Do american accents sound weird to non americans?

[NeoDeath90]

Describe "American".

As an American, let me list some off for you:

The Brooklyn. Most of the tought guys on the Sopranos have this one. Joey Wheeler of the English dubbed Yu Gi Oh is one of the best examples of this I can think of.

The Southern: Self explanitory. Also knows as the Redneck or Hillbilly.

The Gangstah: Used by people of all racial backgrounds who share an interest in the hip hop community. One of the more annyoing accents in my book.

The Valleygirl: Phrases like "Like, omigod!" and "No way!" are staples of this one. Ending every sentence with a question mark is another.

So you just need to ask yourself. Are we talking about one of those or just "American" in general?

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

The funny thing is how fake accents sound on TV. On American TV shows, American accents sound fine but have you heard a supposedly British character? No one talks like that! The same thing goes for Americans in British TV shows. It always makes me laugh.

 

[iJosh]

Yep.

ESPECIALLY if your from New York. I've been there once and I'm from Canada eh. Pretty thick accent you guys have in the big apple.

 

[Rii Mitsukai]

tbh i cant really say cause i havent heard many americans apart from in films and a few times on tv but all i can say is that i dont think they are bad as some of the accent we have in england e.g. cockney (not sure how to spell it :/) and the essex accent. oh and also chav . all i can say is whenever george w bush did is speeches he made me laugh alot although thats probably more because i instantly think of comedian jokes more than the actual accent.

 

[Desaari]

I find North American accents all have a bit of an annoying twang to them. To me you all sound a bit like Janice from Friends (to a greater or lesser extent depending on where you're from obviously).

 

[medievalguy]

Have you guys seen this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k 21 accents in 2.5 minutes.

 

[Oneirius]

Yes, american accents sound rather weird to me. Sometimes I can't figure out the freaking words.
Then again, my accent makes me sound like I am mentally retarded when I speak english.

 

[Biek]

Well to be honest, I learned to speak english alot from american movies. So I learned to speak english with an american accent. I call myself an "accent sponge" however, I absorb any accent im exposed to alot. Life when I played wow I was on vent alot with some brittish people whose accent I started to copy. (one of them was from Liverpool, oh dear)

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Depends... I can notice a New Yorker Accent, a Boston Accent, a New England Accent and of course the myriad of Southern Accents that all blur together for me... but I can't really tell Mid/North West Accents apart from my own Western Canadian Accent. The only real differences as far as I can tell are minor pronunciation issues,

 

[Agent Larkin]

Only new-england and New York and Chicago accents are all right the rest are extremely annoying.
especially the tweleve year old squeeky "BUT MOM IM KILLIN NOOBS" accent is probably the most annoying Yank accent.

 

[IsoNeko]

At first. Yes.

But seen as online gaming is a mainly American dominated area. You get used to it and start thinking your own accent is strange.

My accent is now more american than ever, and I live in Yorkshire. Where our sentences are nothing but Slang riddled nightmares.

 

[Lord George]

Think about it man. When someone from another country moves to the Americas they are bound to sound odd to some people. It's only logical to say that when we move over there we will sound kind of weird to some.

Yes you all sound like Yanks.

and there's nothing wrong with that.

Well. No its kind of expected, Yanks live in America therfore America is full of Yanks

Limeys live in the UK therefore the UK is full of limeys. Got it.

Also followed on from a conversation I had last night, can people tell the TF2 sniper is Australian or do you think he's British. Its the most confused mix of stereotypes I've ever seen in a character.

He has always struck me as Australian, but that is due to the sound of his voice. What stereotypes go into his character that make him confusing?

Well the "God save the Queen" thing he does when he taunts is odd, and his whole accent sounds like an English guy faking an Australian accent. Though apparently this is deliberate according to Valve http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2193.

 

[clearlynotyahtzee]

Yeah american accents get on my tits a bit. especially when you pronounce words wrong and even more so when you correct me on my pronunciation when it was our country who founded the basis for your tangential language. ITS NOT PRONOUNCED SKEDULE THERES A C WHICH MAKES IT A 'SHH' SOUND. Also irks me when in writing people go out of the way to show that brits pronounce the word lieutenant 'lef'tenant for example in CoD4. For christ sake we modified the french word to our liking before you had the chance to steal it back and let the french have their little linguistic victory. Also i have no idea how u came to say aluminum. Aluminum cans, aluminum foil. Everyone knows its pronounced 'tin'

 

[BlackJack47]

I like different accents, I cant stand the hear the same accent constantly in day-to-day life so its a nice change...I think the American accent is a fav of mine as well as Irish and of course French...they're awesome =D Hooray for language barriers.

 

[Slash Dementia]

(I'm from Argentina)

Argentine accent is the best.
Even I think most Americans have weird accents and I'm from America.

 

[jboking]

Think about it man. When someone from another country moves to the Americas they are bound to sound odd to some people. It's only logical to say that when we move over there we will sound kind of weird to some.

Yes you all sound like Yanks.

and there's nothing wrong with that.

Well. No its kind of expected, Yanks live in America therfore America is full of Yanks

Limeys live in the UK therefore the UK is full of limeys. Got it.

Also followed on from a conversation I had last night, can people tell the TF2 sniper is Australian or do you think he's British. Its the most confused mix of stereotypes I've ever seen in a character.

He has always struck me as Australian, but that is due to the sound of his voice. What stereotypes go into his character that make him confusing?

Well the God save the Queen quote is pretty strange

Well the "God save the Queen" thing he does when he taunts is odd, and his whole accent sounds like an English guy faking an Australian accent. Though apparently this is deliberate according to Valve http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2193.

I took the God save the Queen taunt as just that, a taunt. Of course the link kind of outlines the fact that Valve wants to keep their fake accents fake and therefore a big joke. Presumably so no one takes offense.

 

[fenrizz]

I've always been fond of the Texan accent

And no, it does not sound that weird. With all the american culture we're getting these days, I'm pretty used to it.

 

[yeah_so_no]

Describe "American".

The Southern: Self explanitory. Also knows as the Redneck or Hillbilly.

You do know there are a lot more Southern accents than just the redneck or hillbilly, right? Yeah.

Personally, I can't stand American accents from the northern parts of the United States, from New England over to Minnesota, especially NY/NJ, Boston, the Chicago area, and northern Minnesota, and some Canadian accents (like the one my friend from around IIRC Sudsbury has--the short 'a' is really nasal like Minnesota accents). It just sounds odd. Also odd is Americans speaking Japanese. If they have a strong accent, it sounds terrible. Ditto with Australian speaking Japanese. It's just horribly wrong.

I have a far more important question: are there any people from other countries who find our accent sexy???

I'm not sure about sexy, but it seems like almost everyone I've met from England and Australia, male and female, has found my Southern accent to be really, really cute. British guys and Australian women especially seemed to go nuts over it. Go fig.

 

[goatzilla8463]

hmmmmmmmmm. Yes.

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