General O/T Chit Chat Thead II

[up_all_night]

I'm from Melbourne. An ex of mine was French but grew up in Adelaide. She always pointed out that here in Melbourne we say "France" strangely.

Not really sure how to type sounds, but here in Melbourne we'd say "Fran-ce" as opposed to "Fru-ance"

 

[jessy_girl]

Well this is probably embarrassing but I trained myself to say things like “advarnced” and “advarntage” in an attempt to sound sophisticated. Maybe people just think I’m South Australian. I also replaced words like very and really with “rather” “terribly” and “quite”. Fake it til you make it I suppose.

Anyway, some tips if anyone else is pretentious.

 

[jessy_girl]

Spoiler

all you need to know is that Mike performed fellatio and he has also asked after you

 

[Isee]

I think the south Australian accent and the NZ accent has some similarities. I am not sure if we have just lived here long enough to have lost the nz accent but nobody here picks up we are kiwis until we tell them and then they will listen to us talk more and say, oh yes I can hear it now....

I suspect we are going to sound Australian to kiwis when we move back there. We hear the kiwi accent now when watching kiwi things. I don't hear the accent on my parents because I talk to them often, but on friends I have just talked to occasionally I do.

 

[timmy]

I think the south Australian accent and the NZ accent has some similarities. I am not sure if we have just lived here long enough to have lost the nz accent but nobody here picks up we are kiwis until we tell them and then they will listen to us talk more and say, oh yes I can hear it now....

I suspect we are going to sound Australian to kiwis when we move back there. We hear the kiwi accent now when watching kiwi things. I don't hear the accent on my parents because I talk to them often, but on friends I have just talked to occasionally I do.

Yeah it's funny how bad kiwi accents start to sounds after years in Australia. Occasionally, just occasionally, people would ask me "are you a kiwi?" after something I'd said. Just because they'd noticed I'd dropped a flat vowel. How long have you been in Aus? I was there 20 years.

 

[Kingston]

I have about 99% accuracy in spotting Aussie and Kiwi accents. I sometimes just a little confused with South African or when Australian/Kiwi accents become more North Americanized.

The weirdest thing after coming back to Canada after just over a year away was getting used to hearing the Canadian accent again. I was so used to hearing Aussie speak that it started to sound normal.

Speaking of accents; when I was living in Australia I had a woman a grocery store call me an American, and when I corrected her she got upset and asked if there weren't allowed to call Canadian's American's? I guess people don't grasp the fact that while there's a lot of shared history, culture, and just a line that divides us there are differences.

 

[Kingston]

Yeah it's funny how bad kiwi accents start to sounds after years in Australia. Occasionally, just occasionally, people would ask me "are you a kiwi?" after something I'd said. Just because they'd noticed I'd dropped a flat vowel. How long have you been in Aus? I was there 20 years.

I don’t think any amount of time would change my accent too much. The hard R sounds are hard to lose. Also the tendency to switch My for Me is also too awkward sounding in my accent. The use of rising inflection was something I did adopt quite easily.

 

[jessy_girl]

I have about 99% accuracy in spotting Aussie and Kiwi accents. I sometimes just a little confused with South African or when Australian/Kiwi accents become more North Americanized.

The weirdest thing after coming back to Canada after just over a year away was getting used to hearing the Canadian accent again. I was so used to hearing Aussie speak that it started to sound normal.

Speaking of accents; when I was living in Australia I had a woman a grocery store call me an American, and when I corrected her she got upset and asked if there weren't allowed to call Canadian's American's? I guess people don't grasp the fact that while there's a lot of shared history, culture, and just a line that divides us there are differences.

I mean I guess if going just by continent she was technically correct, I wonder if that’s what she meant? Most likely not.

I can usually tell the two apart but one guy I was so sure was Canadian turned out to be from America, I don’t know if the northern states sound similar?

 

[timmy]

I don’t think any amount of time would change my accent too much. The hard R sounds are hard to lose. Also the tendency to switch My for Me is also too awkward sounding in my accent. The use of rising inflection was something I did adopt quite easily.

I really hate the rising inflection. It grates with me, especially when someone is doing it repeatedly when speaking. And don't switch my for me, that's just uneducated bogans. I couldn't believe it when ME Bank starting using the slogan "It's me bank". UGH!!!!!!! How embarrassing. Major cringe.

 

[Isee]

Yeah it's funny how bad kiwi accents start to sounds after years in Australia. Occasionally, just occasionally, people would ask me "are you a kiwi?" after something I'd said. Just because they'd noticed I'd dropped a flat vowel. How long have you been in Aus? I was there 20 years.

About 15 years

I don’t think any amount of time would change my accent too much. The hard R sounds are hard to lose. Also the tendency to switch My for Me is also too awkward sounding in my accent. The use of rising inflection was something I did adopt quite easily.

I have been watching some vlogs with both an american and a canadian on it - I cannot always hear much difference - but I do hear it when the canadian says "about", which is they only time I have ever heard that. Although i can hear regional differences in American accents (eg a strong boston accent) I don't always know when I am hearing a canadian accent.

 

[Kingston]

I mean I guess if going just by continent she was technically correct, I wonder if that’s what she meant? Most likely not.

I can usually tell the two apart but one guy I was so sure was Canadian turned out to be from America, I don’t know if the northern states sound similar?

I’m from western Canada which tends to sound more American. You can hear my voice at about 3:30 on this podcast episode.

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/F2zwPij5JeVFfcFq7

You also can’t classify everyone on the North American continent American. Considering Spanish is a majority language in the southern countries of the continent. There isn’t a single North American identity.

 

[Kingston]

About 15 years

I have been watching some vlogs with both an american and a canadian on it - I cannot always hear much difference - but I do hear it when the canadian says "about", which is they only time I have ever heard that. Although i can hear regional differences in American accents (eg a strong boston accent) I don't always know when I am hearing a canadian accent.

It depends on where you’re from… Eastern Canada (Ontario and the maritime provinces) is where you’re going to notice more of a difference. I definitely do not say aboot.

 

[timmy]

I do hear it when the canadian says "about"

Ha we're in sync here. I pick up that sound when they say house. It's that pronunciation that gives them away. But apart from that I'm not so good at picking it. Try to trick them into saying house by asking them if they live in an apartment or an "individual single dwelling".

 

[Kingston]

I really hate the rising inflection. It grates with me, especially when someone is doing it repeatedly when speaking. And don't switch my for me, that's just uneducated bogans. I couldn't believe it when ME Bank starting using the slogan "It's me bank". UGH!!!!!!! How embarrassing. Major cringe.

Given that most of my friends were British rising inflection was all around me. I also found that the me/my thing was pretty common. But then again most of my time was spent outside of major cities. My last 4 months was spent in Griffith NSW.

 

[jessy_girl]

I’m from western Canada which tends to sound more American. You can hear my voice at about 3:30 on this podcast episode.

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/F2zwPij5JeVFfcFq7

You also can’t classify everyone on the North American continent American. Considering Spanish is a majority language in the southern countries of the continent. There isn’t a single North American identity.

Yeah I guess even if “technically” correct it’s rather misleading to refer anyone from outside the US as being American.

 

[Kingston]

Yeah I guess even if “technically” correct it’s rather misleading to refer anyone from outside the US as being American.

It would be like saying Australian and Kiwi’s are the same. Even better it would be like calling a Scottish or Welsh person British. I mean “technically” Scotland, England, and Wales from Great Britain.

The term American is ONLY used for those who reside in the United States of America. There really isn’t a term to describe us all like there is in other continents. I guess North American if you really want a technical term but try calling someone from one of the Caribbean that and I’m sure they wouldn’t be happy.

 

[jessy_girl]

It would be like saying Australian and Kiwi’s are the same. Even better it would be like calling a Scottish or Welsh person British. I mean “technically” Scotland, England, and Wales from Great Britain.

Yeah I understand. Really I was just wondering if that’s what the woman you encountered meant, but I guess either way it’s ignorance on her part. But hopefully an opportunity for her to learn.

 

[Kingston]

Yeah I understand. Really I was just wondering if that’s what the woman you encountered meant, but I guess either way it’s ignorance on her part. But hopefully an opportunity for her to learn.

This was in 2004 at the height of the Iraq war… It very well could have been what she meant but most likely not. I’m sure she wanted to tell me how stupid she thought Americans are.

That said it was a pretty common assumption for Australians to make… In a lot of cases they seem to think we’re all one homogenized culture.

 

[jessy_girl]

This was in 2004 at the height of the Iraq war… It very well could have been what she meant but most likely not. I’m sure she wanted to tell me how stupid she thought Americans are.

That said it was a pretty common assumption for Australians to make… In a lot of cases they seem to think we’re all one homogenized culture.

Yeah I remember someone I know was attempting to get Canadian citizenship in order to get a green card, not like either one is easy to get but I have to assume one doesn’t help with the other. Possibly a better visa or something. But one of many examples of people assuming they are all the same place.

I must admit I was confused when flying from Canada to the US and I went to international departures only to learn there is a special terminal that is neither international nor domestic but just for the US, but it makes sense.

 

[Kingston]

Yeah I remember someone I know was attempting to get Canadian citizenship in order to get a green card, not like either one is easy to get but I have to assume one doesn’t help with the other. Possibly a better visa or something. But one of many examples of people assuming they are all the same place.

I must admit I was confused when flying from Canada to the US and I went to international departures only to learn there is a special terminal that is neither international nor domestic but just for the US, but it makes sense.

Canadian have visa free travel to the US but nothing else. We don’t have open immigration and as far as I know there’s no special treatment of Canadians when it comes to immigrating.

Yes pre-clearing US immigration in Canada is amazing! It makes flying to the US so much easier. Although once you’ve cleared you can’t leave that section of the airport. The one and only time I flew to the US as a Flight Attendant it was super annoying… We flew from Toronto - Boston - Toronto - Boston - Toronto. We could get off the plane for a minute or two in Boston but we weren’t allowed to leave the plane in Toronto until the end of the day.