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British English: What accent is this? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| nicozerpa Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 4324 days ago 182 posts - 315 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 1 of 26 04 November 2013 at 3:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi! I've just watched this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCScKhoGeXQ, it's a British public information film (public service announcement) about road safety, aimed at teenagers. The thing is, I've had such a hard time trying to understand what the boy was saying. Although I have a grasp of what the ad is about, there are a few phrases that are incomprehensible to me yet. My question is: Where in the UK is the kid's accent from? I would like to get more exposure to this kind of regional accents so that I can improve my listening comprehension. Thanks in advance! PD: These are the parts of the video that I don't understand yet. If someone could tell me what the boy is saying, I'd be very grateful: * At 0:00 "Hi, I'm Tom. They're my mates. [incomprehensible]... but I'm not going". * At 0:07 "My mum and dad. [incomprehensible] ... lately". * At 0:20 "That's Debbie! She's meant [incomprehensible] ... but she's with Terrick. Again!" * At 0:37 "That's the second time it happens this week. [Incomprehensible]... the first time" Edited by nicozerpa on 04 November 2013 at 4:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4288 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 2 of 26 04 November 2013 at 4:32am | IP Logged | ||
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0:00: ...I'm off to Danny's tonight...
0:07: ...They've been arguin' a lot... 0:20: ...She's meant to be goin' out with me... 0:37: ...Hurt a lot more... I actually had to listen to some parts three times to understand the man. To me, unless my hearing is off, it sounds like West Yorkshire. I had some acquaintances from Leeds, Pontefract, Huddersfield, and Bradford that sounded like this. The intonation is definitely Yorkshire to me though, i.e. pronouncing "Debbie" like "Déh-béhh". Honestly, I would not be too bothered not being able to understand these accents first time. His is quite strong, and I imagine that native speakers might also have problems understanding. Edited by 1e4e6 on 04 November 2013 at 4:34am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nicozerpa Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 4324 days ago 182 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 3 of 26 04 November 2013 at 4:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the quick response!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4050 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 26 04 November 2013 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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He's definitely from up north. Might be Manchester?
You could try TV series like Shameless or soap operas like Coronation Street if you want to understand northern British English accents better. I can't guarantee that the accents are authentic, however, as I grew up in the south of England, and British TV is full of southerners imitating northern accents badly. Unfortunately for learners targeting British English, there is quite a lot of variation between accents in the UK. Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Wales, Birmingham, Scotland all sound quite different from each other. Edited by samfrances on 04 November 2013 at 5:08pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Andrew C Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom naturalarabic.com Joined 5188 days ago 205 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 5 of 26 04 November 2013 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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First part is:
These are me mates. They're off to Danny's tonight. Me Mum and Dad... Edited by Andrew C on 04 November 2013 at 6:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| drygramul Tetraglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4466 days ago 165 posts - 269 votes Speaks: Persian, Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2 Studies: French, Polish | Message 6 of 26 04 November 2013 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Do you natives have a hard time too understanding regional accents?
This video was still understandable, the kid was clear, but I happened to speak with someone with a Scottish accent (my guess) on the phone and I had to ask repeating something 3 times because of her accent, and she didn't make it any easier for me. That kinda put me off, because I want to work in UK, and in my line of work I'll have to deal with a lot of ordinary people. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4050 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 26 04 November 2013 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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nicozerpa: if you thought that public information film was difficult to understand, try this example of the Geordie (Newcastle) accent / dialect :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhHLmhchLrU 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4050 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 26 04 November 2013 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | ||
Southern British English speakers sometimes have a hard time understanding some Northern or Scottish accents, especially strong Newcastle or Glasgow accents. For all I know, its the same the other way around, but I'm a southerner, so I can't speak for the northerners. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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