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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 6:30 am
by icomefromalanddownunder
englishangel wrote:North America is such a big country you really can't generalise.
Same goes for Australia.
My kids (born in NZ, raised in Australia) are often taken for Poms when they visit the Eastern states.
South Australians have a softer (hence, more Pom-like) accent than Victorians or New South Welshies. The latter say schooooool and poooooool and dance as opposed to darnce. Some Queenslanders sound like Kiwis.
My favourite Aussie v Kiwi put down (it can be reversed)?
Q: Why do Kiwis wear jandals? (alternately, why do Aussies wear thongs?)
A: Because they are too dumb to tie their shoe laces.
Quick translation: Aussie thongs = Kiwi Jandals = Pommie flip flops (or Japanese sea boots, as my ex-Navy ex-husband calls them).
As for Kiwis sounding like South Africans - oh d-d-dear
Not the same at all.
All this coming from someone who used to be able to pick a Battersea accent from other London accents, but who recently kept asking a German student if he was sure he was German, as he sounds so French. Resorted to asking where in Germany he is from. Nowhere near the French border, but he has been working in South Africa for some years. Would have thought that would make him sound more German.
Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:03 am
by Hannoir
No, I know that they arent the same - it was the first frantic phonecall to the NZ embassy that made me think that (and my first real contact with an NZ accent, when I've used to South African all my life).
North America is a continent not a country!
Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 2:26 pm
by englishangel
Hannoir wrote:No, I know that they arent the same - it was the first frantic phonecall to the NZ embassy that made me think that (and my first real contact with an NZ accent, when I've used to South African all my life).
North America is a continent not a country!
I know that, but I was generalising, the North and south of the US is more different than crossing the border from US to Canada
Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 3:31 pm
by JamesF35
If you are having problems with accents then this bit of software may help . . .
http://www.avisoft.co.uk/FrenchChars/Ty ... acters.htm
Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:06 am
by icomefromalanddownunder
Hannoir wrote:North America is a continent not a country!
Depends whether or not you are including Canada
Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:26 pm
by Ruthie-Baby(old a/c)
Canada is in north America, no??
Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:55 am
by matthew
Ruthie-Baby wrote:Canada is in north America, no??
Of course it is. I think somebody was trying to be clever.
Geographically, at least part of Mexico is also in North America. But the term is often used here to refer specifically to Canada and the U.S. That's especially true when it's describing the boundaries of some product or service.