British People, Can You Understand Americans When They Speak?

BreaknBrix

BreaknBrix

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This is something I've secretly wondered about for a long time and I have to ask.

I can understand most Australians when they speak, Irish folks, Chinese, Hindu..... even Jamaicans... but something about the British accent specifically, at least 80% of British shows, or even American shows narrated by British people.... I just can't understand them.

And I don't know why.

All these nationalities speak with an accent but something about the British accent specifically makes it VERY hard to understand. I will literally force myself to watch British shows thinking, "the more I listen the easier it will get" but it never happens. Most of the time I get annoyed and have to stop watching.

So my question to you Brits.... can you understand us Americans when we speak?

I've never been sure how that works.

Do you guys have to actively focus on every word we say and try to translate it? When I watched "Starred Up" I needed subtitles. Same thing with "Attack The Block". But when Brits watch American movies do they typically need subtitles? I'm really curious about this.

-BB
 
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I'm not a pure British, but I was born in England, and I can't understand the crap you bloody Americans speak. J/K, as far as I know, every British guy/girl can understand what Americans speak.

P.S: I don't have the full British accent, so that could be the reason.
 
Damn.
I totally aagrre with you but...
your post is So long i lost interest :)
USA! USA!
 
I have no trouble understanding American accents - and I'm pretty sure most Brits would say the same thing.

In the UK we do have a lot of regional accents though and some of them can be difficult even for us to understand.

A heavy Glaswegian accent (Glasgow) for example, is notoriously difficult.

I suspect your difficulty may well be with regional or heavy accents.

Try watching BBC News and see if you have the same problems - I think you may find it much easier to understand people as the newsreaders speak much more clearly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcnews

I'm not sure if that link will be blocked for you, but it's a link to the 24 hour BBC News channel
 
It all just sounds like "Hoodle dooodle dooop hoodle chicken"
 
I only have to strain at the Jamaican, Belfast and Glaswegian accent. (Anybody know what the official term for people from Belfast is?)

Also @OP, those 2 movies that you had subtitles on, were young people using street language, and even people from the UK aged over 35 can't understand what those f#cks are talking about.
 
As someone who is not American or British, I can understand both as long they don't have heavy accent.
 
English is not my main language but seriously british accent really sucks , pretty difficult lol
 
Some British accents are fucked. However, you'll find that anywhere. There are some Australians that I have trouble understanding.
 
I'm British and sometimes struggle to understand British accents. There are so many regional accents and dialects that understanding them all is like learning to speak about 10 different languages.

The variation in language from geordies (Newcastle) to cockneys (London) to scousers (Liverpool) is huge. I'm from the midlands which is slap bang in the middle between all three of those and our regional dialect (Black country/brummie, I put both because I am from neither but close by) is probably just as confusing to them as theirs is to me.

I'm sure the UK isn't the only country with these regional variations.
 
you can't understand English people when they speak English? Maybe get your own language :p
 
I think This type of thread not Allowed here? I personally can not speak Good English as I am not from UK or US. but I studied in US for 1 Year.
 
As a Brit, US accent is easy to understand but I understand why some other countries don't understand UK and its all down to the accents we have. I have a dodgy farmer sounding accent, so people in England don't understand everything I say. I don't understand everything people from Scotland and Wales say, some Londoners confuse the shit out of me and Northerners, some of that is quite funny to listen to.

I quite like listening to the Boston accents, lobsta from the harba, or some Canadian accents are cool.

Must admit I came over to Vermont for a couple of weeks a few years back and the young ladies there loved the English accent :D
Vegas women didn't care, guess thats because there are a lot of accents in that part of the country.
 
The remake of the above is here too:

 
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I fully agree with fatboy. We do have some very unusual accents in the UK. From Cornwall to the West Midlands, Yorkshire, Liverpool and of course the Geordies from Newcastle. That's just England. We then have Welsh accent who also have their own Language. Northern Ireland especially Belfast is difficult at times. Scotland in particular Glasgow is impossible to many.
I think one of the reasons that we find the US accent so easy is because we have learned to be good listeners to accents. After all, most of the TV we watch is American especially movies. It's been this way for decades.

In my opinion the British English language is in a poor way now with many young people using it to imitate Jamaicans who speak English, it really annoys me. Many English words have now been replaced by words that I don't understand. Maybe it's just that I'm getting old.
 
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Yes, most of us Brits can understand most American accents. Even though we are such a small nation, our dialect is very different, region to region. Even travelling 40 miles, will make a huge difference in the way people speak. Take saying "hello" for instance... I would say "ay up me duck" but a gordie would say "alright pet" and a glaswegian would just head butt you!! Haha
 
Well not British, but I've lived in the UK for years. And currently living in Glasgow. Half the people here don't even understand it when somebody goes full Glaswegian with their accent, and I am included in that half. The usual daily accent took a bit of getting used to, but it is fine now.

And yeah, American accents apart from two or three are real easy to understand.
 
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