British accents (OT)

[jenP_97]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C4793
From: jenP_97
Subject: Re: British accents  (OT)
Reply To: [Yahoo! #4738] Re: British accents
Date: 7/21/00 1:30 pm  (ET)

I'm taking a chance replying to a message before I read the rest of them
(not caught up on this morning's posts yet), but as this is a personal
anecdote, I doubt there are any duplicates. ;)

I had an English prof my junior year of college (History of the English
Language - fascinating!), who told us a story about his last trip to
England in class one day. He and a friend of his went to some pub in
a little village in the northwest part of England, and neither of them
could understand a WORD of what anyone in the place was saying. That is,
until some guy in there put on a fake Southern US accent - then they could
finally understand him! The guy laughed, then started speaking normally,
and they had to persuade him to talk like a US southerner for the rest of
their visit and translate what everyone else was saying... So... maybe
it's not as hard for a Brit to put on a Southern (US) accent as it is,
for example, for a Southerner to put on a British accent. Can you imagine?

Jen (who used to put on a Southern accent in French class, just to make
her teacher laugh)