Problem
How many accents can you understand? How many can you do?
Answers
I just watched an entertaining video in which a man on a bus talks in different accents as his friends shout the nationalities. I played the video back without the sound to note the languages from the subtitles.
He did thirteen accents:
Irish;
N Irish;
Welsh;
Scottish;
Spanish;
French;
German;
Dutch;
S African;
Nelson Mandela;
Italian;
New York;
Australian.
That's a challenge.
How many can you do? I went through the list and found I can do eight! Hurray.
On the other hand, I can do only eight, and just a sentence or two before I lose it.
I can do some other languages.
I can do Welsh. I just visualise Gerry, who runs Writers Holiday in Fishguard, Wales. I imagine he is talking to me, and his intonation.
I do Yiddish. It's like German but you have to smile and talk about bagels and bubbas.
I can do deep South USA - make all the vowels last long and say y'all.
I can do a sentence in England's Birmingham (oi give it foive).
I can manage a word in Mancunian, Munchester, to help me start me off with a Munchester accent. (Uck-sent?)
I can easily demonstrate to people in Singapore because they would not know if I lapsed from Mancunian into Geordie. I just say it's a Northern accent.
The man in the video is very good because he has practised it and has a story ready - otherwise you keep stopping to plot your story which delays the flow.
How Accents Helps You With Entertainment
I must work on this. It's a great party trick. I can do Japanese. When in Singapore surrounded by it, I can do Singlish. If you can practise even going from one language to another and back again, it's amusing.
How Accents Help You With Education and Language
From the point of view of a teacher of English, I find listening to people speaking English with a foreign accent, and making grammatical mistakes, helps me to learn their language and helps me to help them learn English.
I can teach people to say THREE instead of tree. I am hoping somebody can teach me to roll my Rs. RRRRRRR!
Here's the video. It was on Facebook, with the headline: He nails every accent:
https://www.facebook.com/22WordsPresents/videos/10155264813017606/
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
How many accents can you understand? How many can you do?
Answers
I just watched an entertaining video in which a man on a bus talks in different accents as his friends shout the nationalities. I played the video back without the sound to note the languages from the subtitles.
He did thirteen accents:
Irish;
N Irish;
Welsh;
Scottish;
Spanish;
French;
German;
Dutch;
S African;
Nelson Mandela;
Italian;
New York;
Australian.
That's a challenge.
How many can you do? I went through the list and found I can do eight! Hurray.
On the other hand, I can do only eight, and just a sentence or two before I lose it.
I can do some other languages.
I can do Welsh. I just visualise Gerry, who runs Writers Holiday in Fishguard, Wales. I imagine he is talking to me, and his intonation.
I do Yiddish. It's like German but you have to smile and talk about bagels and bubbas.
I can do deep South USA - make all the vowels last long and say y'all.
I can do a sentence in England's Birmingham (oi give it foive).
I can manage a word in Mancunian, Munchester, to help me start me off with a Munchester accent. (Uck-sent?)
I can easily demonstrate to people in Singapore because they would not know if I lapsed from Mancunian into Geordie. I just say it's a Northern accent.
The man in the video is very good because he has practised it and has a story ready - otherwise you keep stopping to plot your story which delays the flow.
How Accents Helps You With Entertainment
I must work on this. It's a great party trick. I can do Japanese. When in Singapore surrounded by it, I can do Singlish. If you can practise even going from one language to another and back again, it's amusing.
How Accents Help You With Education and Language
From the point of view of a teacher of English, I find listening to people speaking English with a foreign accent, and making grammatical mistakes, helps me to learn their language and helps me to help them learn English.
I can teach people to say THREE instead of tree. I am hoping somebody can teach me to roll my Rs. RRRRRRR!
Here's the video. It was on Facebook, with the headline: He nails every accent:
https://www.facebook.com/22WordsPresents/videos/10155264813017606/
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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