Lest anyone think I'm smart or kind...

[susandennis]

I just had this thought while watching British Sewing Bee...

I think their accents are all so lovely but I wish they'd talk normally so I could understand them.

Brought to you by your own Ugly American.

Comments

[lifeinroseland.livejournal.com]

Haha... I’m watching all the 7 Up documentaries (I’m up to 28 Up), and GAWD, with some of the men and women, sometimes I feel they’re speaking German or something, I get like 30-40%.

[susandennis]

OMG. And you are the translator! What chance do I have? And isn't that Up series fascinating?

[lifeinroseland.livejournal.com]

They need one.

Nonetheless, yes! I’m eating it up.

[texasts.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I have to turn on close captions to get it. And I lived there for a few years.

[susandennis]

oh, whenever possible I ALWAYS have the captions on. Unfortunately, the sewing bee episodes don't have that option for me.

[soon_lee]

"Captions On" is a wonderful thing!

I find the sound mix on many modern shows to be muddy, with background sounds drowning out the vocals. And if I turn the volume up enough to hear the speech, the incidental sounds or music can get deafening.

[alice-mccoy.livejournal.com]

I live here and use subtitles, it's not the accent it's the mumbling.

Curious if you are on same season as us..last night was children's clothes and fancy dress from sleeping bag.

If you have the optioni I recommend The Great Pottery Throw down. It's a different channel but much more creative. Plus it's not made in London!
Big bug bear in UK called North South divide, where all focus for UK is around London.

[susandennis]

I don't have the subtitle option for the Bee here. I'm a sewer not a potter. But, thanks for the recommend.

[howeird]

It's not the accents as much as their lack of enunciation.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

That is exactly what we feel about so many programmes we see with Americans in...

[lenine2.livejournal.com]

Hm. Reading the comments makes me think I need to watch this.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

Ha, that's pretty much what I think about American programmes! I can't take them as seriously as English ones

[susandennis]

Actually, accents, aside, I think you are on the right path there!

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I find that a fondness for certain kinds of accent can really impact how one feels about a program, and there's a tendency for Americans to find British accents refined or sexy or cute, and I don't know to what extent it works the other way. As an extreme example, "Are You Being Served?" was just as stupid as any American sitcom, all of which I hate without exception (well, all the ones I've watched as an adult, which isn't that many), but the British accents made it fun.

[susandennis]

Soooo true. My brother and I listen to a lot of audio books. We share a freaky love of Irish authors simply because they are always ready by Irish narrators and, frankly, the plot is so secondary, they could be reading the phone book and we'd be entranced.

I do wonder what the American accent sounds like to other English speakers in the world and what English sounds like to those who speak other languages and don't understand English.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I can't listen to a lot of audio books - characters that I 'hear' speaking English in my head sound so weird when read by people with various American accents!

There was once an LJ project to read Lord of the Rings out loud, chapter by chapter, with a lot of people each reading a section - I really just couldn't cope with Tolkien being read with a Californian accent, then a Louisianna one, a New York one and so on and had to stop listening :(

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

I'd say to British and Commonwealth speakers the US accent sounds very slurred. My mother uses subtitles for American accents because the consonants aren't crisp as they are in the UK - d for a t sound for example, and she finds the words hard to distinguish. I've learned on US airlines not to ask for water but for "wadder" if I want the trolley dolly to understand me. Ironically, to me an accent like Patrick's, which is a straight-up middle class accent without any of the regional variations that Americans find so difficult, is the clearest English to understand of any because it's so enunciated. You're lucky they don't have any Glaswegians on there!

[maju01.livejournal.com]

I like watching British shows, even though I'm not from the UK, because I can generally understand them, including the idioms, quite easily. I often have to "translate" for S. (I do use subtitles all the time if possible though, because of poor hearing.)

[terri gordon (from livejournal.com)]

LOLOLOL you should hear my Scots husband! I’ve been listening to him for 23 years now so it’s old hat to me. But he still has me do the phone orders for delivery because he thinks people won’t understand him. My Mother’s name is Pat, but when he says her name comes out as pot. She gets a big kick out of that.

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

I’ve been watching British stuff for over 12 years and still prefer to have captions on. I listen to British podcasts and have no problems understanding. I don’t get it.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I love British accents and almost never have a hard time understanding them but they do use some expressions that make my American mind go "what?"

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I can imagine - the same works the other way around - like 'fanny pack'. The first time I heard that I was like "OMG!!! What did that man just say!!!"

In English (as opposed to American) this would be a whole lot of surgical tape inserted into the vagina....

[susandennis]

You silly - you should just talk normally when you are over here and save your British accent for there :)

[roasted-beets.livejournal.com]

I am very often doing other things on the computer while *watching* tv. I'm good with languages and accents but to get the most out of the Sewing Bee, I have to *watch* their faces while they speak.