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Ballpoint Pens

di 3rdblade, 26 aprile 2011

Messaggi: 64

Lingua: English

Miland (Mostra il profilo) 27 aprile 2011 15:30:35

EdRobertson:I think "globkrajono" is obsolete in Esperanto, though.
It's in the revised edition of Wells as the translation of "biro", while (and this surprised me) "ballpen" and "ballpoint" are not there!

T0dd (Mostra il profilo) 27 aprile 2011 15:31:04

ceigered:
You might find it a bit funny, but even I have trouble understanding Australian accents if they're over TV in a drama or comedy - I guess I'm so used to hearing an American accent or a British accent on that box okulumo.gif.
My first thought was that that's amazing. Then I thought about how it is now when I visit Rhode Island, where I grew up. Even though I still have some of that accent, everybody "sounds funny" to me now. The RI accent really jumps out at me, along with the odd New Englandism like "I'm in a wickid hurry" etc.
Like I said before, it never occurred to me that "biro" might never be used in the US, and I'm sure there are other things I don't know because I take for granted the similarities between the US and Australia.
I asked my wife this morning if she knew what a "biro" was. She thought I said "bureau".

It always amazes me how well some Australian and British actors are able to do American accents. In the case of Russell Crowe, you can see how he's improved at it over the years. He was shaky in "A Beautiful Mind," but in more recent films he's very good. Nicole Kidman's American accent is always flawless. Among brits, Hugh Laurie, Robert Hoskins and many more come to mind. Tracy Ullman can do regional US accents very accurately.

I don't know if there are many, or any, American actors who can do convincing British or Australian accents. How convincing was Renee Zellweger in "Bridget Jones"? What about Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes?

razlem (Mostra il profilo) 27 aprile 2011 15:53:04

I don't know if there are many, or any, American actors who can do convincing British or Australian accents.
I can do a pretty convincing Kent, but my Australian turns into New Zealander.

erinja (Mostra il profilo) 27 aprile 2011 18:15:03

The British press thought Renee Zellweger did a good job with the accent in Bridget Jones, as I recall. She sounded very authentic to me. Funny case, that one, because the American press thought she didn't do a very good job at all.

T0dd (Mostra il profilo) 27 aprile 2011 18:36:44

erinja:The British press thought Renee Zellweger did a good job with the accent in Bridget Jones, as I recall. She sounded very authentic to me. Funny case, that one, because the American press thought she didn't do a very good job at all.
Yes, I found her accent completely convincing in "Bridget Jones," but I don't imagine that my ear is that well tuned. I find it incredibly difficult to sustain a British accent for more than a few words.

In an early episode of "House," Hugh Laurie makes a phone call to London in which he "does" a British accent, ie., he does a British accent the way an American might unsuccessfully do it. Brilliant.

erinja (Mostra il profilo) 27 aprile 2011 18:38:16

T0dd:In an early episode of "House," Hugh Laurie makes a phone call to London in which he "does" a British accent, ie., he does a British accent the way an American might unsuccessfully do it. Brilliant.
I'm so sorry that I missed that one, I'll have to see if there's a clip of that somewhere online.

bartlett22183 (Mostra il profilo) 27 aprile 2011 19:09:25

Miland:
ceigered:I can't believe some of you HAD to use fountain pens in school!
Believe it, some of us did!
ceigered:And I can't believe some of you haven't heard of "biro" before..
I remember that one from primary school days, but that was in Scotland.
We used fountain pens in the upper elementary school grades in the central USA in the 1950s. Although I no longer use fountain pens as such, I do prefer liquid-ink rollerball pens for many uses, as being easier and smoother to write with.

As for "biro" meaning some kind of writing implement, I had literally never encountered the term until this thread started. If someone had asked me to pass her a biro, I would honestly have had no idea what she was referring to. None.

erinja (Mostra il profilo) 27 aprile 2011 19:27:45

bartlett22183:If someone had asked me to pass her a biro, I would honestly have had no idea what she was referring to. None.
A beer-o, right? In bad, English-inflected Esperanto.

I'm sorry, isn't it a little early in the morning for drinking?

jefusan (Mostra il profilo) 27 aprile 2011 19:45:47

I think some Australian and British actors do amazing American accents, but there are plenty who don't. One of my favorite examples is Tim Roth in Reservoir Dogs. His accent is a mess. He's much better when he sticks to his native accent.

The biggest mistake non-Americans make when they try to do an American accent is to jump from one regional accent to another within the space of a sentence. One word is Midwestern, the next is Noo Yawk.

But then, I have a thing for accents. I sometimes wish I'd studied to be a dialect coach.

Whenever I'm wondering if an unfamiliar actor doing an American accent might be from elsewhere, I listen for the word "dog." It's the one word they never seem to get right. They usually say something like dahg.

erinja (Mostra il profilo) 27 aprile 2011 20:10:19

Grammar errors are common, too. They get the American accent decently good (at least good enough to be confused for an American accent out of your region) and then they go and make a grammar mistake.

I remember watching a British series where an actress was doing an American accent that was almost there but not quite, but she really sealed the deal with a mistake in the verb form used for a collective noun.

She said something to the effect of "The team want to know...". The correct American usage would have been "the team wants to know...". I'm not sure whether the writers made that mistake in the script, or whether the actress just memorised it wrong. But it was British grammar with a [not quite believable] American accent.

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