#37: Accentuating the Positive.Sometimes when I am really bored I start speaking with a fake Russian accent. This accomplishes only two things: it drives Danny nuts and amuses me to no end.
It's really the only accent I can do well, probably because... I am Russian. Danny's Russian accent sounds more like Yakov Smirnoff on drugs who has to yell a lot and make jerky movements. Or is this the way Americans view Russians in general? In fairness, I should point out that his other accents are much better than mine, except maybe British (although this claim is disputed by Danny, who thinks he does a great garbled Mancunian rockstar impression).
This got me thinking to why we imitate accents.
If you are speaking to someone with limited English skills (or any other language), do you sometimes start to feel like the other person would understand better if you imitate their accent? This has happened to me before and than I start to wonder if I unwittingly sound a little patronizing. Does the other person even notice?
Another case of this involves kids. It's often really apparent if you talk to moms of kids aged 2-5. They start talking in a slow and deliberate manner, pronouncing every word with emphasis and pauses. There is generally a lot of exaggerated facial expression that goes along with this too. I guess it helps their kids learn, but still seems very strange to be the adult whom this is directed at. I start to feel like I'm talking with somebody with a lot of problems.
Babelfish, by the way, who we've been using to decipher all our Ehrensenf comments translates with a distinct (in this case German) accent. I haven't tried it out on the Russian yet, but something tells me it'll be a Russian one.
How do accents sound to people? I know most Russians prefer an American accent to a British one, but does this hold true for Germany too? Americans love guys with British accents, but not girls. What gives?
Heart,
Nina
posted by Danny&Nina @ 11/02/2006 10:11:00 AM
8 comments
8 Feedback:
American boys love girls with British accents, too,
just as long as they don't talk like the ladies on Ab Fab.
Americans in general really think foreign accents are sexy, though I think they prefer British accents because there is no language barrier between Americans and Brits, and having to repeat yourself multiple times or not understanding what your partner is saying is decidedly unsexy to most.
As an american guy, I would say rarely do I come across a sexy British girl accent. French, however.....
Hi Nina,
how many foreign languages do you speak?
Nina speaks Russian and English fluently. She also lived in Germany for a while growing up, so that's good but rusty.
Danny speaks English and Spanish (he actually learned the latter before the former). Both of us can get by with some very elementary French and Italian, too. Nina is definitely the foreign language champ, though.
Well, I (as a Swiss) prefer the British accent to the American. I think that most of the American accents sound a little bit like chewing gum while talking :o)
As of accents I really do like the Indian accent, (Indian people speaking english - sounds great, great melody! Although always a bit too fast.)
And I like the Scotish accent (for the same reasons, they also have a wonderful melody singing. Going up on the end of every sentence. Sounds so freindly.)
Here in Germany, my native, I like the northern accent, which is not my native region but I like it.
My sisters and I all have czech accents, seeing as how we're from czech republic. But we've lived in Texas for a long time, so we practiced doing southern accents.
My best friends and I spend embarassing amounts of time, that could be spent studying, trying to copy people's accents at our campus. We've gotten good at irish, spanish, and german accents. But we are still trying to master the indian accents.
My personal favorites however, are irish accents ^u^
it's funny that i came across this entry, because i literally just wrote a comment on a more recent entry asking if nina was russian.
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