ha, I can't imagine not being able to recognise an Australian accent, unless it was a really mild one!
It's not something I'm proud of, but it is unfortunately true. If you get a bunch of people with different accents talking together, I can tell that they're different, and usually even tell which is which ("aha, that's Scottish, and that's English, and that's Australian"), but when it's just one person speaking alone I can really embarrass myself. I mean, I know it's not, say, a French accent, but the list of possible countries of origin that goes through my head is sadly pretty large.
Maybe I don't get to hear enough different accents, or maybe I'm just very bad at it? I don't know. Canadians sound just like Americans to me, except for very occasionally when there's a broad "ou" sound, or they say "eh" (that one's a dead giveaway). But I once knew someone for a year and a half before I found out she was Canadian. Of course, she was living in the U.S., so that may have had something to do with how she spoke?
I haven't seen Victoria Wood or Coronation Street, but they might get shown here somewhere. It used to be that British shows were always on PBS, but now you have to hunt around for them. Doctor Who and Top Gear are on BBC America. Merlin is on SyFy. And I just stumbled across Moffat's Sherlock on PBS. I think Downton Abbey might also be on PBS, but I'm not sure. That's one I'd like to try out, assuming I can ever find it.
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-24 10:59 pm (UTC)It's not something I'm proud of, but it is unfortunately true. If you get a bunch of people with different accents talking together, I can tell that they're different, and usually even tell which is which ("aha, that's Scottish, and that's English, and that's Australian"), but when it's just one person speaking alone I can really embarrass myself. I mean, I know it's not, say, a French accent, but the list of possible countries of origin that goes through my head is sadly pretty large.
Maybe I don't get to hear enough different accents, or maybe I'm just very bad at it? I don't know. Canadians sound just like Americans to me, except for very occasionally when there's a broad "ou" sound, or they say "eh" (that one's a dead giveaway). But I once knew someone for a year and a half before I found out she was Canadian. Of course, she was living in the U.S., so that may have had something to do with how she spoke?
I haven't seen Victoria Wood or Coronation Street, but they might get shown here somewhere. It used to be that British shows were always on PBS, but now you have to hunt around for them. Doctor Who and Top Gear are on BBC America. Merlin is on SyFy. And I just stumbled across Moffat's Sherlock on PBS. I think Downton Abbey might also be on PBS, but I'm not sure. That's one I'd like to try out, assuming I can ever find it.