Difficulty with Irish accents abroad!

paddyandy

Are our accents in decline through travel and media ?

derb12

Interesting that the OP had trouble being understood in Liverpool. The only place in the world where I've had to repeat myself when speaking english was in Manchester. Whenever I opened my mouth I just got quizzical looks.
In the Scotland, London, US, Oz and NZ I had to refrain from using certain turns of phrase that don't mean anything to them, but they had no problem understanding the words I was saying.
Maybe it's a Northern England thing.

HalloweenJack

c_man wrote: »

I got caught last week talking to a yank. Was telling a story and it involved someone "giving out". They were utterly confused.

That's the frustrating thing about Yanks.

We have no trouble understanding their phrases 'cause we hear them all the time on the telly but they haven't a clue when we say something that's Irish or even something used both here and in the UK.

I've encountered some Americans who are really dismissive of English that isn't spoken in the American, it's retarded.

Siuin

HalloweenJack wrote: »

I've encountered some Americans who are really dismissive of English that isn't spoken in the American, it's retarded.

Lol so true- although I've met even more Americans who are dismissive of any language which isn't American-English, full stop. As far as they're concerned, learning foreign languages is a waste of time and energy and people who don't understand them simply need to educate themselves

LordSutch

'Tis fascinating how accents travel, or don't travel as the case may be. I worked in South London with a guy from Kerry who had lived there for thirty five years, and his Kerry accent was as strong as the day he arrived! Yet on the other hand, I had a good friend from Carlow (with a slight accent), and after only five years in South London she had lost any trace of Carlow, and developed a rather exaggerated South London accent which I still find fascinating, considering the short timeframe.

Michellenman

When I lived in france I lived with loads of different nationalities, german, dutch, french, spanish, italian etc etc I've a habit of saying fuck off if something surprises me. Cue many offended faces

FTGFOP

LordSutch wrote: »

'Tis fascinating how accents travel, or don't travel as the case may be. I worked in South London with a guy from Kilkenny who had lived there for thirty five years, and his Kerry accent was as strong as the day he arrived! Yet on the other hand, I had a good friend from Carlow (with a slight accent), and after only five years in South London she had lost any trace of Carlow, and developed a rather exaggerated South London accent which I still find fascinating, considering the short timeframe.

I think they both lost their accents, just to different degrees.

LordSutch

FTGFOP wrote: »

I think they both lost their accents, just to different degrees.

Not sure what you mean there?

The guy from Kerry retained his strong kerry accent after thirty five years in London, while the other friend from Carlow lost her slight accent after only five years, & aquired a South London accent!

FTGFOP

Before your edit you said the guy from Kilkenny never lost their Kerry accent. :P

bullets

Was in a Pub in Scotland years ago and without thinking I asked
for a Pint of Bulmers and a packet of Tayto's

Yer wan behind the bar nearly took the head clean off of me, and roared
at me that it was Magners and McCoy's crisps.

~B

Big Nasty

FTGFOP wrote: »

I think they both lost their accents, just to different degrees.

LordSutch wrote: »

Not sure what you mean there?

The guy from Kerry retained his strong kerry accent after thirty five years in London, while the other friend from Carlow lost her slight accent after only five years, & aquired a South London accent!

I've worked abroad in Belgium and Germany and travelled to many Europen and American cities. I tend to neutralise my accent whenever I travel and have little or no problems with people understanding me. I also tend to pick up on different names for the same thing and change accordingly - it makes life easier. I will never loose the 'grand' thing though!

Lumbo

I worked behind the bar in a hostel in Bolivia. An Australian lad asked for two happy hour vodka's which cost 36b's. He started arguing over the price. He then said he couldn't understand what I was saying. So I said, "it's because your a c*nt". He's looks at me and asks what I'd just called him. I calmly said "I said, it's because you can't count". He didn't look happy but knew he couldn't do anything about it.

falan

Kev_2012 wrote: »

Just wanted to see what other peoples experiences are as regards people from other countries having difficulty with your Irish accents/slang (assuming you have one!)

I'll go first, in Liverpool, we went to McDonalds for some grub the second we got to the city. We paid for our food (albeit after the staff nearly had a heart attack when we handed £50 notes to pay!), and a friend of mine asked for salt.

The girl behind the counter literally hadn't a clue what he was saying! And others working there couldn't understand either, so myself and another lad tried to explain but they still didn't understand us. It was hilarious! But then we just said "what do you generally put on chips with vinegar" and they copped it. Think it was because of how much emphasis we put on the 'lt' at the end whereas they pronounce it like "sauw" or something.

Anyone else have problems with this?

Salt is pronounced "solt over there. The Irish way is more drawn out like sault, as in call, brawl etc

cashback

Living in South Yorkshire and people I work with never ever get bored of the way I can't pronounce my 'TH'. Make sales meetings a bit of an ordeal, I mean it was funny the first twenty times! They'll often be talking away normally and then say something like 'turty tree' and give me a sideways grin.
It's not meant to be nasty but it does eventually get a little boring, having to smile and play along.