Why do yanks compare American southern accent to English

We used to make Southern iced tea the following way:

3 cups of boiling water with three tea bags for five minutes. Take tea bags out, add 1/2 cup sugar to the still-hot tea mixture. (Adding the sugar at this point is essential.)

Then add five cups of iced or very-cold water. Stir, then serve over ice.

Dee-licious, especially during our long summers.

I have heard that UK citizens have found it repulsive, however....

Because the population of British Expats in my county is so huge our one grocery store stocks a full half aisle of tea, which may not seem like much until you take into account the fact that the store only has ten aisles. We do indeed have PG Tips, although I've never tried it, as well as the ever popular mint and nettle teas. We still get complaints and countless numbers of customer requests, but there's only so much room.

What I find the strangest thing is that the older Brits are almost always polite and very friendly (the one regualr who worked for NASA being an exception) and we all dote on them, while the younger ones I've encountered have invariably been rude and insulting. Did chivalry die about 35 years ago or something? Or perhaps the older expats may simply have been here longer and had more time to adapt?

Southern sweet tea is WTF (Way Too Frickin') sweet, and I like to think that I have a major sweet tooth. I just don't want it falling out into the glass on the first sip. Given a choice between "sweet or unsweet", as they invariably refer to them, I go with the latter and add my own sugar.

Half an aisle is a little excessive, but most stores I've shopped in devote at least a whole shelving section (top to bottom) to tea, and have a decent selection of black, green, and various fruity/herbal types. White teas and "red teas" (rooibos, which I honestly think tastes just like medicine -- igg) are becoming popular. Chai has been around for quite a while; even Starbucks sells it -- they aren't coffee purists. Honeybush tea is damn tasty. Oolong is okay, at least if you add enough sugar.

Estuary speaking London lad gets up in the morning, puts his trousers on and only then has a cup of tea........he needs to realign his priorities...nah - yuv go' yer owdah all wrong, mite......it's tea wot comes first, innit.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyyApnI6PrA

Rene....you may be on to something here....at least according to the older generation of Brits...they ("they" being mostly people over the age of 50 or 60 or so, and probably everyone ove the age of 70 in the UK) say that there really has been a decline in what they define as "good manners, universal politeness and respect generally" in Britain, probably among among people below any of those ages, and expecially those under the age of 30, and, with added emphasis, most certainly those under the age of 20.

They may well be right.....I have just turned 28 so I am hardly in receipt of my pension, nor a nationwide pass for free bus travel, nor do I have a discount card for all rail travel, and I don't get a whacking great sum of money from the Government each November to help pay for winter heating bills or supplements topping up a state pension, free eye tests and everything else which seems to bolster and brighten up the lives of all the wrinklies of this Sceptered Isle....at the grand old age of 28 I have to fork out with my own hard earned cash to pay for everything I need in order to survive, and will probaby have to wait another 40 years or so before I get all these joyful goodies from Her Majesty's Government of the day.

It's only because I automatically have deducted from my monthly salary what we call National Insurance Contributions that I do not have to worry about colossal bills and incomprehensible health insurance quagmires whenever I receive any kind of medical treatment in any health care establishment in this country, and I have only had to do this once so far, when I sustained minor injuries playing rugby at school....I went into hospital, got sorted out, had a good laugh with the nurses, the nosh was really good and then I was discharged...no problems....straight back onto the rugby field again.

What the older folks don't realise is that the pressures on younger people now are much greater than when they were our age, but of course that is no excuse for being rude or ill mannered or disrespectful. In my opinion there is a generation of younger people in the UK who may well lack respect, may well appear to display these negative traits both you and I mention, but I reckon we can attribute much of all this to the policies of the current Labour Government, which has now been in office for thirteen years...and hopefully for not any longer come 06 May.

I had to chuckle on one occasion when I was waiting to be served in a store in Sutton, in South London. In front of me was this elderly gentleman of about 70, looking every bit the respectable epiyome of dignified gentility, and he was being served by this lad of about 18 to 20, complete with spiky gelled hair and rings through his ear lobes and speaking in pure 100% carat gold Estuary....looking every bit the cheeky, cheerful chappie....but one which addressed this old man as "mate"....as in "stick yer card in there mate" as he shoved the credit card machine towards him.

The old geezer took exception to this but speaking in slow and measured, somewhat "posh" tones he said: "Mate? Do I know you? I don't think I do so what right do you have to address me in that manner?" With that the old boy put his card back into his wallet, handed his intended purchases back to the lad and walked out of the store.

You must remember, Rene, that the level of customer service and general attitude of politeness and willingness to be of absolute service here in the UK generally (but by no means always, just to be fair) does tend, according to both Brits living in the USA and Americans living over here or just visiting us) to fall quite a way short of that demonstrated in the United States of America. There could be several reasons why that is the case, but there's no getting away from the fact that overall customer service in the USA is superior to that of the UK and most probably the rest of Europe as well. One day I hope to find that out for myself.

epitome

>>With that the old boy put his card back into his wallet, handed his intended purchases back to the lad and walked out of the store>>

That old fellow merely shot himself in the foot by depriving himself of his shopping (and wasting his own time and the time of those queuing behind him) while also being humourless and graceless. He could have smiled, replied mildly, "And when is our ship sailing out, mate?" - and then completed the sales transaction. But no, he had to turn on his heel like the most stereotypical curmudgeon.

No no, for all his advanced years and supposed wisdom, he had no concept of how to defuse or finesse such a situation.

I realise that clever ripostes are most often conceived too late and after the fact, as the ideal thing one should have said ; but really, this old fellow was hardly a paragon of civility, Christian charity and Old Decency, was he?

That young clerk was just being friendly and doing his job promptly. Why, the poor lad may have been quite busy working, and so uttered "mate" --the customary word of his manor-- before looking closely at the gentleman to determine his age. I mean, blimey !- Being too young to have experienced the Blitz is not a crime.

And please, Damian, don't set yourself up for an awful shock, prior to visiting the States, by letting yourself believe that the American service industry shines all sweetness and light. It varies considerably and dramatically. A few generalisations can certainly be made [Seattle and Detroit : rude clerks - Louisville and Terre Haute : pleasant clerks] - but only a select few rules of thumb can be countenanced !!!

The best rule of all applies universally : Do No Harm.

Perhaps that is why the older Brits love us so much. At least where I work it's all "yes, sir" "no sir" "thank you sir" and greetings by Mr. __. Somehow, we've all been trained to forget the word dude even exists in our lexicon if we're around anyone over fifty. This, naturally, does not always have the best results. I was once told in very strong words (by an American btw), "Sir? When did I get knighted? How did I miss that? If you want to adress me, call me John!"

My response was, "Alright John. Now, what do you think of all this rain we've been having?" He simmered down after that.

I think I may buy a box of PG Tips today.

I always thought it was funny when my new 8th grade teacher, who was from the South (although it's been so long I forget which part,) commented on how we Maine folk sounded to her like we were from England. She also bemoaned the fact that we spoke so fast, which is funny, because a lot of the old-timers around here have their own drawl at times, depending on what they are talking about. The rest of us though, well between TV and so many people from away moving in, the old Yankee dialect is slowly flattening and dying out.

On another note, my best school friend's mother was from Kentucky, but by the time I knew her, her accent had become a curious mix of the South and Downeast Maine. Very interesting to hear. :^)

<< Right then...let us banish all traces of anything remotely boring and mundane and confine our Antimoon chats solely to topics such as the use of the gerund, the conjugation of verbs and variations in spelling and pronunciation among speakers of the English language resident in Kirkintilloch (East Dunbartonshire, Scotland); Woking (Surrey, England); Llanfairfechan (Conwy, Wales); Hicksville (Tennessee, USA) and Wagga Wagga (South Australia) and anywhere in between in the great big ESW.>>

Wagga Wagga is in NSW, not South Australia

I think it is necessary because everyone wants to identify it carefully!






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