Do you think this woman is American?

Super Korean   Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:20 pm GMT
I'm pretty positive the man in the conversation is Canadian; however, the woman's accent is very tricky.

Do you think she's American? or an English woman who's imitating American accent?

http://media.putfile.com/North-American

Another dialogue can be heard here:
http://media.putfile.com/Strange-Accent
Guest   Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:20 pm GMT
Why does it matter? The differences are often minuscule.
Super Korean   Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:55 pm GMT
I was just curious if she has a New England accent or something because she doesn't sound general American.
Guest   Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:36 pm GMT
I'm an American and I don't think I've ever heard any human being ever speak like those two in that dialogue. Growing up we call that accent "weird robotic educational voice done really slowly so that people who probably don't have the best grasp of the English language can understand what the hell's going on."
Guest   Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:38 pm GMT
As in, don't imitate the way they speak, people will look at you like you have brain damage.
Super Korean   Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:45 pm GMT
The dialogue is from an English education program for ESL learners and that's why they speak like robots.
Northwesterner   Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:23 pm GMT
Well, they're both speaking rather artificially. But I certainly don't think she's from England. She also doesn't have an East Coast accent at all. To tell you the truth, accent wise, she certainly sounds like she is from the Pacific Northwest (or if she's not, she could pass as a native here), but she is speaking very slowly and carefully.
Northwesterner   Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:34 pm GMT
Or she could be the typical Canadian newscaster or radio announcer. We get some Canadian radio stations down here, and they sound pretty much the same as we speak here. Also they tend not to have things like Canadian raising, etc. They have all had voice training.
George   Thu Jul 24, 2008 8:59 am GMT
To me they are both definitely native North American English speakers trying to annunciate and using lots of stock phrases. I imagine the recordings were made for the programme and they are probably from the country were the programme was developed (Canada or the US).