riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (10/04/83)
I just want to corroborate Steve Dyer's comment about the godawful
American accent. Although I certainly wasn't as isolated from Americans
as Steve was on his Poland trip, I spent last year studying in Germany
and doing my best to avoid other Red-White-&-Blue folks. The combina-
tion of the "sensory deprivation" involved in hearing twenty times as
much German as English and my attempts to stear clear of the roving
mobs of American exchange students (they travel in packs, see) meant
that the sound of an American accent at thirty yards made my skin crawl
and put my nervous system on Fight or Flight status. After ten months
of this I was beginning to wonder whether I would be emotionally
impaired for life ("Whatever you do, don't talk to the patient in cell
17 in English -- one false vowel and he has a seizure"), but a visit
from my girlfriend and a week in London helped me make the adjustment.
I only live in fear of flashbacks. :-)
-- Prentiss Riddle
{ihnp4,kpno,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
riddle@ut-sally.UUCPjsq@ut-sally.UUCP (John Quarterman) (10/04/83)
Let's not forget that not only do Americans (Yankees, at least :->)
have one of the ugliest accents in the world, but they also have the
deserved reputation of being the slowest group in the world at learning
other languages.
--
John Quarterman, CS Dept., University of Texas, Austin, Texas
{ihnp4,kpno,ctvax}!ut-sally!jsq, jsq@ut-sally.{ARPA,UUCP}decot@cwruecmp.UUCP (Dave Decot) (10/07/83)
It's not clear that we're all that SLOW; I think that most Americans don't CARE enough about people outside the Good Ole U. S. of A. to bother learning their language. Everybody speaks American, right? <:) ..!decvax!cwruecmp!decot Dave Decot
condict@csd1.UUCP (10/08/83)
Okay, you limey's, knock it off with the Yankee-phobia bit! I just met a French-speaking Belgian this week and she told me that she thought the American accent (when speaking French) is adorable, the stronger the better. I told her that her French accent is just as adorable, and well, the rest is none of your damn business. So there! M. Condict
eric@washu.UUCP (Eric Kiebler) (10/09/83)
And what incentive is there for an American to learn another language? The best time to learn a another language is during childhood. It seems that this is also the hardest period to get excited about such an activity. I feel that if there was an apparent need to learn a language *which could be effectively conveyed* to children and their parents then we would see more people learning and enjoying foreign languge (and English!) studies. This also applies to music lessons. The vast majority of my musician-type friends *hated* to practice when they were young, but did so to escape the "Wrath of Mom". They are happy now that they spent the time then. So, my point is: the culprit is not laziness, but rather lack of incentive. eric ..!ihnp4!washu!eric
laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton) (10/10/83)
Who has an "American" accent anyway? The relatives I have in North Carolina sound very different from the friends I have in Los Angeles, and the people I know from New York don't sound the same as either of the above... laura creighton utzoo!utcsstat!laura
tjj@ssc-vax.UUCP (T J Jardine) (10/10/83)
After seeing all the baffgabble on the net regarding the adverse nature of American accents overseas I can no longer remain silent! I have lived/worked/traveled in Europe, Africa, the Far East, the Caribean and Central America over a period of more than twenty years. I have had occasion to see and hear SOME people who epitomized the ugly American, but they have been few and far between. It is my experience that there are people/dialects in almost any language that can be considered harmful to the ear. I have also had more than one experience not being understood/not understanding right here in the good old U.S.A.! There are people in this world who will act boorish/loud-mouthed, and they will do so without regard for their place of birth or national origin -- they seem to believe that they have an inalienable right to whatever they want, whenever they want it. I've taken the time and effort to learn the local language whenever I have gone to another country, and I know several people who have done the same thing. I've found that with the single exception of Paris, France, that people appreciate the attempt to speak their language, even if your accent is as wide as the Atlantic. So perhaps you folks who seem inclined toward making duck-like noises ought to find yourselves a suitable pond and go swimming. Your holier-than-thou attitude is not well received here!! Ted Jardine TJ (with Amazing Grace) The Piper ...uw-beaver!ssc-vax!tjj
dyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer) (10/11/83)
My point was not that Americans should not try to speak foreign languages, nor that they should not speak at all. It's just that the American (ok, regional) accent that one is accustomed to can sound mighty strange after a little isolation in a foreign country. Only then can you appreciate its unique character--quack, quack. /Steve Dyer
laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton) (10/12/83)
I don't understand why there is lack of incentive. After all, there are all those books to *read* and there are people who's grandmothers you won't be able to talk to unless you learn *some* Serbian, or whatever... As a kid I learned *some* of about 8 languages. not enough to make me fluent, but enough to say hello to people's grandmothers. I do not understand why everybody else doesn't. Grandmothers are fascinating. Laura Creighton utzoo!utcsstat!laura
emjej@uokvax.UUCP (10/12/83)
#R:ut-sally:-8800:uokvax:4500001:000:278 uokvax!emjej Oct 9 12:32:00 1983 Well, I'd have to agree with you about Yankees (and who can stand what New Englanders/Canadians do to "out"?), but then again, I feel like shooting my receiver when I hear a BBC newsreader pronounce Nicaragua "nick-uh-RAG-ewe-uh." AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!! James Jones
jsq@ut-sally.UUCP (John Quarterman) (10/16/83)
Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but my remarks about ugly
American accents (notice the plural) referred to accents *in English*.
(No one but a Bostonian could find a Boston accent pleasant to the ears.)
American accents in general lack the musical variation of pitch of British
English, being instead intoned in a flat, nasal, monotone. Not true of
all American accents, of course, but of most fer shur.
It's true that those Americans who do go to the trouble to learn another
language usually sound no worse than any other *foreign* speaker of that
other language. I have always found Parisians, in particular, to be
very appreciative of attempts to speak their language, by the way.
It is also true that there are far fewer Americans who take the trouble
to learn any language other than the one they started with than practically
any other national group. In Iceland, if I recall this correctly, they
start with Icelandic, of course, then move on to Danish, German, French,
and English. In the Netherlands most everybody who has gone to school
since WWII knows something of German, French, and English. In Africa,
it's a very rare person who doesn't know at least two languages, and
traders commonly are fluent in three or four or more. And so forth.
Yet many Americans still go overseas and expect everyone in the world
to speak English. If they're not understood the first time, they just
speak louder. They get upset at the French (who are number two at
language ignorance) for expecting them to speak French in France, but
would think it laughable if somebody from France insisted on speaking
French in the States.
I must admit that the few Americans I've met in really exotic (for
Americans) places like Upper Volta *did* speak more than one language,
but they are hardly representative of the great majority of Americans.
--
John Quarterman, CS Dept., University of Texas, Austin, Texas
{ihnp4,kpno,ctvax}!ut-sally!jsq, jsq@ut-sally.{ARPA,UUCP}