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People outside of America, what do you think of our accents here in the USA?

Poll - Total Votes: 5
Sexy--American accents are literally audible chocolate!
Meh--no better or worse than any other accent
Absolutely horrifying-- a nails down a chalkboard, ear shattering, paint peeling cacophony of horror
Show Results
You can only vote on one answer.
All opinions, good, bad, or indifferent welcome.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
I'm neutral - it's your country's accents and I do not know their regional variations.

The only voices from the USA that grate on my ears, apart from those of some non-American pop-singers' affectations, are those that sound distorted for effect. Especially, of the "cutest" children in all-family films, and of the most exaggerated C&W singers trying to sound rustic: "Ah ain't never cut nary a sheaf o' corn in mah whole darn laaf!".

To be fair, the latter had a British equivalent in the 1960s-70s folk revival, giving the genre a bad name.

Some tried stereotyping British songs by affecting regional accents not their own; e.g. sea-shanties in mock vaguely-SW English; or about industry in vaguely-Northern English "eeh-bah-goom"-ism.

Other British folk-club singers covered folk-style songs by Americans or Canadians, but their attempts also to cover the original artistes' accents did song, singer, composer and audience no favours.

'

And of course we had the USA's revenge: Dick van Dyke in [i]Mary Poppins[/i]! He might have been rather more convincing as the London chimney-sweep not in the original English novel, had the Hollywood film let him speak in his natural voice but explain his character as an immigrant from the States!
SW-User
@ArishMell I loved Mary Poppins as a kid and I still enjoy it as an adult. Dick Van Dyke was trying to do a cockney accent, I believe. I have heard cockney accents in movies before. I agree though, they should have just made him an immigrant from our country😂

It sounds like our country music wouldn't be something you would like listening to because they sing with that drawl that you described😂

There's one regional accent we have (which I won't mention to avoid a flurry of hate comments) that is rough on the ears when I hear it, other than that one I don't usually have an issue with our regional accents and drawls.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@SW-User You find a similar range of tastes in Britain over its regional accents, which change remarkably over very shorts distances (often only tens of miles).

It's not so marked nowadays but a friend from an area called the Black Country, which is now a conglomeration of several towns joined by their suburbs, says at one time someone from, Dudley for example would not understand someone with a strong Walsall accent - these two towns are only a few miles apart!

Am American C&W singer exaggerating his or her own accent, or attempting one from a totally region, is one thing but can sound naff; but a non-American such as a Scot I used to know, trying it, can sound awful!

'


My two sisters both saw [i]Mary Poppins [/i]and [i]The Sound of Music [/i]when they were young, and I had to put up with their renditions of the sugar-and-saccharine songs for months afterwards.

I saw the scene on TV, of Dick van Dyke's pretend-Cockney sweep and a troupe of boys cavorting around the wobbly plywood chimney, and I am afraid they did not endear me to the film. Some years ago I listened to a dramatization of the novel, on the radio. It is a strange story, rather dark and nothing like the film. No sweep in it either, but there is a polar bear or something!

[i]The Sound of Music [/i] is not very popular in Austria. It is thought to be unfair about the real family's life. I think I read somewhere that the von Trapps emigrated to the USA and formed themselves into a professional singing troupe, but I have no idea how successful it was or how long that lasted.

it's not only Dick van Dyke who tries imitating a Cockney and sound dreadful. For a while an equally horrible version called "Mockney" was thought cool in Britain, among young people, DJs and the like. It might have been helped by the TV soap-opera [i]Eastenders[/i], which a lot of real London Eastenders don't like because though it does deal with problems found in real life, it concentrates them into unrelentingly depressing view of the area generally.
Memez · 26-30, F
Whenever I visit, I love all accents in America 🥰!!!
reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M
there are many accents in the U.S., right now i hear a lot of people talking in that hip northern Epstein-didnt -kill-himself kind of accent. i think its a trend.
SW-User
@reflectingmonkey 😅😅😅 What the hell???
reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M
@SW-User 😂😂
SW-User
@reflectingmonkey I would very much like to hear what that particular accent sounds like😅😅😆
NankerPhelge · 61-69, M
America is a vast country with a variety of accents.
SW-User
@NankerPhelge Yes we are. I meant our accents as a collective whole.
NankerPhelge · 61-69, M
@SW-User They are OK. I hear a lot of them in movies.
JoJoe · 46-50, F
Absolutely stunning! I adore American accents. ❤️

 
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