What’s the accent of Sawyer? Why I can’t get most of his words? What are the best ways to improve my listening to understand these types of accents? [ I mean which sources and references to any more similar audios, dialects, … )
Are you unfamiliar with US accents? Sawyer has a kind of general southern accent AKA twang. I’d look for documentaries set in the southern USA to hear a lot of “real” people using their native accent.
Josh Holloway grew up in north Georgia, and that’s his natural accent.
He also uses a lot of slang a slang nick-names with cultural references. So, if you not familiar with American popular culture, you might not “get” his nick-names.
Where areyou from Reza? I’m from England and I never had any trouble with Sawyer’s accent – or cultural references.
Isn’t Reza the guy who was teaching himself English, or do I have him confused with someone else?
[Redacted]
Thanks for the reply.
1- Not that much really, I can get lots of People in the movie who have American accent. But Sawyer’s is quite different.
2- I appreciate if you mention some websites from which I can download those you suggested.
I know a great deal of English slang and cultural references. But the way he mumbles sounds tough to get [ for me, of course].
I’m from Tehran, the capital of Iran. And, I never had any trouble with Jack’s accent.
Yes, I’m him. How are you?
I’m not sure if you’re watching *Lost *on TV, DVD, or on the internet, but it might help if you turn on the subtitles, if possible. That can be a really powerful way to learn a language while simultaneously being entertained.
If you’re getting the episodes via internet/bootleg (hey, it’s Iran, and I doubt even the MPAA or whoever cares much), you can go to this site to download the subtitles. There are various video players that support that .srt format, or you could even just open the .srt file with a text editor like Notepad and read whichever lines you’re having trouble with.
I’m fine. I pointed that out so people would better understand why you probably haven’t heard anyone with Sawyer’s accent before.
And I second the recommendation to use the subtitles. Read them all the time at first, then slowly try not reading them and see if you understand.
Many of the nicknames Sawyer dishes out are US cultural references, specific to a certain generation of people and their media (TV shows, movies, books). I found an on-line guide to Sawyer’s nicknames, with explanations, here:
http://lost.about.com/od/sawyernicknames/Sawyers_Nicknames.htm
And a list of nicknames used by many Lost characters, from Lostpedia:
US regional accents can take some time to understand. Combined with the fact that most people do not use an accent with 100% consistency, even actors who grew up speaking with that accent. On a TV show there’s also a lot of background noise, and in the case of Lost a lot of mumbling. Subtitles can help you with those last two points. Keep in mind that subtitles are not 100% accurate either. If you hear one thing and the subtitles say another, you may be right.
Thank you, and I’m very well aware of subtitle stuff, mine (DVD, has it too). But I prefer not to take a peek at subtitles.
Listening skill is my most favorite area of a Language, and through my practice and experience, to improve your listening you ought not to read subtitles. Otherwise, you will be get much dependent on that and the progress on listening skill will be lowered drastically. It’s not just a cliche instruction but a real experience which I felt and has been proved to me.
The best way I found is watching three times: 1- without sub and only enjoy the movie, and let yourself get dialogues as your ability afford. 2- second watch; still without sub but this time concentrate more on conversations and words. 3- third time with caption on and read words, and take notes of new words and phrases of course.
Weeelll, whaddawe have here? Looks like somebody’s hooked on phonics, aintcha there Xerxes?
I like this technique a lot, actually.
Sawyer mumbles a lot. It’s not just your ears that have trouble figuring out what he’s saying. Sometimes I had to rewind it to understand him. Sometimes this is because he was speaking quickly, or because he says things which are funny but don’t make a lot of literal sense, but often it was just because he mumbles.
For a similar accent, find some older footage of Brad Pitt speaking in his own voice, like in an interview. It’s not the *same *accent - the two actors grew up several states apart, 1000km apart - but it’s a *similar *accent to ears new to American accents. Brad is a little easier to understand because he doesn’t mumble so much.
One thing you have to keep in mind as you’re learning is that most Americans speak American English, but we have hundreds of different accents. Sometimes even we have trouble understanding one another! We’re a very, very big country.
Here is your main difficulty with Sawyer: his word choice is not natural, it’s something a TV writer invented. I’m from the same city as him, I speak the same dialect, but sometimes I can’t understand him without pausing the DVD. In real life, people don’t see a girl with freckles and start calling her “Freckles”. And that’s a very easy example, because ‘freckles’ is a common noun, and Kate has freckles. Usually he uses some obscure cultural or literary reference that alludes to some abstract aspect of the situation. And sometimes it’s a thing that he just invented completely.
Basically, you can’t understand him because nobody really speaks like that.
I had to chuckle at this entry on that site:
Totally missed the significance of calling someone Ponce de Leon.