English accents. Best and worst

[ShadySands]

English is my wife's third language and she occasionally has problems understanding some accents. The worst for her in the US is a thick southern drawl but internationally she really struggles with some of the English and Scottish accents whereas I struggle with some Indian and Australian ones. I wanted to ask here what do you all think are some of the best and worst English accents from English speaking countries.

 

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

I tend to like Scottish accents. I'm neutral towards most English (or British, whatever) accents, though I hate "commercial" English accents - anytime the voice-over in an American commercial has a British accent, that's the one I'm talking about. For some reason, companies think having the most outrageously pompous-sounding Brits talk down to us is a good idea.

[Hurlshort]

My students are doing country presentations this week, and I was talking to them about presenting with the accent of the country. It was decided that most European accents are safe for anyone, but you can really only get away Indian and Japanese if you are white. Chinese and Mexican sounds pretty offensive unless you are from those cultures. It was a fun conversation. My French accent is pretty solid.

[Malcador]

Thick Scottish accent is probably the worst for me. I like the Yorkshire, Aussie and South African ones.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

Hungarian accent is the worst and I have to live with it

[smjjames]

My students are doing country presentations this week, and I was talking to them about presenting with the accent of the country. It was decided that most European accents are safe for anyone, but you can really only get away Indian and Japanese if you are white. Chinese and Mexican sounds pretty offensive unless you are from those cultures. It was a fun conversation. My French accent is pretty solid.

 

You could still end up with an offensive Indian and Japanese accent if you do it wrong. Also, while there is that type of Italian accent usually done for comedy reasons, I don't know how offensive Italians find it.

 

The French generally (stereotypically, and may not be true for everyone) get upset if you do French wrong or not too superbly well. They are known for being pretty defensive about their native language though.

[ShadySands]

 

My students are doing country presentations this week, and I was talking to them about presenting with the accent of the country. It was decided that most European accents are safe for anyone, but you can really only get away Indian and Japanese if you are white. Chinese and Mexican sounds pretty offensive unless you are from those cultures. It was a fun conversation. My French accent is pretty solid.

 

You could still end up with an offensive Indian and Japanese accent if you do it wrong. Also, while there is that type of Italian accent usually done for comedy reasons, I don't know how offensive Italians find it.

 

The French generally (stereotypically, and may not be true for everyone) get upset if you do French wrong or not too superbly well. They are known for being pretty defensive about their native language though.

 

I think it's the difference of mimicking an accent of another English speaking country and mimicking the accent of someone from a non-English speaking country trying to speak English. It's easier to get away with the former than the latter. Not impossible just harder to get away with without offending someone.

 

I used to do a pretty good bad Swedish accent

[Malcador]

For non-English English accents, I like Russian.

[injurai]

If you include slang, then certain dialects become additionally indecipherable. I find for Australia it's the slang that get's me more than the accent, where as Scottish it's both. I really like Scottish accents in general, though a few get at bit too backwater at times.

 

I really like Pan-London, Cornish, Portsmouth, Hackney and Oxford accents. It's amazing how diverse the accents of the UK are compared to the US. Which as far wider dialectical regions.

 

As far as Indian-English, I've seen quite a lot of variety. Some of it is incredibly hard to bare. The worst is not just when there is a strong accent with little effort applied, but it's when someone refuses to raise their voice. I've meet more than a few Indian people who practically mumble and whisper everything, not really sure what this is all about. I usually consider Japan or something a place where a gentle voice is often used. In India it's not everyone but certain people maintain an incredibly soft voice. They're really nice, meek, friendly people. But communication is incredibly trying like nothing else. It's even worse when you are in a group of Indian people and you can perfectly understand some but not others. So that same person you have to ask the same person to repeat themselves every time they speak.

 

American Southern Hick is probably the worst English accent of all time though. The southern drawl can sort of go either way for me, I think the feigned hospitality really ruins it for me though. Valley talk is pretty bad though, and is made even worse when people from the midwest tried to take up that accent, so you have this weird generation of older woman in the midwest who have this teenage Valley girl accent. Tends to be found more in the rural areas.

 

Part of me kind of misses some of the older American accents and dialects that are dying out. Particularly Mid-Atlantic.

 

Just being from a city, I find my taste in American accents is really cut along city/rural lines, preferring suburban dialects. Where as my taste in accents in the greater Anglo-sphere is more based on what aesthetics I like.

[smjjames]

 

 

My students are doing country presentations this week, and I was talking to them about presenting with the accent of the country. It was decided that most European accents are safe for anyone, but you can really only get away Indian and Japanese if you are white. Chinese and Mexican sounds pretty offensive unless you are from those cultures. It was a fun conversation. My French accent is pretty solid.

 

You could still end up with an offensive Indian and Japanese accent if you do it wrong. Also, while there is that type of Italian accent usually done for comedy reasons, I don't know how offensive Italians find it.

 

The French generally (stereotypically, and may not be true for everyone) get upset if you do French wrong or not too superbly well. They are known for being pretty defensive about their native language though.

 

I think it's the difference of mimicking an accent of another English speaking country and mimicking the accent of someone from a non-English speaking country trying to speak English. It's easier to get away with the former than the latter. Not impossible just harder to get away with without offending someone.

 

I used to do a pretty good bad Swedish accent

 

 

Japan isn't primarily or a large portion english speaking, though there could be enough that you might be able to get away with it.

[ShadySands]

Good point made about the slang. I think that's what throws me more than the accents themselves.

 

[injurai]

I think the reason why Japanese is less offensive, is because people just end up attempting the actual Japanese accent. Because Japan has a whole system as well phoneticizing loan words, an English speaker doing Engrish is just speaking loan word Japanese.

 

I think it's further alleviated by the fact that American and Japan have a lot of given and take culturally, and are both well established first world countries. So there isn't as much punching down.

[Hurlshort]

While practicing my Japanese English accent, one of my Japanese students did point out that not all Japanese bow every time they say something.

[smjjames]

While practicing my Japanese English accent, one of my Japanese students did point out that not all Japanese bow every time they say something.

 

Silly Hurlshot being stereotypical, you're supposed to be their teacher, dude.

 

Just ribbing ya a bit.

[Hurlshort]

Thankfully I teach Social Science, and that's all about recognizing stereotypes.

[Amentep]

The only time I've totally failed to understand English was meeting a pleasant older gentleman from Scotland whose accent was impenetrable for me even after listening to him for a bit (usually if I hear someone speak enough English it gives me the ability to de-code their accent).

 

My brother ended up having to translate for me (he'd been in the UK for awhile when I came to visit).  Total embarrassment.

[Guard Dog]

The best is whatever Sean Connery has. The worst is probably me because speech to text screws up every time. Plus even Siri can't make heads or tails of what I'm asking.

[Gfted1]

^My Comcast remote has a hard time understanding me for some reason.

[the_dog_days]

I can't understand Boston ascents. All those soft vowel sounds to replace all the hard vowels makes it so I'm never sure if you said 'parts' or 'pots'.

[Chilloutman]

the hardest for me (warning language):

 

 

Edited December 14, 2017 by Chilloutman

[Zoraptor]

Seems vaguely relevant, though I usually loathe propagating deliberately viral commercials as a matter of principle.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mDoqrhiem0&pbjreload=10

 

 

I struggle with some Indian and Australian ones.

 

 

Our antipodean vowel shifting is certainly out of hand:

 

oil hiv sikhs beets of feesh ind two scoops of cheeps, cobbah == aussie

I'll have six bits of fish and two scoops of chips, my good man/ woman == translation to queen's english

ull huv sux buts of fush und two scoops of chups, bro == kiwi as a bonus

 

Everyone struggles with some of the Indian ones. I like Indians as a people a lot, but I always groan inwardly when someone's tech support is run out of India as they struggle with our accent (understandably) and we struggle with theirs just as much. OTOH my Hindi (Gujarati/ Marathi etc etc) could certainly use some work.

[Raithe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJdciQr4kAw

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6npX-3fqWs

[Raithe]

Plus there's also...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-_30ZRZAI0

[Malcador]

Best dialect

 

 

Edited December 14, 2017 by Malcador

[injurai]

Slang + Korean accent, just ends up sounding like Korean to me