# People with really strong accents **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 21, 2022, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317 "2022-07-21T13:38:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/21 "2022-07-22T16:09:28Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Mom: Does it have any pee-cans? > Waitress: I’m sorry, what? > Mom: Pee-cans? Does it have any pee-cans in it? > Waitress: I don’t know what that is. > Me: She’s asking if it has any pecans in it. > Waitress: Oh, no. No pecans. I’ve never heard of a “Kahn” of soda. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/22 "2022-07-22T17:12:47Z")
Back in my college days, a bunch of us were at a summer camp reunion. One guy, originally from the Bronx, had moved to another country just a couple of years earlier, and was back in the States for a visit. He came over to the table that I and a few other friends were at. He said a bunch of things, but it all went over our heads. We just sat there, silently with jaws dropped, until one of us told him, “Chuck, do you realize that you said that entire paragraph in a perfect [xxx] accent?” His words, his voice, but the accent was as if he had been born there. So bizarre! ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/23 "2022-07-22T17:52:40Z")
Maybe the retention of a strong accent has to do with language acquisition. I’ve heard that one generally loses this ability over time, but some may lose it earlier than others. Having the ability to hear the sounds of the language around you and adjust your speaking to match, is not just “code switching” but also indicates a generally better ear for language. I guess that those who learn to speak one way and then never change, probably don’t have a good ear for language. Probably also lack the ability to easily parse what others are saying and control the sounds they use when speaking. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/24 "2022-07-22T18:59:18Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I recall an NPR announcer saying that when he worked in England, his daughters acquired a local British accent. I was born in North Carolina, but both my parents are from Wisconsin. I acquired an accent that was sort of in between Southern and Midwestern. Native Southerners thought I sounded like I was from the Midwest, but people from other regions thought I had a Southern accent. But by now I’ve lived in California long enough that I’ve probably lost whatever semblance of a Southern accent I once had. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/25 "2022-07-22T19:33:14Z")
I was at a party years ago, and the host’s boss/wife were there. They were both British (with names like Beryl and Graham, not too hard to guess), and I was chatting with the wife. She mentioned that she was really proud of her kids and their American accents. I thought that was slightly weird, because I would think I would want any theoretical kids of mine to talk like me, but I guess she was a happy transplant. Even longer years ago I was on a jury for a group of Scottish guys that were suing each other for a fender bender outside the local Scottish hangout. The judge had to keep stopping the witnesses to tell them to slow down and speak more clearly. They would…for about three or four or words, then, they’ start getting all het up and the Scottish accent would rev up to incomprehensible again. It was like a comedy routine. They finally settled out of court. Two groups of drunk guys crunch each others cars? Ridiculous to go to court for that. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/26 "2022-07-22T19:45:15Z")
Many Brit shows I really want closed captioning on. And why oh why do so many recruiters have accents that are hard to understand over the phone? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/27 "2022-07-22T20:00:30Z")
When I (briefly) taught adult English literacy, I found fascinating the literature about why different cultures could/couldn’t make/hear different sounds, and how much of it had to take place when young. Made me less judgmental of folk who retained very strong accents despite decades of living in a country different from their birth. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/28 "2022-07-22T21:12:47Z")
I spent must of my childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, but the family went to Wisconsin for summers. I picked up the Wiscahnson accent (it has mild notes of Scandinavia), until my mom told me to stop doing that. I was just trying to blend in and not sound like a ferriner, but she thought I was mocking the natives. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/29 "2022-07-22T21:22:24Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Hutterites tend to have a German-ish accent, as they mostly speak Plattdeutsch amongst themselves and use High German in their church services, as God intended. Is that similar to what would be thought of as a Canadian or Fargo-ian accent? Because I didn’t get any particular German (or Irish) vibes from what I’d thought at the time was an overexaggerated [Great White North](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNRlcjz3acU) accent. I’m ok with a lot of accents heard in North America but the _French_ Canadians are some of the most challenging. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/30 "2022-07-22T21:23:12Z")
> [@QMatic](#): > > I think children learn their accent from their peers at school rather than their parents. My brother and his wife have accents typical of London and South East England, but their sons both picked up the accents of the Fife region of Scotland from the time they started kindergarten. Definitely this. Our two Australian children quickly picked up New Zealand slang and accents at daycare when we moved here. Now they sound more Kiwi than I do. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/31 "2022-07-22T21:26:48Z")
No, it’s nothing at all like a Fargo-type accent. It might have a few standard western Canadian characteristics (which aren’t really the same as the Minnesota/Dakota patterns), but it’s predominantly Low German, keeping in mind that they’ve been isolated from other Plattdeutsch speakers for a few centuries and no doubt there’s been a bit of drift. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2022, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/32 "2022-07-23T00:22:20Z")
> [@QMatic](#): > > I think children learn their accent from their peers at school rather than their parents. Yes, absolutely. This is related to the more general counterintuitive fact that the principal thing parents contribute to their children is genes, and the rest is things like _where_ the parents choose to live and what schools they send their kids to. The in-home environment (parenting) contributes almost nothing. It’s roughly 50% genes, 50% outside-home environment (i.e. peers at school etc.). > **[The 50-0-50 Rule: Why Parenting Has Virtually No Effect on Children](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200809/the-50-0-50-rule-why-parenting-has-virtually-no-effect)** > > How parents raise their children may not be very important to adult personality. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/33 "2022-07-23T00:32:26Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > It might have a few standard western Canadian characteristics (which aren’t really the same as the Minnesota/Dakota patterns) This. Dakotans have different accents from Saskatchewanians. One big one (of course) is the -oo- sound. Dakotans talk about the “ruff” on a house. Saskatchewanians talk about the “roooof”. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2022, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/34 "2022-07-23T00:34:23Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I went to a Walmart here in Arkansas a few years back, and I paid with a gift card I received for Christmas. The conversation as I tried to pay went as follows: > > Cashier: Reloawwww? > Me: I’m sorry, what? > Cashier: Relaowwww? > Me: I don’t understand. > Cashier (looking at me like I’m an idiot): Relaowww! > Me (Turning to my wife a native Arkansan): Do you understand what she’s saying? > Cashier (Annoyed and taking the time to enunciate): Re-load? > Me: Reload what? > Cashier: Do you want to reload your gift card? > Me (Not knowing what reload means in this context): No, I’m just using it to pay the bill. Mrs Piper and I flew into Glasow once. The Customs agent said something. She said, “Pardon?” He repeated it. She looked at me, helpless. I said, “He said to form a line to the right.” “How on earth did you understand that?!?” she asked. Then we went to Wales… ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2022, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/35 "2022-07-23T10:19:52Z")
Singapore has its own version of English, which can be challenging. At Changi Airport my girlfriend asked an official where she should go to check in. He replied and pointed, but she was quite shocked and insulted by what she thought he said. She heard ‘Take your body parts over there’. What he said was ‘Take your boarding pass over there’. They tend to jam words together. ‘credit card’ sounds like ‘kedicut’. Takes a while to tune your ears. From a British perspective the most challenging accents are Northern Irish and Glasgow. There are a lot of unfamiliar dialect words that trip you up. I need to switch the subtitles on if I watch a show like ‘Derry Girls’ which is a sitcom set in Northern Ireland and quite hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2022, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/36 "2022-07-23T11:21:48Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > local accents still endure. > > In most cases\*, I don’t think it’s a matter of someone _intentionally_ choosing to cling to a local accent, so much as the manner of speech that you grow up hearing – and listen to every day, in your interactions with your family and neighbors – may have a larger role in your natural, subconscious accent than the media you watch. Exactly. Otherwise, I’d be fluent in French (I am not), having watched many French movies with English subtitles. Interaction is key. (This is what makes that movie trope of learning a language by watching TV — e.g., in “Splash\*” — so implausible). \*The mermaid learning English, not the John Candy character learning a few words of Swedish from watching porn. Now THAT’S plausible! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2022, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/37 "2022-07-23T21:05:04Z")
Do you think this is because strong regional British accents are intrinsically harder to understand if someone is unfamiliar with them, as opposed to strong American accents (I’m assuming you’re American, apologies if not!)? Or is it more that Brits are more attuned to US accents due to being fairly saturated with US culture, which I assume is not the case the other way round? Being a Brit, I think the only US show I’ve seen where I had trouble was The Wire, although I quickly got used to that and managed to cope without subtitles. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2022, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/38 "2022-07-24T00:16:57Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Do you think this is because strong regional British accents are intrinsically harder to understand if someone is unfamiliar with them, as opposed to strong American accents (I’m assuming you’re American, apologies if not!)? Yes, Yank but also Canadian. And yes, that is likely part of the problem. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2022, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/39 "2022-07-24T00:34:32Z")
I am not sure that broad American accents are so easy to understand: an Indian who passed through the southern U.S. told me she could barely comprehend a word people were saying. OTOH, if you are from North America yourself, and/or are used to American movies+TV and if the accent in question is not too “extreme” then it is probably less of an issue. ---
**Author:** ![sjankis630](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ea924/32.png) [@sjankis630](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjankis630)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2022, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317/40 "2022-07-24T04:41:10Z")
I loved Justin! i watched his show with my roommate back in the mid 80s in college. I loved the way he never actually seemed to measure anything. I could understand him just fine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-strong-accents/968317.md?page=3)