[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: British Language

[Janette]

Joe wrote:
>
> I live and work in Utah.  My observation is as follows:
>
> Dialects within Britain must be difficult even for the natives.  I
> have a good friend who is a Londoner.  He speaks for the most part in
> the Queen's English as you might hear on the BBC. He's very easy to
> understand.
>
> My boss at work is a native Mancunian (from Manchester).  I find that
> I must listen extremely carefully to understand him, and
> unfortunately have to occasionally ask him to repeat himself.
>
> However, having now been with the company for several months, I've
> learned to understand him much better, especially some of the
> Mancunian / Scouser slang.


montims:
And yet, you know, it isn't that difficult.  It is, however, an
identifier...

But any Brit who watches tv hears accents on the soap operas, and others,
particularly cockney and mancunian.  I am of the age to remember the
fantastic "When the Boat comes in", as well as "The Likely Lads" and "Liver
Birds", so I adore Geordie accents.  More accents came in in "Boys from the
Black Stuff" and "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet".  All highly recommended if you have
the chance to see them...

I poshed up my accent while teaching English in Italy, and use it all the
time here - at work, people I speak to on the telephone adore my accent, and
I use this to my advantage...!  But when I return to England, I would be
laughed out of town if I spoke like this - oop t'north I speak a
Sheffield/Chesterfield dialect mix, and in London and elsewhere, I have a
cockney accent.  I also speak much faster - here, I find I have to speak
quite slowly to be understood...


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