Speaking Like An American

1. yugosakimi
   March 4th, 2009 at 1:00 am

   Dude, that's, like totally duderiffic.

2. interweber
   March 4th, 2009 at 1:00 am

   Strangely fascinating.

3. catlady
   March 4th, 2009 at 1:56 am

   I hate that I know people who actually talk this way.
   "Yeah so, blah blah so, you know, yeah"

4. Wok
   March 4th, 2009 at 2:26 am

   She's still got lingering elements of Englishness but otherwise it's good.

5. Alex
   March 4th, 2009 at 2:30 am

   If she has said "like" just a couple more times, she'd blend in so much we won't be able to tell she's not a native speaker!

6. Camilla
   March 4th, 2009 at 2:36 am

   Dead giveaway that this was an impression (if she hadn't said so) would be the beginning, "I'm from Americarr".

   Still, quite nice.

7. Dog Droppings
   March 4th, 2009 at 6:46 am

   Like, you know, basically, it was definitely, totally, uhh.... cool.

8. Video Game Dork
   March 4th, 2009 at 7:37 am

   the problem with the whole collection is that they sound like they are aiming for exadurated deep south or valley california (almost 80s movies-ish). Even people I've spoken to in Texas/Carolina/etc and Califoria (when I worked in a call center) didn't sound THAT over-the-top.

   still, it's better than I could do trying an english accent. (or any accent for that matter other than a few American regions).

9. Evilbeagle
   March 4th, 2009 at 8:18 am

   Not bad. After three years my husband can only manage to say "y'all", "ten" and "g-damn" convincingly in my Southern accent. And she certainly did better than Michelle Ryan as the Bionic Woman.

10. Rhea
    March 4th, 2009 at 9:54 am

    I have a friend from England and she does an American accent the same way that woman did. They hear us really weirdly.

11. mishelley
    March 4th, 2009 at 10:37 am

    This is their revenge for all those bad Monty Python impersonations American teenage boys do.

12. Frau
    March 4th, 2009 at 11:25 am

    I showed it to some kids. I forwarded it past where she tells us that she is from England.
    The kids said she was not from the US.

    She may be able to fool adults, but not a bunch of mid schoolers.

13. LisaL
    March 4th, 2009 at 11:51 am

    Didn't sound like she had much of an English accent to begin with to me.
    Her American accent was convincing though for the most part. There were a few parts where she couldn't hide her native accent but it's better than I could do if the tables were turned and I had to sound British.

14. Evilbeagle
    March 4th, 2009 at 12:23 pm

    Don't feel bad, LisaL. I've lived in England for nearly three years and I still can't fake an English accent.

15. Byrd Brain
    March 4th, 2009 at 12:33 pm

    With the exception of "Americar", she did a pretty good job. She sounded a little off here and there, but just I'd assume she was from the Minne-soh-ta or Wis-can-san area. For me, being from that area is enough to explain anything strange about anyone.

16. David Govett
    March 4th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    Not bad for a people forced to speak French for 200 years after being conquered by the French in 1066. (Admittedly, those particular French had Norman blood.)

17. violet
    March 4th, 2009 at 2:16 pm

    Yeah, as much as I die a little inside when my family fakes a British accent around my boyfriend, it is at least as cringeworthy when my boyfriend tries to talk with an American accent. It's just so...wrong.

    But maybe we all DO sound like vaguely retarded yokels.

18. mike r baker
    March 4th, 2009 at 3:20 pm

    Umerikurr imprrehshun! Not bad, really. Probably better than an American could do a British accent (assuming there's just on British accent, heh).

    Brad Pitt in Snatch is brought to mind - he didn't want to butcher an accent so he came up with the brilliant idea to speak in mumbled gobble-de-gook.

19. DeLuxe
    March 4th, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    The name Hugh Laurie pops to mind...

20. Tony LaRocca
    March 4th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    If you want to hear bad American accents, just listen to Big Finish's Dr. Who Audios. They seem to think that every American is a Texan (usually a cross between Boss Hogg and Doc. Hopper.) Or, if they're in the U.S. Millitary, they invariably sound like a cross between John Wayne and George C. Scott's General Buck Turgidson.

21. JayTwilight
    March 4th, 2009 at 8:11 pm

    She didn't fool me or any of my friends. We could easily tell she was not American, but she's still better at faking the accent than I am at pretending to be British! I was on vacation in London for a week and I tried to fake the accent, but people kept on looking at me like I grew horns.

22. Johnny Cat
    March 4th, 2009 at 10:26 pm

    When I was a kid, I thought the Beatles were Americans, until I heard them talk. The singing just sounds so...American.

23. Cordelia
    March 4th, 2009 at 11:00 pm

    Te "Americar" could be authentically American if she were from Boston!

24. Slim22
    March 5th, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Job well done!

25. Nicholas Dollak
    March 7th, 2009 at 9:08 am

    The "Americar" sounds like really awful New York to me. (Actually, most New Yorkers I've encountered are actually from various European countries; the "typical" accents must be endemic to smaller neighborhoods without much influx from outside.)

    The "A"s spoken through the nose are very New Jersey; I just cringe every time I hear that!

    I caught some very "round" "O"s that sound very Wisconsin or Minnesota. Since my parents are from Milwaukee, I grew up with a slight Midwestern accent despite having lived my whole life in New Jersey (I do an excellent Mr. Rogers impression). I NEVER say my "A"s through my nose! My students often assume that I must, therefore, be Canadian. If I lived in Wisconsin, students there would assume otherwise, since they'd actually know some Canadian accents (and they'd probably perceive me as a surprisingly intelligible New Jerseyan, assuming they had any idea of New Jersey accents).

    Anyway, Miss Grace's "American" accent is difficult to pin down to one specific location, just as mine is. She could easily fool most Brits with it, I think, and probably many United Statesians --- but nobody would be able to hear her and say, "Hey, you must be from Minnesota, enso?" because it contains elements from widely disparate regions.

    I love when an occasional student feels they've mastered "the" British accent (oh, there's just one?) and decide to try to trick the entire class into thinking that they're actually British and have been using "the" American accent (oh, there's just one?) all this time. When it's really time to get back to work and they won't let it rest, I'll pop their bubble by saying, "British, ay? What's the last letter of the alphabet?"

    In the immortal words of Sgt. Bilko, "Don't think of it as losing; think of it as a learning experience."

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