News:

And we're back!

Main Menu

The Off Topic Topic

Started by Korea, March 10, 2009, 06:24:26 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Zanza

I speak with a proper harsh Northern German accent.  :thumbsup:

crazy canuck

Quote from: garbon on October 23, 2017, 03:29:55 PM
I supposed if all of her learning of German was done there (which seems unlikely). After all, I don't speak with any sort of English accent. :P

If you are immersed in an accent, it is difficult to avoid picking some of it up - do you have much contact with American English speakers while you are there?  If so, that probably explains it.

garbon

Quote from: crazy canuck on October 23, 2017, 04:23:04 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 23, 2017, 03:29:55 PM
I supposed if all of her learning of German was done there (which seems unlikely). After all, I don't speak with any sort of English accent. :P

If you are immersed in an accent, it is difficult to avoid picking some of it up - do you have much contact with American English speakers while you are there?  If so, that probably explains it.


No, very little. Apart from say phone conversations with my family back home. However, I'm also not Madonna so my only issue these days is a blending of vocabulary not accent.

But then thanks for explaining to me what it might be like to live for years in a foreign country. ;)
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

crazy canuck

Quote from: garbon on October 23, 2017, 04:31:44 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on October 23, 2017, 04:23:04 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 23, 2017, 03:29:55 PM
I supposed if all of her learning of German was done there (which seems unlikely). After all, I don't speak with any sort of English accent. :P

If you are immersed in an accent, it is difficult to avoid picking some of it up - do you have much contact with American English speakers while you are there?  If so, that probably explains it.


No, very little. Apart from say phone conversations with my family back home. However, I'm also not Madonna so my only issue these days is a blending of vocabulary not accent.

But then thanks for explaining to me what it might be like to live for years in a foreign country. ;)

At least you have not lost the art of being a dick  :hug:

garbon

Quote from: crazy canuck on October 23, 2017, 04:33:16 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 23, 2017, 04:31:44 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on October 23, 2017, 04:23:04 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 23, 2017, 03:29:55 PM
I supposed if all of her learning of German was done there (which seems unlikely). After all, I don't speak with any sort of English accent. :P

If you are immersed in an accent, it is difficult to avoid picking some of it up - do you have much contact with American English speakers while you are there?  If so, that probably explains it.


No, very little. Apart from say phone conversations with my family back home. However, I'm also not Madonna so my only issue these days is a blending of vocabulary not accent.

But then thanks for explaining to me what it might be like to live for years in a foreign country. ;)

At least you have not lost the art of being a dick  :hug:

And you always act as if you know all. But then at your advanced age, old dogs and new tricks and what not. :D
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

crazy canuck


Well, in my experience it is unusual for people not to pick up at least some of the accent.  The odd times it has happened is when the person in question keeps up communications that continue to reinforce their own accent - which is why I asked the question.

garbon

Or a person is established in their manner of speaking, no?
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

crazy canuck

Quote from: garbon on October 23, 2017, 04:51:15 PM
Or a person is established in their manner of speaking, no?

I am not suggesting that you will come back speaking full Brit, but it is difficult to avoid picking up some of the accent no matter how entrenched your speech patterns might be.

I would be interesting to see if someone you have not spoken to since you left would notice a difference.

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

grumbler

Quote from: garbon on October 23, 2017, 05:06:43 PM
Ever the stubborn mind.

Well, the alternative is to admit that he is wrong.

My experience is like yours, living in London.  I knew plenty of Americans who had lived in England for decades and didn't pick up the accent, as well as Scots who'd lived there for decades and still had the full Scottish accent (ditto Irish, Indian, Pakistani, etc).  As you note, one does pick up the vocabulary. I still say "aluminium," for instance.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Razgovory

Quote from: Caliga on October 23, 2017, 08:46:14 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on October 22, 2017, 12:54:15 AM
I thought that "zug" was the German word for "platoon".
I have ancestors named Zug.

In Pennsylvania Dutch it's been corrupted to 'Zook' and there are a lot of Amish surnamed Zook today.

There's an island named Zug Island in Detroit that was owned by one of my great-great-whatever uncles.  Apparently it's a toxic waste dump now. :)


There was a Union general named Sam Zook.  Died at Gettysburg.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

crazy canuck

Quote from: garbon on October 23, 2017, 05:06:43 PM
Ever the stubborn mind.

No, just drawing on my experience of being around people who travel a fair amount.  You may well be an outlier.

crazy canuck

Here is something of interest regarding mimicking the accents - it has to do with empathy and bonding with those around you.

QuoteScientists from the University of California, Riverside, found the subconscious copying of an accent comes from an inbuilt urge of the brain to "empathise and affiliate"

"This unintentional imitation could serve as social glue, helping us to affiliate and empathise with each other."


So, I guess we have found why this is outside your experience, Garbon and the Grumbles.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/7931299/Humans-subconsciously-mimic-other-accents-psychologists-claim.html

garbon

Quote from: grumbler on October 23, 2017, 05:20:36 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 23, 2017, 05:06:43 PM
Ever the stubborn mind.

Well, the alternative is to admit that he is wrong.

Which isn't possible for him.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Razgovory

My dad will be coming home today, minus one leg.  He's going to use a wheel chair for a while.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017