RU British? No! I'm English!

by Englishman 14 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Englishman

  Gambler brought up an interesting point earlier re an English couple getting snotty because someone asked them if they were from Australia.

  It's a fact that guessing at someones accent is a risky business, especially if you get it wrong. I had a Canadian friend who was always being mistaken for an American, and boy did he ever get pissy about it.

  Same with New Zealanders, I don't mix 'em up with Aussie's because I have Kiwi pals and am tuned into to the softer intonations. My wife has a Swiss friend who hates being mistaken for being from Germany or Austria and makes no bones about letting you know it.

  I used to laugh at what I considered to be over-sensitivity, until someone suggested that I came from Yorkshire. Boy, did my hackles rise, I have only a vestige of my northern accent left, and it is most definitely Lancashire! Bloody Yorkshire people, just like Scots only without the generosity. (that's heavy sarcasm BTW)

  All that being said, I now never ask "Are you ****ish" of anyone anymore. I simply ask where someone is from and await the answer.

  It's safer that way!

  Englishman.

  Bring on the dancing girls!
• 

  duped

  Englishman,

  I enjoyed your post. I agree that it is risky business asking "are you .....?

  I had a funny experience recently talking to another Englishman. I was at my husbands class renunion. One of his classmates had brought an Englishman that she was dating. After having a few to drink I started up a conversataion with him. I've always prided myself on being able to imitate other people's accents, so I started talking in my "English accent." He proceeded to tell me that my English accent was "crap". I admired his honesty :). Will I imitate anyone else's accent? Depends on how much I've had to drink! :)

  Duped

  "Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug." Mary Chapin-Carpentar
• 

  Englishman

  Duped,

  I was certainly "Duped" by the lassie who played Bridgett Jones, Renee Zelwigglywoggly, never would have guessd that she was American. The Brit accent was perfect.

  Englishman.

  Bring on the dancing girls!
• 

  sleepy

  No I'm Welsh.
  From Wales.
  Thats a small town outside London.
  Or is it?
• 

  Abaddon

  Canadians are easy to differentiate from Americans. Just get them to say 'about', or watch for the "Eh".

  You can then say "You're from Canada, aren't you", which they love.

  Same with Kiwis. But sometimes it's quite hard, so it's best to ask.

  South Africans, well, the ex-pats can sound a bit Australian, but it's not the same; traffic lights are 'robots', for example.

  Indian English is beautiful.

  The Europeans vary; I work in a country with lots of Spanish people, Dutch people, as well as the Taiwanese and a few British or Irish.

  Irish English is lush, unless it's Northern Irish, in which case it is vile.Most Scots accents are very nice. Geordie and Glasweigan are vile, but amusing. Yorkshire makes me want to hum the theme from the 'Hovis' comercial. I'm not good at knowing what is what from the other Midlans accents, although as you travel further South, Scouse, Mancunian and Brummie are fairly easy to pick out.

  I speak very standard Southern English, quite posh if I want to, although I can also speak in a broad London accent.

  People living in glass paradigms shouldn't throw stones...
• 

  Celtic

  Mebyon Kernow!!

  If there is one thing that really does get my goat, it is being called English when in fact I am Cornish, I don't mind being called British, but definitely NOT English.

  The Cornish were taken over by the English many years ago and it is good today to see such a recovery emerging in the old Cornish language and customs. BTW the Cornish national flag is a white cross on a black background.

  Ruddy Anglo Saxons from an annoyed Celt.

  Peace

  Mark
• 

  waiting

  Lordy, and here I am at work without my quote book!

  I'll wing it..........

  Canadians and Americans are almost indistinguishable from each other. To tell the difference, make this observation to any Canadian. eh? eh?

  And finally a Welsh person!

  Show a Welshman 100 doors and he'll pick the one which says "Self-destruction."

  I'm a Southern American (which is different from a Yankee btw). I was a Yankee.......but now I say "y'al" too much. I'm only accepted down here because I married a "Good 'Ol Boy."

  waiting
• 

  Mr Ben

  Variations in culture and language, like different foods, make the world a more interesting place to live! But unless we stop falling out over these superficial differences and remember that we are all Homo Sapiens Sapiens and should be working together to overcome the petty prejudices that divide us, and start attacking our REAL enemies (AKA Cholera, Hepatitis, TB etc) then we will go the way of the Dodo.

  Celtic Cornishman and Englishman: When the "true" English asked the AS over to help fight their wars they rewarded the AS with Kent. But Kent wasn't enough. The "true" English were driven over the hills into the valleys and were pejoratively dubbed "welsh" - which was an insult because it meant "foreigner" i.e. they were now foreigners in their own country.

  We are all related. The last true "other" amongst us were the Neanderthal people, whom we either killed off or out-competed. There are no races of mankind - we are all one. We just don't believe it and so we fight and argue and get upset over being English and not British, or Cornish and not English etc.

  I was born on Earth. Where were you born? Or are you all aliens, or what?
• 

  gambler

  The aussie dont seem to get ofendened like the brits do. I told me experiance to a bunch of aussies and they laughed and said unlike the brits we do get pissed when you mistake us for them.For some reason I aways get the south african acsent right.
• 

  larc

  Abaddon,

  You might mistake someone from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (known as Yuupers, with a strong 'u' sound) They have a similiar pronounciation of "about" but not as strong as the Canadians. They definitely end their sentences, with "Eh". I live in the midwest where the accent in Ohio, Indiana, and lower Michigan are pretty much the same. If I travel 55 miles and cross the bridge into Kentucky, a strong southern accent appears. Cincinatti - midwestern; across the river in Covington Ky. - southern.
  Also, accents in the south vary, nicht var, Frau Waiting?