Clare70 Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 I agree Al, bloomin Dutch can speak a zillion languages I don't know why but some in the UK find the accent comical. I think the sketch shows are more to do with Amsterdam and it's notoriety for windows and ladies. To all Dutch members I have never been to Amsterdam, only Zandvoort, so my comments are not from personal experience and I wish in no way to offend you. I would also like to say that I have worked with many Dutch men and women over the years and they have a wicked sense of humour Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueWolf Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 I have to take exception to that Clare, I had an associate whose family lives in Holland (how she landed here I have *no* idea) I was constantly amazed how unaccented their English was... There were times that they'd throw in a Dutch word or two, which would leave the rest of us stumbling. The father of the crowd was amazing, he spoke (at least) Dutch, English, German, Spanish, French and I have no idea what else! Blew all us 'mercan away!!! I think the only people that dislike the Dutch English accent are the Dutch themselves. I cringe when I hear it myself, even when I hear myself speaking English English, German and French is taught at school. Spanish is an optional one. Although I never really was good at German and French (I didn't even attempt Spanish), once you get the basic idea of learning a second language, the rest becomes much easier. It's much like programming. Once you 'get' it, it's very easy to teach yourself new programming languages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jase Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 It is interesting than many non English speaking countries adopt an American accent to their spoken English. Just listen to the tennis and most will use the accentuated Rs in their speech. A friend of mine from Australia working in the US has had to adopt the Rs to his diction in order to be more easily understood. Aussie English matches more closely with "British English" and Western Australian Aussie is slightly closer to British English than the Eastern states. Interestingly in Russia when learning English you have the choice of learning British English or American English. The former being more difficult. No offence to my American friends but I found it much more difficult when I studied Security and Global politics to search journals in American and English using different spellings, the heavy use of Z makes it a pain. eg, Globalisation (Eng) and Globalization(US) or Colour (Eng), Color (US) Saying a simple word like 'star' in Aussie and many (not all) English accents sounds like Stah with only the slightest R, and in many American it sounds a little like Storr with a heavy R... well to me at least LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olmoggy Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 well here is the name of a town in Wales. i think they just put the meaning underneath it to make it easier on everyone had to turn it sideways to get it ti fit sent thru smoke signals directly out the top of my teepee!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Removed #5 Posted January 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) Jase, that reminds me of the time I was in San Francisco (I think) for an HP computer conference. I had been corresponding with a fellow in NZ and we looked forward to meeting each other in person. It rapidly became laughable - we were both speaking "English" and couldn't understand each other *at all*; we finally shanghaied an Aussie to "translate" for us! Adding to that, for some reason I've over the years adopted some Britishisms in my spelling. Colour doesn't look odd to me here and color *here* does. I'm often never sure whether the 's' or 'z' is appropriate - thank the gods for spelling checkers. Of course that just gives me the perfect excuse to spell things wrong! Edited January 22, 2014 by Al Jones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olmoggy Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 fortunately the wife is british so we help eachother. my fovorate cause i like the way she says it is aluminum pornounced by her( al loo minium) sent thru smoke signals directly out the top of my teepee!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jase Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Jase, that reminds me of the time I was in San Francisco (I think) for an HP computer conference. I had been corresponding with a fellow in NZ and we looked forward to meeting each other in person. It rapidly became laughable - we were both speaking "English" and couldn't understand each other *at all*; we finally shanghaied an Aussie to "translate" for us! Adding to that, for some reason I've over the years adopted some Britishisms in my spelling. Colour doesn't look odd to me here and color *here* does. I'm often never sure whether the 's' or 'z' is appropriate - thank the gods for spelling checkers. Of course that just gives me the perfect excuse to spell things wrong! Yeah, LOL - Kiwi accent is weird to me. It sounds quite similar in many aspects to Aussie, until you get to the letter 'i" . They say Fush and Chups (fish and chips) and 1,2,3,4,5,Sux !!! Bed sounds like bead and red like read. I am just lucky that I have absolutely no accent and everything I say sounds perfect to everyone (joke) You mentioned Romaji, and yeah, I can relate as I teach Japanese swordsmanship and Romaji is just weird in many cases. One of the arts I teach is Iaido (spelt in Romaji) and pronounced Ee-I-doh. Another example is the Otake and should be pronounced Oh-tah-kay. It is many difficult Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mydiamond Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Adding to Jase's post: romaji is definitely confusing even though I still think pin yin (Chinese version of romaji) is harder they have these double consonants (for example: kitto (definitely), zutto (always)) that require you to add a pause after pronouncing the first syllable. If it's a song lyric, they often pronounce/sing it by repeating the vowel before the double consonant. So zutto would be zoo-oo-toh instead of zoo-toh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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