| British people are hardest to understand? | |
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| Jan 11, 2008 01:43 |   |
 | I just came across this article when I was surfing on the internet. Since there are many members who are native English speakers, I am just wondering what your comments on this issue. Are British people are hardest to understand? Just have a discussion and no offence here. Here is the link: http://www.ftchinese.com/ |
| Jan 11, 2008 03:04 | #1 |
| Jimmy, You are correct. Every 10 miles the accent changes and up in the north it gets even more difficult as they use old English words. I can’t comment on the Welsh or the Scotts for fear of offending them. But it isn’t English. Dodger |
| Jan 11, 2008 08:15 | #2 |
| It's the same for most English speaking nations. The British who speak like the Queen - that is speak the 'Queens English' or BBC English are the most correct and generally the easiest to understand but as commented above, accents change dramatically from area to area. Many of these are quite unintelligible to the rest of us, as are some of the Scottish and Irish accents. |
| Jan 11, 2008 14:46 | #3 |
| I was flabbergasted when I went to Ireland to visit my grandmother's family homestead. Even though the people were I speaking English...I couldn't understand a word! Okay...they're not English and damned proud of that...but they were very difficult to understand. I've never been to England, but some of the accents I've heard over the years were pretty tough to understand. |
| Jan 12, 2008 12:41 | #4 |
| English spekers can be difficult to understand because of the broad accents but we now have a new language for you to get to grips with. Its called 'chav', I have tried to understand but it's way out of my league. So unless " you is well blingin with it mush" I'm afraid that like me you will struggle. |
| Jan 14, 2008 19:42 | #5 |
| Frankly, I prefer to 'London accent' very much though I failed to imitate it. When I was in college, I listened to BBC news with my MP3. My teacher once told us that even those who graduated from English department could not understand 'English' very well when they stayed in England. |
| Jan 18, 2008 01:03 | #6 |
| The chap in the FT article who said that English people were the worst, seemed to be talking about conversations between European businessmen using English as the common medium. The point made was that those from European countries who do not have English as a first language tend to speak more slowly and use simpler words, making communication relatively easy. My girlfriend is Chinese. She teaches Chinese to foreigners and English to Chinese people. She also does interpreting jobs from time to time. When we watch TV she is easily able to understand the Americans, but often comments about British TV that "they're all talking too fast!". None of the foreigners with whom she works is a Brit, coming instead from Holland, Denmark, Isreal and other places where English is learned as a second language. She really struggles to understand them sometimes, even though they use quite simple English. Essentially, it seems, their pronunciation can sometimes be so wildly different from what she's learned that she can't even guess which words they're trying to communicate to her. As a Brit, I pride myself in being able to understand the English language spoken in just about every accent (though it can take a few moments with some very strong accents). I believe this is because of the different cultural influence to which British people are exposed in their daily lives. Whether it's day-tripping in continental Europe, watching 'Neighbours' on TV, listening to reggae, ingesting yet another Hollywood blockbuster, or just visiting your local curry house. |
| Jan 18, 2008 01:03 | #7 |
| As has already been mentioned, Britain itself also has a remarkably diverse range of regional accents. To my mind, far more diverse than in other native English-speaking countries. I worked as a teacher for two and a half years in Guangdong, and saw more than thirty colleagues come and go. Some were from the US, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, but most were from the UK. In the whole group I'd say just one or two had what you might call a 'BBC English' accent. Younger students in particular would always find it difficult to understand a new teacher for the first couple of weeks, but could come to understand just about any accent in the end. (admittedly, I think the school avoided employing applicants whose accents were really, really strong) In my experience, it has been my friends from the US who have had most difficulty in understanding English spoken in different accents. I learned a long time ago to differentiate Canadian accents from US, and New Zealand Accents from Australian, but on visiting New York in 1996 just about everyone I met asked me "Are you Australian?". For the record, I speak with a flawless BBC English accent. Some British films shown in the US have to have subtitles so that they can be understood. This is particularly true of films which use a lot of uniquely British slang or strong regional accents ('Lock Stock' comes to mind). If I were to venture a reason for this (completely un-scientifically, of course), I should say that the US is a net exporter of popular culture and a large proportion of US nationals are not subject to foreign cultural influence in their daily lives. Such is the power of the American cultural influence that many British singers, these days, sing in American accents. Can't think of any American bands singing in British accents, though. |
| Jan 24, 2008 18:28 | #8 |
| I am English/Australian but when I watch US TV programs such as ER I can only understand about 60%. |
| Jan 24, 2008 20:10 | #9 |
| Same to you, Paul. There are so many 'ers' and it is very hard to understand them. As I said before, 'London accent' is still my favourite, especially BBC. |
| Jan 25, 2008 18:27 | #10 |
| Despite being brought up in London, I had a problem today understanding the two young staff in a 'pub' (traditional bar) near London. It seems to me that the street language has changed in the 25 years since I lived here. It's not just the accent but the colloquial phrases have changed too. Guess I should stay in China, I understand Chinglish now! |
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