讯息： 90
语言: English
erinja (显示个人资料) 2009年2月10日下午3:46:19
RiotNrrd:"Brobro brorawg broro eena wumpet, gvnuh?"This is so funny, I've had this exact experience, I started laughing here at work, just reading your description.
"Ebblth brythnrwth brrbrr."
(Audience) "Ha ha ha ha ha."
Another factor in Americans' difficulty understanding accents is that most British TV that reaches our screens is old - from the 60's-80's. Old British TV is often pretty much straight-off RP English. There are a few accent differences to show social class, but very few regional accents. Only in more recent years has British TV in general begun to reflect more regional accents. These newer programs are hard to find on US TV, and in most cases, can only be seen on BBC America.
Australian accents are hard for us because American TV shows no Australian programs whatsoever, and there's only the lightest smattering of Australian actors who speak in their native accents on our TV.
Regarding subtitling, I often feel that US TV goes overboard. People who have a foreign accent are sometimes subtitled, even if they aren't especially hard to understand. This increases in low-end TV; so a news program probably wouldn't subtitle a person with a foreign accent, but a reality TV show probably would. Americans meet a lot of people who don't speak English natively, and it's hard for me to believe that they really need these subtitles.
Then again, there's an English guy in my office that my group sometimes does projects with; he speaks with a Northern accent, which is not really too strange, as English regional accents go. But one of my co-workers can barely understand him at all, even though she has spent a lot of time in England (albeit in the South).
eikored85 (显示个人资料) 2009年2月11日上午12:58:47
erinja:Haha, apparently, you're not the only one who goes on lernu.net while at work =PRiotNrrd:"Brobro brorawg broro eena wumpet, gvnuh?"This is so funny, I've had this exact experience, I started laughing here at work, just reading your description.
"Ebblth brythnrwth brrbrr."
(Audience) "Ha ha ha ha ha."
erinja:Actually, in some cases, the subtitles are added as an insult. French-speaking Canadians feel insulted when their movies are shown in France and are subtitled, as if the French are insinuating that Canadian French is not intelligible.
Regarding subtitling, I often feel that US TV goes overboard. People who have a foreign accent are sometimes subtitled, even if they aren't especially hard to understand. This increases in low-end TV; so a news program probably wouldn't subtitle a person with a foreign accent, but a reality TV show probably would. Americans meet a lot of people who don't speak English natively, and it's hard for me to believe that they really need these subtitles.
Rogir (显示个人资料) 2009年2月11日上午2:55:39
About people feeling insulted for being subtitled: in this movie a West-Flaming complains about always being subtitled (of course, that complaint is subtitled).
vejktoro (显示个人资料) 2009年2月11日上午6:26:33
andogigi:Bonfire night was second only to Christmas where I grew up. The connection with Guy Fawkes is long lost... I never even heard of him until I was in grade 12 or so. Of course, we`d all go mummering at christmas time; no idea where that came from either.
Sorry to change the subject, but you touched on something I've been curious about for a long time. I once read that some New England towns still burn Guy Fawkes once a year on Bonfire night. Have you experienced this?
I`m sure I`ve lost most of you now.
British TV was never a problem. Hilarious stuff.
I get a kick outta being subtitled, I don`t know why some of my countrymen expect that people from away should understand us when it`s so clear that they don`t.
As for sounds, well Inuktitut sounds odd, http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~inuit/dialogue.html
Innu as well, http://www.innu-aimun.ca/modules.php?name=storie...
but they don`t sound bad to me.
!Xóõ sounds amazing! http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/NMN/n...
I guess the South African Accent bugs me a little, as do some of sounds of Bengali... sorry guys, I feel kinda bad about that.
North American News Brodcasters, especially Canadian ones do bother me. I don`t feel so bad about that.
The most beautiful sound a human has ever made is the sweet sorrowful lilt from the tongue of any girl from Branch Newfoundland bidding you good morning. Sorry folks, I`ve no link, but it`s my favorite accent in all the world.
jan aleksan (显示个人资料) 2009年2月11日上午9:33:16
Rogir:About people feeling insulted for being subtitled: in this movie a West-Flaming complains about always being subtitled (of course, that complaint is subtitled).Well, the contrary is also true, dutch is subtitled in flanders...
Frankouche (显示个人资料) 2009年2月11日下午12:16:36
eikored85:Actually, in some cases, the subtitles are added as an insult. French-speaking Canadians feel insulted when their movies are shown in France and are subtitled, as if the French are insinuating that Canadian French is not intelligible.Some french canadian accent are very hard to understand and almost not intelligible for most of french people.
For english natives, maybe they ignore that we hear most of their music, songs without hear correctly and understand the lyrics (except the refrain) ?
Before, to see the real lyrics on the cd, vinyl was always a good joke (do you really hear that ?)
Now it's better to see them rapidly on the web.
ceigered (显示个人资料) 2009年2月11日下午12:27:43
vejktoro:I guess the South African Accent bugs me a littleHa I love the south african accent, just sounds so cool. Although my S.African physics teacher was once trying to explain Snell's law... In the test we had, I wrote 'Snail's law' because I thought that was what she was saying (Both have long 'e's to my ears)....
But then again, it's not like every conversation I will have with a S.African will be about Snell's law... (I can't even remember it anyway).EDIT: And while we're talking about British TV and unintelligibility - I was watching ESPN today, and I could not understand half the words the commentator was saying. It's not that he was speaking too fast, it's just that it sounded like he was only speaking out the stressed syllables. My amikino however could understand perfectly, and proceeded to look at me as if I was diseased - not my fault that I was hearing "An his pass th baal t th aapsshn ...... an damn thats gonn giv em' penly " while she was hearing "And he has passed the ball to the opposition ....... and damn that's gonna give them a penalty!" etc
(for those interested, it was college basketball, University of Kentucky versus Florida, and we have ESPN on Aussie cable).
Ironchef (显示个人资料) 2009年2月11日下午3:22:32
This thread got me thinking about the 1980s BBC comedy show "Allo Allo". If you ever saw that you'll instantly know what I'm talking about....
...for the rest of you:
The show was set during World War II in a small occupied French village. The lead character, René Artois, is a café owner along with his wife Edith. The story revolves around the interaction between René, his affairs with his waitresses, the German officers who frequent his café and his contacts in the Maquis (The French Resistance) and two captured British airmen who are trying to escape back to England.
Well to capture the flavor of the different nationalities, the characters all speak in English but with comic French/German/English accents. What makes it funny is that when someone speaks "English" they speak very BBC, high English and the French speakers pretend that "I deed not uhnderstahnd vot ee just sed"...
I recently got to see this again on PBS and was reminded how silly and crazy this show was. I'm sure you will find clips of it on YouTube if you are interested.
...for the rest of you:
The show was set during World War II in a small occupied French village. The lead character, René Artois, is a café owner along with his wife Edith. The story revolves around the interaction between René, his affairs with his waitresses, the German officers who frequent his café and his contacts in the Maquis (The French Resistance) and two captured British airmen who are trying to escape back to England.
Well to capture the flavor of the different nationalities, the characters all speak in English but with comic French/German/English accents. What makes it funny is that when someone speaks "English" they speak very BBC, high English and the French speakers pretend that "I deed not uhnderstahnd vot ee just sed"...
I recently got to see this again on PBS and was reminded how silly and crazy this show was. I'm sure you will find clips of it on YouTube if you are interested.