How does american accents sound?

.   Tuesday, July 08, 2003, 00:28 GMT
.
queen   Tuesday, July 08, 2003, 20:19 GMT
I like the American accent very much. Everytime I hear the American tourists, I turn my head.
Ryan   Tuesday, July 08, 2003, 21:06 GMT
It's probably pretty easy to hear American tourists considering how loud most Americans are. I'm American here and people think I'm quiet because I don't emotionally exclaim every statement I make.

Ryan
queen   Tuesday, July 08, 2003, 23:40 GMT
Ryan
I don't think Americans are louder than the French. They are almost the same. I compare these two nations as I live among both.
Dorian   Tuesday, July 08, 2003, 23:44 GMT
That's nice to see that American are coming back to Paris. I like to have a short conversation with them when I get a chance.
Guofei Ma   Wednesday, July 09, 2003, 01:17 GMT
Greetings, Ashley:

No offence is intended here, but you, like most Americans, do not really understand the meaning of the word "accent". You probably believe that you speak English the "standard and neutral" way and the British have an accent that identifies them as being British. Well, the British believe that they speak English the "standard and neutral" way and you have an accent that identifies you as being American!

Your accent is simply the way you pronounce words and NOT how you pronounce words differently from the standard. Even American and British news reporters, who are considered to speak English the "standard and neutral" way in their respective countries do have an accent: the accepted "standard and neutral" accent of their respective countries. Record your voice on a tape, play it back, and you will hear what is referred to as your accent, which may be a "standard and neutral" American accent.

Regards,
Guofei Ma
Ashley   Wednesday, July 09, 2003, 01:44 GMT
I don't really think we speak the standard way, I mean, i don't really judge people by their accents.
Guofei Ma   Wednesday, July 09, 2003, 01:57 GMT
To Ashley:

I didn't say you judge people by their accents. I was clarifying what I believed to be your misconception. I thought that you believed you spoke English without an accent and thus I emphasised that everyone speaks with an accent since an accent is simply the way one speaks.

By the bye, you wrote "I don't really think WE speak the standard way". You speak with some American accent whilst I speak with a South-eastern British Accent, which I found out by testing my pronunciation of certain words on http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/chimp/101/trans/acctest.htm (the pronunciation test is only for British English speakers).