• @andresil@lemm.ee
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    382 years ago

    Americans have trouble with any accent that isn’t the blandest, nails on chalkboard accent.

    Once had one ask me if I was speaking English when I spoke to him (for context I am Irish, the north bit)

    • pjhenry1216
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      172 years ago

      Bland and nails on chalkboard? That’s like the opposite of bland. Not great, but definitely not bland. Bland is blunt and flat. Nails on chalkboard is shrill, sharp, and grating. I just don’t understand how you can believe both at the same time.

      • @andresil@lemm.ee
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        22 years ago

        Here, I mean more the reaction to it, I sometimes cringe at the pronunciation or intonation in the way one would to nails on a chalkboard (the idiom can have more than one meaning or reaction attached to it)

        • pjhenry1216
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          22 years ago

          That doesn’t change the argument. Bland and cringe are also not like each other. I’m all for you criticizing something because it’s different than you, but at least use your language consistently and properly. How would anyone interpret a secondary analogy without knowing how you personally react? It already has a clear meaning on its surface. Occam’s razor would indicate that’s enough. Why would anyone invent a second possible scenario that’s only knowable if you have access to information that isn’t well known, and in this case, near certainty of being unknown? Just say hearing the accent from some other country makes you cringe. Communication doesn’t have to be difficult unless you make it so.

    • @RomanceDailies@beehaw.org
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      62 years ago

      I am dating a man from England and it’s amazing how many people don’t understand his accent. It might just be me getting to know him, but I don’t find his accent (or even tough accents like Irish or Scottish) hard to understand anymore.

    • notfutomes [they/them]
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      2 years ago

      I mean if you never leave the US (easy to do, it’s gigantic and travel is expensive), it’s kinda understandable that you’d struggle with accents because you rarely hear any, let alone other languages. I know americans that have trouble with english accents lmao

    • Melllvar
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      -12 years ago

      You’ll probably hear more and more varied accents in an average US city than in all of Ireland.