have voted this message useful



nway
Senior Member
United States
youtube.com/user/Vic
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 39 of 70
30 May 2012 at 6:54pm | IP Logged 
tiyafeh wrote:
Also, COF, out of curiosity, what languages do you speak?

It would appear he's quite fluent in Trollese.
12 persons have voted this message useful



Camundonguinho
Triglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 4741 days ago

273 posts - 500 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish
Studies: Swedish

 
 Message 40 of 70
30 May 2012 at 7:16pm | IP Logged 
Even in the UK, the American accent is more popular in pop music.
The only ''stubborn'' pop singer from the UK with a British accent
is Sophie Ellis-Bextor (she always sings in her strong Essex accent;
to most people not familiar with this accent her accent sounds like RP, but it's not).

Even in Baku (Eurovision Song Contest), the British representative sang with/in an American(-wannabe) accent.

Edited by Camundonguinho on 30 May 2012 at 7:18pm



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