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Foreign accents in your native language?

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eyðimörk
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 Message 17 of 51
10 October 2013 at 12:02pm | IP Logged 
I don't think there are any accents that are particularly ‘sexy’ in any language. I can't really think of any accent that bothers me either.

What does grate at me, accent wise, is rather situational and has little to do with the accent in and of itself. I am a bit annoyed with extremely heavy American and British accents (think: reading a foreign language aloud in English without trying to mimic the sounds of the foreign language at all) from people who have lived in Sweden or France for a decade or more, especially if they are married to native speakers and have kids in the school system. It tells me that they don't particularly respect the language. The American and British accents annoy me the most because those are groups who never enter these host societies in a position of inequality and isolation. It's not always the American and British ones, though; it's situational. I was also rather annoyed with an often impenetrable Japanese accent at university in Scotland. Again, it wasn't the accent itself so much as the fact that this guy lacked the command of the English language (and culture) necessary to not completely disrupt every class he was in and to comfortably pass the classes he was in. He shouldn't have been there, which made his accent all the more annoying in the context of university classes.

Edited by eyðimörk on 10 October 2013 at 12:04pm

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beano
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 Message 18 of 51
10 October 2013 at 1:27pm | IP Logged 
eyðimörk wrote:
I don't think there are any accents that are particularly ‘sexy’ in any language. I can't
really think of any accent that bothers me either.

What does grate at me, accent wise, is rather situational and has little to do with the accent in and of itself. I
am a bit annoyed with extremely heavy American and British accents (think: reading a foreign language aloud
in English without trying to mimic the sounds of the foreign language at all) from people who have lived in
Sweden or France for a decade or more, especially if they are married to native speakers and have kids in
the school system. It tells me that they don't particularly respect the language. The American and British
accents annoy me the most because those are groups who never enter these host societies in a position of
inequality and isolation. It's not always the American and British ones, though; it's situational. I was also
rather annoyed with an often impenetrable Japanese accent at university in Scotland. Again, it wasn't the
accent itself so much as the fact that this guy lacked the command of the English language (and culture)
necessary to not completely disrupt every class he was in and to comfortably pass the classes he was in. He
shouldn't have been there, which made his accent all the more annoying in the context of university classes.


English speakers are used to hearing their language spoken by people from all over the world in myriad
accents and with every conceivable level of proficiency. And that's before we even consider the huge variety
of accents within the English-speaking world itself. Basically, if we can understand you it's fine because the
chances of us speaking your native tongue are usually slim.

Maybe speakers of smaller languages are less tolerant of the accent situation?

Edited by beano on 10 October 2013 at 1:27pm

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tarvos
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 Message 19 of 51
10 October 2013 at 1:53pm | IP Logged 
I would suspect them to be more tolerant of the situation, precisely because they don't
get a lot of attention for their language.
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bela_lugosi
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 Message 20 of 51
10 October 2013 at 2:53pm | IP Logged 
Finnish spoken with the typical Italian accent sounds rather funny to me. :) Accents such as the American one - or the French accent - are the most irritating because there often seems to be very little if any effort to mimic the pronunciation of the target language and because they are the most difficult to understand.
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tastyonions
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 Message 21 of 51
10 October 2013 at 3:17pm | IP Logged 
The most interesting I've heard has to be the accent of a Japanese woman who spoke English very well and had an accent that seemed to be a cross between American, Australian, and a little Japanese left over.
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eyðimörk
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 Message 22 of 51
10 October 2013 at 3:34pm | IP Logged 
beano wrote:
Maybe speakers of smaller languages are less tolerant of the accent situation?

I'm not sure what you meant by this when quoting me since the native language I have listed, while not tiny, has less than 9 million native speakers...?

Or did you mean that I was being particularly intolerant by saying that I'm annoyed with accents only when I'm actually annoyed by something else?

Edited by eyðimörk on 10 October 2013 at 3:36pm

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schoenewaelder
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 Message 23 of 51
10 October 2013 at 3:37pm | IP Logged 
tarvos wrote:

Sexiest is always Scottish. I don't find foreign accents very sexy in general. And it is
never French.

I'm not the best person to analyse accents, but isn't the Scottish accent sort of a bit
similar to one of the Dutch/Scandinavian accents, or a mix?

I'll go with the stereotype, and say french can be very pleasant, as long as it is
comprehensible.

I rather like Scandinavians, mainly because they often speak such good English, but often
they use words a little differently than we are used to, adds a little variety to life.

Edited by schoenewaelder on 10 October 2013 at 3:37pm

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tarvos
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 Message 24 of 51
10 October 2013 at 3:38pm | IP Logged 
Not... really... at all...the only thing I can think of is the rolled r. And Scots have
slightly more sensible vowels. But English with a rolled r just sounds more like a
language.

Edited by tarvos on 10 October 2013 at 3:38pm



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