Do (North) Americans really like British accents?
Today’s comic from the Dilbert archive surprised me, do our friends across the pond really find the British accent sexy or feel that it infers intelligence?
I just don’t get it, why is this so (if it’s really true for the majority)?
It’s funny, I listen to a lot of PodCasts, and one of my favourites is the MacCast. Quite often Adam will play audio comments from listeners, and occasionally there’ll be a British one, it sounds totally weird. I’ve got so used to listening to North American accents in PodCasts and Audio Books, both from all over the USA and Canada that when a British (or even Australian or New Zealand) accent is thrown in it feels out of place, really jars. And what’s really strange is that when I hear a continental European or Asian accented English speaker, I don’t have the same reaction, it doesn’t jar at all. Why is that?
Another of my favourite PodCasts is Steve Lacey’s A Brit Abroad, again, it’s strange to hear a English accent in a PodCast, but this time you’re prepared, as the title suggest you’re going to get a British accent. I wonder, do American women swoon at his feet when ever he talks?
One day I might throw out a PodCast, if I ever get the time and something relevant to say (maybe I should have done so for this post, too late now), I wonder what people would think of my accent. I’m born and bread south coast of England, a real “suvana”, but I’ve spent the last eight years in Scotland. Although my accent is still very much English, I do catch myself saying the odd word that is typically Scottish (aye instead of yes, wee instead of small etc), and sometimes accent things with the harder vowels of the area I now live. I wonder how much my accent has really changed.
My friend that I play squash with every week will probably say that I still very much have a English accent, he often takes the piss when I call the score, putting on his best Cockney accent when repeating, trying to put me off my game. But I’m pretty sure I don’t have a Cockney accent, just a middle of the road south east England one.
It’s amazing how many distinctive accents there are in Britain, I wonder which would be most “sexy” to North Americans?
