i know a couple of those, too... went for a semester, and talk with the accent and say shit like "americans are so ignorant" and shit like that... i even heard one of them tell a dude at a bar one night she was from london... had to call her out on that one... "bitch, you're from goldsboro, north carolina!"... she was less than psyched
can anyone tell me why it is always only girls who do this?
It's funny to me that when Americans try to do Australian accents (on reality TV shows mostly), they come out sounding british... but lower class british, which is really where our roots are.
having read this whole thread i am really wondering how far a british accent will get you in the states?? i mean ive lived in few countries and its pretty much meant nada over there. so whats the score is a true british accent like gold out there?
That is a normal Southern-English dude, perhaps London, trying to sound posh. And failing miserably. This would be like, I dunno, Dee Snyder trying to fake a Valley-Girl accent.
Not that there aren't proper posh black people - I did a gig once in Notting Hill Carnival week, and we hung with some Nigerians who had spent their formative years in England's finest public schools. They were all "Yah, it's such a fakcing SPECTACLE!" in Queen's English. Then they were trying fake Jamaican patois with the doormen in a couple of clubs. Even for a whitey like me, it was cringeworthy.
My native accent is flat North-West. As soon as I open my mouth, people know where I'm from and expect me to be some kind of cross between a car thief or rugby-league player. I can do a decent posh voice though, and various stages in between, because I found when I went to Uni most non-Northern folks couldn't understand a word I said.
I think James Mason rocked the best accent. That geezer from the A-Team, Dwight (Murdock) Schultz, can do it really well. Better than most English folks!
What trips me out is when I'm watching the "special features" for a movie or tv show, and it turns out that an actor who I assumed to be american is british. For example, we've been watching the new Battlestar Gallactica, and one of the main dudes there I assumed was straight up american. But when he was talking 'normally' (i.e. not acting) a british voice came out. I was like "WHAT!?!" Its happened more than once and it always shocks me. I guess because I find it impossible to fake a british accent, so it amazes me when brits can fake an american accent so well.
Actually I can't fake any accent. Southern Accents, Boston Accents, none of those... Canadian is easy because you just replace "OU" with "OO" sounds and you're done.
What trips me out is when I'm watching the "special features" for a movie or tv show, and it turns out that an actor who I assumed to be american is british.
yeah i got into an argument once with an old roommate years ago who insisted that Gary Oldman was american. i couldn't believe (i love gary oldman) that someone was telling me i didn't know what i was talking about gary oldman-wise.
this would be nice to turn into a regional vernacular/dialect thread. somebody posted a fun book here on that topic and i wish i could remember the name of it so i could check that out.
What trips me out is when I'm watching the "special features" for a movie or tv show, and it turns out that an actor who I assumed to be american is british. For example, we've been watching the new Battlestar Gallactica, and one of the main dudes there I assumed was straight up american. But when he was talking 'normally' (i.e. not acting) a british voice came out. I was like "WHAT!?!" Its happened more than once and it always shocks me. I guess because I find it impossible to fake a british accent, so it amazes me when brits can fake an american accent so well.
Actually I can't fake any accent. Southern Accents, Boston Accents, none of those... Canadian is easy because you just replace "OU" with "OO" sounds and you're done.
Belson, can you fake an American Accent?
My mind was blown when I heard Helena Bonham Carter's commentary in Fight Club.
I have a friend from Essex who can't pronounce his "thr"s. In that he would have to refer to the number 3 (phonically) as "that integer between two and four" (as in, not free as in beer, but three as in trilogy).
Go figure. He didn't wash his drawers neither. We had a washing machine, too. And he'd wash his work shirts. That was the weird thing. That one always troubled me.
having read this whole thread i am really wondering how far a british accent will get you in the states?? i mean ive lived in few countries and its pretty much meant nada over there. so whats the score is a true british accent like gold out there?
My wife is a Brit, and she uses the accent to her advantage all the time in NYC. People really respond to that shit, especially in the outer boroughs where people are less likely to have run into Brits in person. She even changes up the accent according to the situation, she'll use a posh Londony accent in some situations or revert to her more natural Northern (she's from Bolton) accent in other cases. Works like a charm.
It's funy to me to hear that people think Brits can do American accents well, because to me very, very few actors can really pull it off. When I hear some of the bad attempts on BBC America it's so obvious that they can't quite get it down. For some reason Black actors seem to pull it off better IMO.
My girlfriend's best friend does the fake british accent. She went on some mission to Kenya to save the children or something like that (it consisted of her teaching them how to make paper dolls), she went this year for 6 months and came back a month and a half ago. While she was there she met some wealthy South African who lives in London, and tooled around with him for a few weeks.
During those few weeks she somehow shed her life-long Long Island accent and turned into Princess Di. I don't understand how the guy she was running around with wasn't clowning her, but I guess he liked the ass.
She returned to Long Island and came on a camping trip with a bunch of us, where she was switching back and forth between accents, at one point inquiring for the bathroom to her brother as "where's the loo". "The what?" "The bathroom". "Oh."
He was getting increasingly annoyed with her talking like that, the rest of us were just rolling our eyes once in awhile. Finally we were talking about some type of coffee we were drinking and how good it was, and she pipes up in FULL ACCENT with "Joey (her brother) had some DELIGHTFUL (this was the kicker, it was so obnoxiously faked) and exotic coffee recently, it was some type of Arabian something, something Arabian, oh dear, Joey what was it?" Joey: "It was from a strange and magical land called Folgers, they were probably arabica beans, and when did you become a limey?"
I knew a girl who did the same thing after touring with a band from England for two months as their publicist. Another kid I know recorded a song with Pantera and developed a temporary southern accent.
[color:green] I find it impossible to fake a british accent [/color]
I could fake it as long as I am there...after hearing that dialect all day, I could rip off a fairly convincing one, when I was vacationing there a couple of years back...it never got to the place where I was talking like that all the time ala 1980's-era Tina Turner, though...for the hell of it, I'd use it on people I'd ask for directions, but if I'd had a full-on conversation with them, I'd lapse back into my usual American way of talking pretty quickly.
[color:green] I find it impossible to fake a british accent [/color]
[color: red}I could fake it as long as I am there...after hearing that dialect all day, I could rip off a fairly convincing one, when I was vacationing there a couple of years back...it never got to the place where I was talking like that all the time ala 1980's-era Tina Turner, though...for the hell of it, I'd use it on people I'd ask for directions, but if I'd had a full-on conversation with them, I'd lapse back into my usual American way of talking pretty quickly.[/color]
[color:green] I find it impossible to fake a british accent [/color]
[color: red}I could fake it as long as I am there...after hearing that dialect all day, I could rip off a fairly convincing one, when I was vacationing there a couple of years back...it never got to the place where I was talking like that all the time ala 1980's-era Tina Turner, though...for the hell of it, I'd use it on people I'd ask for directions, but if I'd had a full-on conversation with them, I'd lapse back into my usual American way of talking pretty quickly.[/color]
Radical new quoting style?
hey, it looked cool over on the Afropunk site, so...
just my tribute to the one Bitter Almonds at Spermidermy.
A guy whom I admire for his willingness to post about bands nobody else will even respond about. Dead Can Dance and Front 242 appreciation for days. STAND ALONE, BITTER A, STAND ALONE.
my brit cousins visited two weeks ago (actually, they rented a car and drove across the south like some tv show in the uk so they stopped just by) and i haven't been able to shake a fake british inflection since. i kind of like it. its polite and charming.
when my cousins were in town, they got a LOT of attention from the ladies because of their accents.
Comments
can anyone tell me why it is always only girls who do this?
australian sound like chimney sweeps who surf...
if so, how much gold was she wearing, what color was her tracksuit top, and did she consider a night at wetherspoon's an expensive date?
That is a normal Southern-English dude, perhaps London, trying to sound posh. And failing miserably. This would be like, I dunno, Dee Snyder trying to fake a Valley-Girl accent.
Not that there aren't proper posh black people - I did a gig once in Notting Hill Carnival week, and we hung with some Nigerians who had spent their formative years in England's finest public schools. They were all "Yah, it's such a fakcing SPECTACLE!" in Queen's English. Then they were trying fake Jamaican patois with the doormen in a couple of clubs. Even for a whitey like me, it was cringeworthy.
My native accent is flat North-West. As soon as I open my mouth, people know where I'm from and expect me to be some kind of cross between a car thief or rugby-league player. I can do a decent posh voice though, and various stages in between, because I found when I went to Uni most non-Northern folks couldn't understand a word I said.
I think James Mason rocked the best accent. That geezer from the A-Team, Dwight (Murdock) Schultz, can do it really well. Better than most English folks!
Actually I can't fake any accent. Southern Accents, Boston Accents, none of those... Canadian is easy because you just replace "OU" with "OO" sounds and you're done.
Belson, can you fake an American Accent?
yeah i got into an argument once with an old roommate years ago who insisted that Gary Oldman was american. i couldn't believe (i love gary oldman) that someone was telling me i didn't know what i was talking about gary oldman-wise.
this would be nice to turn into a regional vernacular/dialect thread. somebody posted a fun book here on that topic and i wish i could remember the name of it so i could check that out.
My mind was blown when I heard Helena Bonham Carter's commentary in Fight Club.
hilarious
My wife is a Brit, and she uses the accent to her advantage all the time in NYC. People really respond to that shit, especially in the outer boroughs where people are less likely to have run into Brits in person. She even changes up the accent according to the situation, she'll use a posh Londony accent in some situations or revert to her more natural Northern (she's from Bolton) accent in other cases. Works like a charm.
Well, I faked a Mexican accent last week and was offered a job as a pizza cook.
During those few weeks she somehow shed her life-long Long Island accent and turned into Princess Di. I don't understand how the guy she was running around with wasn't clowning her, but I guess he liked the ass.
She returned to Long Island and came on a camping trip with a bunch of us, where she was switching back and forth between accents, at one point inquiring for the bathroom to her brother as "where's the loo". "The what?" "The bathroom". "Oh."
He was getting increasingly annoyed with her talking like that, the rest of us were just rolling our eyes once in awhile. Finally we were talking about some type of coffee we were drinking and how good it was, and she pipes up in FULL ACCENT with "Joey (her brother) had some DELIGHTFUL (this was the kicker, it was so obnoxiously faked) and exotic coffee recently, it was some type of Arabian something, something Arabian, oh dear, Joey what was it?" Joey: "It was from a strange and magical land called Folgers, they were probably arabica beans, and when did you become a limey?"
I knew a girl who did the same thing after touring with a band from England for two months as their publicist. Another kid I know recorded a song with Pantera and developed a temporary southern accent.
I could fake it as long as I am there...after hearing that dialect all day, I could rip off a fairly convincing one, when I was vacationing there a couple of years back...it never got to the place where I was talking like that all the time ala 1980's-era Tina Turner, though...for the hell of it, I'd use it on people I'd ask for directions, but if I'd had a full-on conversation with them, I'd lapse back into my usual American way of talking pretty quickly.
[color: red}I could fake it as long as I am there...after hearing that dialect all day, I could rip off a fairly convincing one, when I was vacationing there a couple of years back...it never got to the place where I was talking like that all the time ala 1980's-era Tina Turner, though...for the hell of it, I'd use it on people I'd ask for directions, but if I'd had a full-on conversation with them, I'd lapse back into my usual American way of talking pretty quickly.[/color]
Radical new quoting style?
this is that damn mussolini headkick face isn't it
YES
hey, it looked cool over on the Afropunk site, so...
that a radical new emoticon?
A guy whom I admire for his willingness to post about bands
nobody else will even respond about. Dead Can Dance and Front
242 appreciation for days. STAND ALONE, BITTER A, STAND ALONE.
when my cousins were in town, they got a LOT of attention from the ladies because of their accents.
Say, this is easy!
He did once posts a picture of himself, and while scary, it wasn't that scary.