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Benedict Arnold

UK members.

I'm in America.  When I meet people from the UK I often think, "Wow, his accent is strong."   I can barely understand my friend John from Glasgow and after a few pints give up.   Anyway do you in the UK perceive Americans as having an accent and find us difficult to understand?

Posted - March 13, 2017
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Responses


  • 2327
    Americans love an English accent, but most don't realize there are so many. They just think of the stereotypical (or the most heard) ones they hear in the movies, TV shows, chat shows and news channels. And because they don't hear much at all of the others, they often mistake those people as being from somewhere else (other than England) when they do hear it. People who are from the Northern areas of England may get asked if they're Scottish or Irish, and Scottish people may get asked if they're from Australia. There are some people who will be able to tell where they're from, but a lot won't.
      March 13, 2017 8:06 PM MDT
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  • Yes. I have encountered the Richard Dawkins cultivated accent and the Cockney accent which is bewildering.  Then even in the US some deep south accents are near incomprehensible.
      March 13, 2017 9:32 PM MDT
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  • I wonder if there's a correlation between English accents and intelligence. Every time I hear a person with an English accent, they immediately seem more intelligent. Like they know what they are talking about. 
      March 13, 2017 9:52 PM MDT
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  • You're right, of course. )
      March 14, 2017 12:19 AM MDT
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  • ;)
      March 14, 2017 12:30 AM MDT
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  • The Glasgow accent is particularly difficult for we Sassenachs to understand. I once met the parents of a Scots friend the day they stepped off the plane to visit their son. I saw on the edge of the seat and kept my eyes glued to their lips in an attempt to understand them. And even that didn't help with those words which are unique to Scotland.
      March 13, 2017 11:37 PM MDT
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  • As an English person it takes me a good minute or so to atune the ear to an Glaswegian accent. I think they do it on purpose. )
      March 14, 2017 12:21 AM MDT
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  • On purpose? I think they stand in front of a mirror practising it. :(
      March 14, 2017 12:53 AM MDT
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  • 22891
    i used to see people from there at the resort i used to work at, they would hire people from all over the world there
      March 14, 2017 2:37 PM MDT
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  • 739
    I don't think US accents are hard to understand, but perhaps I just haven't heard the ones that would be. Some US figures of speech are just not widely known here, though.
      March 15, 2017 6:45 AM MDT
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