Can British people pretend to speak like Americans?
<<Actually there is a Beer that you have in the US called "Sierra Nevada pale ale”, it is hard to find here, but I was shocked – it is really lovely stuff and shows that the yanks do know what they are doing!! That Budweiser gear gives your brewers a bad name though!!! >>
I used to live in Chico, California, where the Sierra Nevada brewery is located. Still don't like the stuff. But in the US, if that's the stuff you like, you need to be drinking microbrewery beer instead of the mass-produced stuff. You'll probably find lots and lots of American beers that you like if you try the smaller specialty* labels.
(That's "specialty", not "speciality" ... and it really is pronounced "special T".)
<<Everyone puts Lime in Corona – why?? My sister’s other half loves Corona (but then he also likes Budweiser (US version)) and spends half our drinking time chopping up the bloody things. I suppose there is a reason, but to me it’s Lager and putting a slice of fruit in it is just not cricket!!!>>
Why salt the rim of a margarita? Because it's a Mexican thing, and it must be done. As a limey, you should be all over it! ;)
<<I will mention a pub in Warwickshire which is called the Ablative Absolute. I wonder who devised that one - obviously a grammarian! >>
Or a total bastard who just wanted to hear drunk people try to SAY that....
<<A pint with lunch! That would be frowned on in the US. Pretty much any drinking before 5:00 pm would be.>>
But you're still not a drunk unless you're drinking before noon! I don't know what you do for a living, but once upon a time I used to work nights at a liquor store. However, I was once farmed out to another branch in the not-so-lovely part of town during the day shift, and I was amazed at how many people were lined up at the door by 8 a.m.! (I was also amazed to find that ladies with no teeth will still wear lipstick. As if we are meant to believe that they are deeply concerned about their appearance at that point....or perhaps they were just dropping in for a forty after a hard night's work....)
<<Going out drinking in the US did seem more geared to getting a 'shag', where as like you say the pub's here can be a family affair, but that was probably due to the places I went to (in the hope of getting a shag!!!). >>
It's good that you were attempting to get into the culture. ;P
<<Isn't America the home of top rate customer service? A British accent has no effect here at all.>>
It's not the accent, Damian; I wouldn't be able to fake that.
It's the intonation (rising, then falling) and the tone of voice (hushed, Oxonian tones).
The effect is that I come across as very nice, very polite. I've had several people tell me that to my face. :-)
I bet it would work in the UK just fine. :-)
Jasper:
I know what you're saying....more the tone of voice rather than accent.
Hushed Oxonian tones.....hmmm.....I don't know whether to be impressed or intimidated!
Oxon.......from the Latin name Oxonia....Oxon is an abbreviation for the county of Oxfordshire. Oxonian = of Oxford uni. Did you get to Oxford city? The classical uni city of "dreaming spires".......if you see the city skyline from a distance or from the top of the nearby Berkshire Downs (a southern English name for a range of hills) you will see why it's called that.
If you ever watched Inspector Morse on TV (I reckon you didn't get to see it over there?) - with Insp. Morse played by the late John Thaw - all the action took place in and around Oxford, so you got to see views of the beautiful college buidlings and the streets with all the buildings made of the honey coloured Cotswold stone. His sidekick Lewis was played by Kevin Whately. With more than just one murder taking place in practically every episode it seemed that the placid real life city of Oxford had the world's most horrendous homicide rate, a bit like the even more placid fictional wee English village of Midsomer with a weekly murder rate even more colossal. :-) All in the name of entertainment. Sometimes it was even the harmless looking vicar "what done it" or the sour faced old maid down at the Manor House with one mighty big grudge against Her Ladyship and her associates at the local WI. (ie Woman's Institute).
The cousin I mentioned previously, married an English girl from Wallingford a wee while back, just south of Oxford, and the wedding reception was at an hotel restaurant literally on the banks of the River Thames...or the Isis, as the Thames is called at Oxford for some reason lost in the mists of time. It's the Oxfordshire local name for the Thames, but to most people Isis was an ancient fertility goddess! I fail to see any connection with the English university city of Oxford, unless it's some kind of connection between uni students and fertility.
I'm flying off to Prague from Heathrow on Saturday, staying there for ten days, along with three mates from London. I've been there once before and it's great and there's no need to learn any words of Czech - practically all our Czech contemporaries speak English, some almost faultlessly, and it's generally older people (say over 50 or so I would guess) who have little or no English.
I go back home to Edinburgh permanently on 12 October. Mixed feelings....
take this song as an example,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLLb7SKuWIE
the singer is trying to sound American, but her British pronunciation is too obvious, so the effect is quite funny
her ''to'' /tu/ is too fronted/diphthongized even for a Valley girl
I guess no American would mistake her for an American
<<Hushed Oxonian tones.....hmmm.....I don't know whether to be impressed or intimidated! >>
Nah, anybody can do it. You want to speak in a tone just loud enough to be heard.
Exellent example: In the movie Titanic, there's a scene when the three genteel ladies at lunch are joined by Molly Brown. "Oh, here comes that vulgar Brown woman."
The tone of voice these women are using at the table is exactly correct--hushed Oxonian tones. :-)
<<One thing to note: a whole lot of Americans have Red Indian blood. The Red Indians have no tolerance whatsoever to alcohol, lacking an enzyme that breaks down the alcohol.>>
Nice try Jasper, there's no shame in being a lightweight matey!!! No no, that is an interesting comment you made regarding "Indian blood", I have never heard about that before - fascinating stuff.
I'll be honest if you are 'snockerd' (great new word!!) after your 2nd pint and then tried to use that as an excuse, they may have a hard time believing you - I believe you though Jasper!! In-fact I might use that one!!
To be honest Jasper there is no drink 'socially acceptable' as such, although if a bloke ordered a 'girly drink' such as a "Tia Maria" or a "Malibu and coke" a few eyebrows may be raised - but that would only depend on the place you go to. Don't worry about etiquette, just come on in, order whatever you fancy, chat to the locals, relax and enjoy - you'll be fine.
<<Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is close to English beer? I'll have to try it. >>
It is a small world Jasper!! The Sierra Nevada pale ale is definitely the 'American' beer that I have tasted that is closest to what the English (British??) traditionally would drink. It is not quite the same though; American hops are different to ours, as is the water used, so it is still fairly different. But it's nice, I have only tried it bottled so I'd love to have a pint on draught (pale ale unlike lager, is much nicer on draught - apparently).
Actually, what Americans call 'pale ale' the British would call "bitter", it is the English's contribution to the world of Beer and some of the brewers here really are the absolute masters. Depending on what bitter you choose, it is really lovely stuff and I'd recommend any tourist visiting a pub to try one (seeing as it needs to be served only slightly cool as opposed to cold (to do with flavour) I don't think Americans would take to it, don't you lot like beer ice cold???).
I just saw Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in my local grocery store for $10.00 a six pack. An Englishman would be jumping with joy I think.
Rene:
$10 for 6?? Blimey that's a mere fiver!!! Hmmnnn that would cost about double that over here - we Britons get ripped off!!!
Jasper - I believe you mate!!!!!!
Pub Lunch, one has to remember we Americans get paid a lot less, too.
Our minimum wage is a little over $6 per hour, which translates to about £3.
The average person makes about $26k per year, which translates to about £13 thousand per year.
Pub, this is the primary reason most of us can't afford to visit the UK. :-(
That income is with tax or without tax cut??
True, Indians are known for their high rates of alcoholism and that missing enzyme, but if you ain't near pure, I don't think you can use that as an excuse. ;) There isn't a drop of Indian blood in me, and I'm a lightweight, too!
<<Exellent example: In the movie Titanic, there's a scene when the three genteel ladies at lunch are joined by Molly Brown. "Oh, here comes that vulgar Brown woman.">>
Hehehe -- ah, the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown. At the end of the movie she was vulgar and ALIVE, and many of her more genteel shipmates were not.....
And as for being vulgar, well, she was born to poor Irish immigrants, married a miner who happened to invent a mining process that made him rich, ran a soup kitchen, was a philanthropist, and was involved in the women's suffrage movement. What did her well-spoken "genteel" shipmates accomplish in life besides the ability to murmur in "hushed, Oxonian" tones?
<<That income is with tax or without tax cut??>>
That's before income taxes are removed.
<<Our minimum wage is a little over $6 per hour, which translates to about £3. The average person makes about $26k per year, which translates to about £13 thousand per year.>>
$26k sounds like the median income. The mean (avg) income hovers around $35k.
The US federal minimum wage since 7/07 is $6.15 an hour. However, almost every state has its own minimum wage rate, with Washington being the highest at $7.93 and Kansas the lowest at $2.65 (for jobs not covered by the Federal Fair Labor Standard Act). California's minimum wage will increase from $7.50 to $8.00 in January 2008, but San Francisco will go even higher at $9.14.