Actually, I was listening to some random British professor the other night on NPR and thinking how much I love *any* kind of British accent, and the pauses, and the wry understated self-deprecating humor.
I'm spoiled by the fact that so many of the Brits I'm exposed to are actors, and most of those have a good actor-education, so they can both read and enunciate when called upon to do so. (It's a consistent irritation, listening to Hot Young Things from the US speaking in marble-mouthed fashion, and I don't mean accent or dialect, just lack of care.)
Then again, I like watching Jamie Oliver's cooking show, because he's on the bare edge of intelligible sometimes, and he punctuates his sentences with "yeah?" where an American would say, "you know?" and it's sort of funny to listen to. Also, he always looks like he just woke up, rolled out of bed, put some pants on, and started cooking.
Then again, I like watching Jamie Oliver's cooking show, because he's on the bare edge of intelligible sometimes, and he punctuates his sentences with "yeah?" where an American would say, "you know?"
Mmmmm. I think this was one of the things that made me fall in love with Handy Andy.
Then again, I like watching Jamie Oliver's cooking show, because he's on the bare edge of intelligible sometimes, and he punctuates his sentences with "yeah?" where an American would say, "you know?" and it's sort of funny to listen to. Also, he always looks like he just woke up, rolled out of bed, put some pants on, and started cooking.
On the bare edge of intelligible? Gosh. We have so very many many different lovely accents in the UK - I'm a total sucker for Geordie, myself, but I can't think of an accent I don't like. Brum, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Any flavour of Welsh, Sheffield, Leeds, Cornish - most people aren't posh or RP, but I do love British accents. Wish I had a proper one, sometimes - but I can
do
accents, kind of. If it's in character. If I get some chance to practice.
Actually, the chief thing that makes Jamie hard to understand is the vocabulary difference. There are a lot of vegetables that have completely different names, and some of the ones with the same names are pronounced differently. Sometimes it's only when he holds up the fruit in question that I'm like, Ohhhh, that thing.
The US doesn't get that much exposure to non-Beeb English, except maybe when Mystery! does a British series. I'm only now in my old age gotten to the point where I can parse Geordie without having to think about it. I still (Beatles notwithstanding) sometimes lose a sentence in Liverpudlian, because my native system of tonal variation is so different.
(Although the funniest English/American sight in my life was watching a British linguistic teacher try to reproduce mountain Kentucky vowels -- you know, the kind of dialect where "house" is three syllables.)
Having lived in the UK for some time, I love most British accents, and can usualy differentiate them. On the other hand, I just plain hate Jamie Oliver.
I don't care for Jamie Oliver either. Too pleased with himself. Plus Daisy Boo is what you name your dog, not your daughter.
I don't care for Jamie Oliver, either. But mmmm, Handy Andy....
We met a Jewish family from Liverpool on my sister's bat mitzvah trip. They had four sons, two of whom were my age and all of whom were hot. But sometimes I had to ask them to repeat things, because the accent was really thick and a lot of the vocabulary was different-- especially when talking abou Judaic things, because they had completely different names for a lot of stuff.
Sure were pretty, though.
basks in memory...
Jamie Oliver's new series (starting in Australia tonight), where he opens his own restaurant and employs a bunch of long-term unemployed disadvantaged young people as the staff, is apparently brilliant and has cured everyone in the UK of chronic Jamie fatigue.
