Am I the only one who needs an English to English translator while watching this hearing?

[JohnnyRingo]

I find some cockney accents so mumblingly incoherent that I have to fill in the blanks with what I assume they said. The dialect spoken by Ricky Gervais is particularly indecipherable to my Ohio ears that I find myself waiting for his uncontrollable laugh at the end of the carefully constrained structure to spot the punchlines. Like a high school French language student, I wish they'd slow down so I can translate.

I understand there are several dialects in Britain and not all are so confusing, but I'm still working on my American. It's fairly recent that I learned Alabaman.

[montanacowboy]

1. Some British movies

are the same way; terrible to understand, it's like they are not even speaking English, i.e. the Red Riding Trilogies; simply impossible.

[PatSeg]

9. I find some British movies and TV shows

very easy to understand, but there are many that I use subtitles when they are available. Strong accents, mumbling,and/or speaking very rapidly makes it difficult to keep up.

Most of the Parliament have been pretty easy to understand for me so far, though James Murdoch's voice was putting me to sleep (maybe that was part of his evil plan).

[supernova]

10. Red Riding Trilogy

I love Yorkshire -ese!

:rofl:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

25. You mean like "Don't Go Rounin Roun To Re Ro"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HWNNZGuldI&feature=related

[tridim]

2. All I'm thinking about is that I hope to gawd that hairstyle doesn't become popular in the states.

But my guess is that it will. Ugh.

[supernova]

3. Here's one dictionary

http://www.travelfurther.net/dictionaries/ba-ac.htm

I've watched many years of British TV and I can understand them just fine most of the time. Some Scots and Yorkshire vocab can leave me flummoxed, though. :-) Better if I can rewind and listen a couple of times.

Is there a particular phrase you can't decipher?

[marions ghost]

18. "the extended poodle" cut?

All I can think of is Lady Godiva for some reason...:shrug:

[Romulox]

4. I've recently become hooked on the "Dragon's Den" on BBC America

There is a wealth of accents on offer, from both the contestants and the judges. I must admit that it takes some concentration to understand what the Glaswegian judge, Mr. Duncan, is saying at any given time.

[guitar man]

5. "The English and the Americans:

two peoples separated by a common language.” ... George Bernard Shaw

[NightWatcher]

6. for homework. go watch Trainspotting and The Clockwork Orange

once you can understand about 80% of what they say, you'll be a cunning linguist in no time

[provis99]

22. the people in Trainspotting are Scottish, not English.

It won't help at all with English accents.

and in the Clockwork Orange, they mixed English with a debased form of Russian, which no one in England actually speaks.

[DURHAM D]

7. We have always been divided by our common language.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. I thank the gods that I learned ENGLISH and not American first

Trust me on this, they are not that bad, as far as accents go.

But yes, you have caught on the different dialects of English.

Here is another MAJOR difference... when writing English long convoluted sentences are fine... in American... not so much.

I recommend the Story of English for this... there are some sections of the US where it is this bad too... like the deep south.

[RZM]

26. LOL. I had a German instructor who had a funny story about this

She had learned English from a British woman in Austria. When she arrived in the US, she said she felt hopelessly unprepared. 'I couldn't even ask ver ze bathroom vaz!'

[somone]

11. Try Scouse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH_kOjsXakM

[lapislzi]

12. Yorkshire is much more difficult to understand than Cockney

I once saw a documentary wherein the Yorkshireman's remarks were subtitled. As my ex-boss, a Yorkshireman, said, "there's nowt so queer as folk." (Translation: "All y'all's crazy.") I do like a Yorkshire pudding, however!

[mwooldri]

13. Nope you are not alone.

A comedy show - Rab C. Nesbitt - won the Montreux Golden Rose Award. However the judges had to watch the "closed captions" in order to make any sense of it whatsoever.

However most people in the British Isles can work out what is being said across the dialects but yes there are difficulties. I had a lecturer with a very heavy Glasweigan accent and to make sure I got everything correct, I did tape record his lectures. Eventually I got tuned into him.

[damntexdem]

14. No, what we all need is a British to English translator.

Or as it is sometimes called, a British to American translator. ;-)

[Ghost Dog]

24. Order! Order!

:)

[dmallind]

15. Cockney AND R. Gervais I hope you mean. Very very different

He's from a middle class Home Counties background with a Canadian dad. About as far away from East End dialect as the Texas drawl is from Valley Girl speak.

[pipi_k]

16. Everything I know about the language

I learned from watching "Benny Hill"

:7

[LynneSin]

17. I'm like that with some brit movies - I can't watch Trainspotting without a translater

I had no clue that Sick Boy was a big James Bond fan.

[Blue_Tires]

19. lolz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvGHIW3GQv8

[JCMach1]

20. Murdoch's son's ears turn red when he is lying... has been quite fun to watch...

Murdoch is playing Ronald Reagan in the Iran-Contra Affair...

[sfpcjock]

21. OK, now pay close attention:

Accents are all to Brits. She has the upper-class perfect accent when she drifts into Cockney only imperceptibly (on her weak points). Everyone else is considered downstairs. Perhaps the best analogy is Lucretia Borgia, LOL.

[Spider Jerusalem]

23. No-one there had a Cockney accent

Cockney properly is the accent of the East End of London (Michael Caine has a Cockney accent). Most of those were Home Counties accents (the southeast of England around London) plus a few Northerners and a Scotsman. As British accents go for the most part those were what most people outside the UK think of when they think of a "British accent".

For reference, here's Cockney (Bob Hoskins in "The Long Good Friday"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT9to9DENH0

Mancunian (David Thewlis in "Naked"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7nDdS6XrbE

Scouse (Liverpudlian): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHfIAoF8gEc

Which isn't even getting into any of the various other accents like West Country (Devon/Cornwall), Welsh (which differs from one part of Wales to another), Midlands, Geordie, and so on.

[JohnnyRingo]

27. If I had your expertise of the Queen's English, I'd have no trouble at all understanding Brits.

No trouble at all.
Thanks for the edification.