[Carol]

I cant believe this happened to me today!

I took one of my duvets to a Launderette in Porirua to be cleaned.
I asked one of the women who worked there how much it would be and if they could do a service wash for me.
She looked at me like I was talking Swahili and she turned to her work mate and said:

"What the heck did she say?"

The other one translated for her.
(She had English parents although they were from somewhere I'd never heard of! lol )

We had a bit of a laugh when I told them both I have lived here for 12 years and don't think my geordie accent is very strong now!

Anyone else had similar "blank" looks when you talk to kiwis?

[Watna]

I have a friend living in Christchurch. She's only been there for a few months but says that she constantly has to repeat herself. Apparently Irish people speak too fast for kiwis and she's warned me to half the speed I talk at.

I also have an Irish name, which, although it is very common here (my friend mentioned above has the same name) is hard to pronounce for those not used to it. I've put a phonetic translation on my cv so we'll see how that works out too! She said she's had a bit of trouble with it but not as much as expected! :laugh

[AndyR]

im going to be in trouble then, I have to slow down for my english friends to understand me on occasion. haha

[StevieD]

Funnily enough Carol, I haven't had a problem with my accent, but have had plenty of Kiwi's looking at me with blank expressions, some of them just don't get the humour :laugh

Not sure about Jan though, she spits words out like an Uzi sub machine gun :yes

[Carol]

Funnily enough Carol, I haven't had a problem with my accent, but have had plenty of Kiwi's looking at me with blank expressions, some of them just don't get the humour :laugh

Not sure about Jan though, she spits words out like an Uzi sub machine gun :yes


Oh yeah - you get used to the humour thing Steve - best thing is to find the occasional kiwi who actually appreciates proper humour and stick with them.
:nice1

[wiki]

[QUOTE=Watna;198851 Apparently Irish people speak too fast for kiwis and she's warned me to half the speed I talk at.
[/QUOTE]

That's funny, because when I went to the UK and lived in Manchester I had to slow down my speech remarkably so I could be understood. My Kiwi was too fast for them!

I lived in the UK for 10 years where I was constantly told my Kiwi accent was "still so strong" ... and came back to Southland to be told "wow you have such an English accent" ... apparently I've properly slipped back into NZish now, but every now and again throw in an English vowel or a hard t and then people can't understand me again.

Can't win, so shall stick to the written word on here :clap

[RamblingPaddies]

I have a friend living in Christchurch. She's only been there for a few months but says that she constantly has to repeat herself. Apparently Irish people speak too fast for kiwis and she's warned me to half the speed I talk at.

I also have an Irish name, which, although it is very common here (my friend mentioned above has the same name) is hard to pronounce for those not used to it. I've put a phonetic translation on my cv so we'll see how that works out too! She said she's had a bit of trouble with it but not as much as expected! :laugh

tell me about it - i speak reasonably fast and have an irish name ... which they all mispronounce - and even the ones that I bother to correct say back to me "Nah mate, you must mean xYz not xyZ ..." my own name !!

sometimes it feels like they think i have absolutely no clue whats going on like in work) and they explain things really really slowly to compensate !

little to be worrying about

[Georgebulldog]

I've got no accent at all, just a southerner, yet I do dread making phone calls as I always have to repeat myself, I thought it was me speaking too fast but I've been told I don't. I speak a whole sentance then they say "sorry" so I repeat it slower so they can get it :)

[nippa&pippa]

I don't know how I managed to survive in NZ with uk accents and with I am profoundly deaf with oral communication :raebanana but not easy as had few moments that I end up to write on paper but rarely :nice1 .....and picking up kiwi accents at same time :laugh I know how to ask for egg in kiwi :p

[Carol]

haha - yeah - I hadnt thought of names....
My son is Craig..... said with a geordie accent (Crayg) it is a completely different name to the kiwi version "CroiyG"

lol

[peebles16]

Yep my wee one is Daniel but Denyl in NZ :) I have a glaswegian accent although it has softened a bit over the years but still have terrible trouble on the phone... Whereas the mums in the playground think it's hilarious and have started taking the mickey :)

Karenx

[StevieD]

Jan has just recalled to me a time in work when she asked one of the girls to do something for her, she just turned to her friend and did much the same as your example, she just asked if she understood a word she had said!! :laugh

When Jan asked her if she understood her, she just looked at her and said 'no' but she had a really thick Maori accent. Eventually she got used to her, but it did make us laugh.

[xanctus]

Anyone else had similar "blank" looks when you talk to kiwis?

Millions timessssss...many many many times, not just kiwis but most of english speaking people (americans, english, kiwi, australians n so on)...even tho I have lived 10 years in US.

[JandM]

My mother has a pretty standard English voice with a slight north London tinge. She got met with total incomprehension asking, 'Does this bus go near the Viaduct?'

[Nettie 2]

I have the opposite trouble, (apart from understanding my humour). I find kiwis talk very quickly and I can't always pick up what they say on first utterance. After asking a second time I usually give up and try to look intelligent....not sure I succeed though!! Which is probably why they pronounce my name Anit!! (Annette) :D

[dharder]

but have had plenty of Kiwi's looking at me with blank expressions, some of them just don't get the humour :laugh

I have that too, to the point where I'm beginning to wonder if I am just painfully unfunny, and people in England where simply more polite and laughed anyway...

There's nothing like silencing a whole room full of people with a throwaway remark that you thought was funny...

Daniela

[dharder]

Anyone else had similar "blank" looks when you talk to kiwis?

Yes, I get that a lot, too, although it is getting less so. I never quite understand that, though, because I don't think I have much of a regional accent at all. I've been accused of sounding 'posh' a few times, but since English is not my first language, I think that is somewhat forgivable, and would have thought that makes me easier to understand, not more difficult? I occasionally get the impression they are doing it on purpose, just to have a laugh, though.

And I don't have problems understanding Kiwis, but I sometimes still have to stop myself from finding the way they pronounce some words funny...

Daniela

[kowhai]

Yep, I had the same problem when I lived in the UK. I had to adapt my Kiwi accent to make myself understood. I came home with such a big plum in my mouth . A few good whacks on the back from family and friends soon dislodged it!:yes

[Carol]

I guess it is one of those things that you dont even think about - before you emigrate - but becomes blatantly obvious once you are here.
And if you are feeling a little "fragile" it can come as a bit of a shock that you dont quite "fit in".

I'm finding it quite strange actually - that since I stopped teaching - my accent has come back thicker than ever. EVEN after 12 years of livinghere.

I know I had to adapt my "teacher talk" for the kids in my class to understand me - and spelling testes were very long and drawn out - because I always had to give an example of the word I wanted in a sentence - although the kids used to say they preferred it like that than just out of context words.
But I have almost reached a point where I actually dont care anyomer.
This is me.
This is how I talk - because this is where I am from and I am fiercely proud of that. And actually, everyone talks like me there.......


I remember very clearly going into Asda last year and hearing a geordie voice over the tannoy. It sounded so strange......and yet....great!
lol

[Tia Maria]

My son learned to spell his name when we came over here, as no one could understand him he said it. Now he automatically says his name and spells it, just in case!

Cheers

Tia

[Tia Maria]

I have that too, to the point where I'm beginning to wonder if I am just painfully unfunny, and people in England where simply more polite and laughed anyway...

There's nothing like silencing a whole room full of people with a throwaway remark that you thought was funny...

Daniela

:laugh :laugh

Well that was funny so you can't be too bad!

Cheers

Tia

[lockstock]

I know I had to adapt my "teacher talk" for the kids in my class to understand me - and spelling testes were very long and drawn out



Does that mean you were talking bo***cks a lot of the time????

(Sorry, couldn't resist:laugh )

[zardell]

Does that mean you were talking bo***cks a lot of the time????

(Sorry, couldn't resist:laugh )


:laugh :laugh :laugh

Julie

xx

[marcia]

I've had a couple of mis understands - well where they couldn't understand me - one in Bunnings when I asked for a hammock and the guy thought I'd said hammer.

My hubby had a whole crowd of guys looking at each other speechless the other week - it was so funny to watch from the sidelines - it was just aftered he'd raced his car for the first time and they came round to see what he thought and he was all pumped up and started telling them all how he felt it was, and i could see their faces , it was funny, then when Kev stopped they turned to each and said did you understand a word he said?

But my biggest bug bare, and its so annoying at the moment with the 'vodafone home grown' thing being advertised on the radio all the time, is the way they say

Grow'e'n
Know'e'n
Blow'e'n

I feel like sending them an email and saying read this:

The queen wears a crown
The dog is brown
I wear a frown
when you say growen,Blowen and knowen! :(

Sorry rant over but its one of those things like a knife scratching the bottom of a pan - it just grates everytime i hear it!

[lockstock]

If they can say 'phone' why can't they say 'known'. Have to admit I wince a bit too. But you should see my kids' faces when I say WeetAbix not weetbix!

[pinkpiggy]

Grow'e'n
Know'e'n
Blow'e'n

Sorry rant over but its one of those things like a knife scratching the bottom of a pan - it just grates everytime i hear it!

Marcia this gets me too. Was at a craft fair at the boys' school on Saturday where we saw a sign saying 'Home Growen'. The other one that gets me is the way they say 'woman' when it should be 'women'. Arggh.

[shakyle2906]

im going to be in trouble then, I have to slow down for my english friends to understand me on occasion. haha

I get it too..........from Neath
People say we dont talk, we sing our words ???????

WHen you heading over here ?

What part of Swansea you from - Pm us!

Sharon
x

[holland]

Often at work people just fall silent so I repeat myself!

Today I rang someone up and a young kid answered and handed the phone to his mum and shouted...'mum, theres a funny woman on the phone with a wierd accent'..ha ha...

I get funny looks when I say 'do you fancy a brew?'...when I say crisps...instead of chips...and I have discovered that I don't say 'pardon' I actually say 'poden'...hadn't thought about my accent much until I came here!!!

J x

[shakyle2906]

I cant believe this happened to me today!

I took one of my duvets to a Launderette in Porirua to be cleaned.
I asked one of the women who worked there how much it would be and if they could do a service wash for me.
She looked at me like I was talking Swahili and she turned to her work mate and said:

"What the heck did she say?"

The other one translated for her.
(She had English parents although they were from somewhere I'd never heard of! lol )

We had a bit of a laugh when I told them both I have lived here for 12 years and don't think my geordie accent is very strong now!

Anyone else had similar "blank" looks when you talk to kiwis?



I had that when i first came over.........

Went for an interview at the local Drs, and felt so humiliated by the receptionist who made me repeat myself i dont know how many times and the surgery was full.............just crawled out of there and burst into tears!

Lot stronger now..........

I get funny looks when i say trainers and not sneakers, crisps and not chippys, and i call holiday days 'bank holidays'...............

Never mind!

Sharon
x

[yossarian]

a bit surprise misunderstandings happen between UK accent and NZ's. if i have the right ear and not mistaken, i think AUS, UK, and NZ's english accent variations are far more closer than any other group of english dialect...say, filipino-accent english and indian-accent english..

[Sam B]

Oh GGRRRR GRRRR GGGRRRR, I just wrote a really long and fascinatingly intelligent post and the stupid server thingy didn't work and I lost it. The jist of it was that Kiwis all seem to think that English accents sound posh regardless of whether they are or not. I keep being told I sound really posh and I'm definitely not. And most people understand me. Less people laugh at my jokes, or giggle nervously and look a bit shocked ... and I often don't understand people and not just my clients. And I miss the vowel 'air'.

There you go, succinct but possibly lacking the finesse of my lost post!

[Croft]

Not sure what other peoples experience is, but I sound totally different "inside my head" to what I sound like when I hear a recording of myself. I think I have a very neutral accent, but a recording reveals I actually sound quite posh!! A friend who studied language at University describes it as very 'RP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation)' - Received Pronunciation. However, it's benefit is that I have never found any difficulty with being understood - I guess it's an accent that most people have heard through the BBC etc.

The only accent I sometimes have difficulty with are very strong Indian accents, but I have now got used to those having worked with several Indian colleagues now. I guess I had the benefit of living in many different countries in my childhood so cam across many different accents. Never have found the Kiwi one a problem.

Now pronouncing Maori words and placenames, that's a different kettle of fish!

[StevieD]

I have that too, to the point where I'm beginning to wonder if I am just painfully unfunny, and people in England where simply more polite and laughed anyway...

There's nothing like silencing a whole room full of people with a throwaway remark that you thought was funny...

Daniela

What you trying to say Daniela, I'm not funny, huh, huh???? :laugh :laugh

[Mels]

Does that mean you were talking bo***cks a lot of the time????

(Sorry, couldn't resist:laugh )

I read about the 'spelling testes' a little later and I thought 'what clever little things and wondered how my two boys cope with that expectation??

It gave me a good laugh - and exactly how do you get spluttered coffee out of a laptop keyboard :D

Mels

[JandM]

The thing with RP/standard English being thought posh (I get this, too, occasionally, till people notice what I'm saying with my so-called posh voice;) ) by people with other UK accents as well as other national ones, is that they tend to assume you're deliberately putting on this voice. Actually, there are areas/families/schools where this is just how people talk - as somebody said already, this is just 'me'. And surely that's what everybody ought to be - themself?

Anyway, if I was to go around trying to talk like the cast of Eastenders, people who are from London would be likely to know I was faking it, and think I was taking the micky, so that wouldn't go down well, either.

[wiki]

The problem is people can't differentiate between differences in dialects unless they have a few clue keys to help them work it out.

Like there are certain sounds that will differentiate between an American and a Canadian, but unless you're from one of those countries you're likely to just pick up the overall sound pattern and assume they're from the US because it's the more populous country.

Same with Australia/NZ - nothing annoys a Kiwi in the UK being asked if they're an Aussie, but to many people Kiwi and Oz has the same tonal pattern and they assume "Australian" because there are 15 million more chances they are right.

While I was in the UK I was also asked frequently if I was Canadian or South African -- I was speaking English with an accent, but those who asked didn't know the accent enough to work out it was NZ.

It's the same with British accents - they all sound the same until you either a) live there for a while and travel outside of London (which a lot of Kiwis don't do) or b) watch endless re-runs of Auf Weidersehen Pet.

I lived in Lancashire and Yorkshire over my 10 years - my OH is a Brummie who went to uni in Swansea and Edinburgh so we visited those places a lot. I watched a lot of EastEnders and had a good mate who is Scouse and a colleague who is Geordie.. and sadly spent a fair bit of time with someone I can't stand who is from Bristol.

I get the accents ... but it took me 10 years of total immersion in them. Most kiwis you speak to have had about 10 minutes.

And remember, to a Kiwi there is no difference in pronouncing here, hear, hair and hare - we were taught they all rhyme. When English people (like my OH) speak and make them all sound different it really does sound posh... posh people always say words in the longest most convoluted way :p

[dharder]

is that they tend to assume you're deliberately putting on this voice. Actually, there are areas/families/schools where this is just how people talk - as somebody said already, this is just 'me'. And surely that's what everybody ought to be - themself?

I always assumed that the people who had a problem with this thought that the people who talk like that ARE being themselves, a 'themselves' that is posh and therefore not likeable :)

I have noticed myself cringing at some things my kids say. We used to live in East London and they did talk like it (no 't's at all, just glottal stops), and now their 't's have turned into 'd's... So no luck at all for the letter T in my family.

And speaking of annoying ads: I don't like this one where they talk about some duty free place at the airport, and the first few times I heard it, I thought they said 'judy free' and I kept wondering who Judy was.

Oh, and a homonym the boys brought back form the literacy class: 'deuce' (as in Tennis) and 'juice'...

Sigh

Daniela

[Carol]

Does that mean you were talking bo***cks a lot of the time????

(Sorry, couldn't resist )


:laugh:laugh:laughoops!! :cheers

[Jo Jo]

I keep being told I sound really posh and I'm definitely not.

You are posh!

[Carol]

yeah same here....I'm posh too..... well no - actually - I'm just swanky!

That's "geordie posh"

:laugh

[StevieD]

I'm just being myself ;)

[Sam B]

(to Jo Jo) NO I'M NOT! You are!!!

[StevieD]

And as wiki says, it takes a while to get used to the different nuances. I was one of those who used to fall in to the Aussie/Kiwi trap. Now that I am here the difference sticks out like a sore thumb, but those days, not so easy.

As Carol will tell you it is sometimes difficult for people in UK to decipher a really thick Geordie or Scouse accent (poor Kiwi's eh) but I can't get the way the 't's become 'd's, Jan's pet hate like Paula - woman instead of the plural women (or is it just how they pronounce it? I always say this to wind her up :laugh)

At the end of the day, as long as we all get along, it is all part of the fun and the rich tapestry that makes up this fabulous country.

[Watna]

I get it too..........from Neath
People say we dont talk, we sing our words ???????

WHen you heading over here ?

What part of Swansea you from - Pm us!

Sharon
x

My Dad is from Neath. I was over there a few weeks ago saying goodbye to my aunt, uncle and cousins in the Cimla!

Dad has lived in Ireland for over 25 years. He still sounds like he left the valleys yesterday!

[JandM]

I always assumed that the people who had a problem with this thought that the people who talk like that ARE being themselves, a 'themselves' that is posh and therefore not likeable :)

Oh, dear, Daniela, that's an assumption too far for me! I'm not going to worry about how people might be judging me before the event, or I'd never dare do anything.:roll The only times anyone has ever criticized me for my accent, it's been on the grounds I said - assuming it was a deliberate choice, and my natural way of speaking would be something different.

[Rusty]

I think it depends on where the person is who hears the accent as well.
I live in Hertfordshire and sound a bit posh to Londoners, but like a cockney to my work colleagues in Newcastle? My kids are even picking up a slight Norfolk accent as well.
Hell, we will all sound different next year and the year after as we change.

[CJ22]

Same with Australia/NZ - nothing annoys a Kiwi in the UK being asked if they're an Aussie, but to many people Kiwi and Oz has the same tonal pattern and they assume "Australian" because there are 15 million more chances they are right.

I can't understand this phenomenon. I've never been to either Oz or NZ, and haven't known many people from either, but even I can tell there's a world of difference between Strine and Kiwi.

Aussies torture their vowels. Kiwis simply dispense with them altogether.

[napiers]

OH is a Kiwi who gets told he sounds like a Pom when he goes home, which he's not mad keen on! He sometimes puts on what would be a seen as a 'posh' British voice when he's on the phone (I know that there's something about phone voices!!) and frequently asks kiwis what part of Oz they're from, or vice versa - he tends to use visual clues like rugby jerseys rather than accents! Has to be said he's a bit of a contradiction ... or is that just men! :confused:

[CJ22]

Maybe...maybe not.