# Do English, Australians, NeoZealanders, etc, have a trouble understanding Americans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2004, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263 "2004-03-25T02:59:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/1 "2004-03-25T02:59:58Z")
Do they? I was watching _bend it like Beckham_ today and the only thing I understood was that all of the girls were lesbians. Do they strougle to get through an American accent as I sometimes have to strugle through that of my English speaking cousins? ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/2 "2004-03-25T03:21:49Z")
Usually not. As a gross generalisation, American speech is slower than that speech of other English-speakers, and enunciation is fairly clear. I like to think that the patterns of American speech have been affected by the large number of migrants from other countries, favouring the development of an accent which is relatively easy for a non-native speaker to understand and, in due course, acquire (and therefore easier still for a native speaker from elsewhere).\ (Of course, I appreciate that there are regional accents in the US and some are easier to understand than others. As I say, this is a gross generalisation.) Add to that the fact that non-American English speakers have extensive exposure to American speech through films and television, so they’re quite used to it even if they’ve never met an actual live American. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/3 "2004-03-25T05:13:20Z")
I agree with UDS. A lot of the programmes on Australian television are from the USA. Some American advertisements are even screened here with the original voices and dialogue. So the accent is generally well understood. I’m not sure about the reverse though. Having just returned from a visit to New York I found that some Americans had difficulty understanding my, by no means broad, Australian accent. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/4 "2004-03-25T05:17:51Z")
Very occasionally. I have a Canadian accent thanks to living in Canada for a while and my girlfriend will get confused at my pronunciation of things from time to time. Off the top of my head she thinks that me pronouncing “aunt” and “ant” the same is hilarious 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/5 "2004-03-25T05:29:03Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > Off the top of my head she thinks that me pronouncing “aunt” and “ant” the same is hilarious 🙂 I think it’s pretty funny, unless you make a habit of stomping on aunts. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/6 "2004-03-25T05:35:01Z")
The reverse is also quite fun. After living in Oz, I can swear a blue streak in Aussie slang and no one at work (in the US) raises an eyebrow. Of course, calling someone a f\*\*\*wit here in America translates very well. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/7 "2004-03-25T05:51:17Z")
I’m an American and I have trouble understanding Americans. These Texans confound me, and I find certain Louisiana dialects completely unintelligible. (I’m from New York.) I can understand British accents better than some varieties of Southern. ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/8 "2004-03-25T05:51:37Z")
> [@Muad'Dib](#): > > Do they? I was watching _bend it like Beckham_ today and the only thing I understood was that all of the girls were lesbians. Do they strougle to get through an American accent as I sometimes have to strugle through that of my English speaking cousins? Actually, the girls are _NOT_ lesbians at all - it’s a mistaken impression that their relatives get. I guess your struggle was even harder than you thought. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/9 "2004-03-25T06:08:54Z")
> [@sunfish](#): > > Actually, the girls are _NOT_ lesbians at all - it’s a mistaken impression that their relatives get. I guess your struggle was even harder than you thought. 😃 No, no. It’s my “strougle”. _Hangs head in non-previewing shame_ ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/10 "2004-03-25T06:21:47Z")
I’ve never been aware of any NZers (I take it the “Neo” was a typo?) having trouble with the accent. We can have heaps of trouble with some of the stronger UK accents though. The movie “Train Spotting” took a good 15-20mins to become accustomed to the accent. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/11 "2004-03-25T06:22:48Z")
> [@racinchikki](#): > > I’m an American and I have trouble understanding Americans. These Texans confound me, and I find certain Louisiana dialects completely unintelligible. (I’m from New York.) I can understand British accents better than some varieties of Southern. Ah, you beat me to it. I’m thinking of “Big Tom” on _Survivor_ as a perfect example. Thank God for subtitles! But the Louisiana dialects do take the cake. Has to be experienced to appreciate! ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/12 "2004-03-25T06:25:04Z")
I guy I know who is originally from Kent (the British one, not the city south of Seattle) made the following observations: [ul] [li]Americans talk VERY loudly.[/li][li]Americans talk quite fast, though that may just be an artifact of the work environment he was in.[/li][li]The American habit of dropping the “t” sound is a pain. He can’t hear the difference between the American pronunciations of the words “can” and “can’t”.[/li][li]He’s very amused at the American usage of the word “ass” when referring to the bit of the human anatomy that in English is called “arse”. In English, “ass” is the animal. Yeah, he’s apparently easily amused.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/13 "2004-03-25T07:54:09Z")
I’ve had a few Scots and western Irish people not able to understand my accent. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/14 "2004-03-25T10:42:26Z")
Probably depends on how much TV you watch. I watch very little commercial TV - when I tried watching Seinfeld one time I found it difficult to understand what they were saying. However that is a very popular TV show here, so it seems a lot of Aussies must understand them. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/15 "2004-03-25T10:51:49Z")
> [@racinchikki](#): > > I’m an American and I have trouble understanding Americans. These Texans confound me, and I find certain Louisiana dialects completely unintelligible. (I’m from New York.) I can understand British accents better than some varieties of Southern. Have you heard what passes for speech in “Bawlmer”? “Afa we’et an wetchi ews gem we gu deeni ewshun hun” is my standard example (“After we eat and watch the O’s game, we’ll go down to the ocean, hon”) “In America, they haven’t used it for years.” – Henry Higgins ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/16 "2004-03-25T10:59:12Z")
Through the sheer bulk and distribution of American TV and film output most people are familiar with American accents. That’s all there is to it. Nothing to do with speed of devivery, nothing to do with enunciation. (How can clear enunciation make any difference to an accent you don’t know? How can you tell it’s clear?). The OP’s difficulty is simply because of a lack of exposure to the accents being used. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/17 "2004-03-25T13:17:01Z")
Just as an aside, some of my mates here in Northern Ireland work in a telephone marketing firm. After it was bought up by an American concern, they were asked to phone the US to conduct telephone interviews. Somehow most Americans took the N. Irish accent to be Australian 😕 After a while it was easier to say “yes, I’m Australian” than to explain 😉 ---
**Author:** ![quothz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/da6949/32.png) [@quothz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quothz)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/18 "2004-03-25T13:50:42Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Usually not. As a gross generalisation, American speech is slower than that speech of other English-speakers, and enunciation is fairly clear. I think you’re thinking of American actors and announcers, here. I’ve never heard any evidence that American speech patterns are slower, and I can say with some experience that Americans generally do not take any special trouble to enunciate. However, American film and television tends to have a higher budget than elsewhere in the world. A large candidate pool and enough money to take and re-take shots when necessary means high-quality productions and advertisements. My WAG is that the impression of clarity is actually an artifact of a high budget. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/19 "2004-03-25T14:18:48Z")
…in the USA. One of them is “Downeast” (Maine)-I am from Boston, and I find it difficult. I also stopped onec in a small village in Northern Vermont-the local lingo was also pretty difficult to understand. What I find interesting: in the far west (California, Washington), people seem to Add consonents to certain words: like “warshington”, or “warsh”, instead of “washington” and “wash”. As far a other countries: New Zealanders sound like Americans, Australians like Irishmen and Scots sound like Scots. In and Around Manchester (UK) the people sound (to me) just like Americans! ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/20 "2004-03-25T15:00:35Z")
To me, Yorkshiremen sound like Scots and there’s very little difference between South African, Kiwi and Aussie accents. But West Indians are the hardest to understand. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263.md?page=2)