Aquiring an accent...?

KnifeAddictAK

KnifeAddictAK

Joined
Nov 17, 2003
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Okay. I'm being serious here. Is it possible to aquire, say, a German accent without spending 2+ years in Germany? Reason being, I just watched the Rammstein DVD and thought it would be interesting to pick up an accent. What about scottish as well?

Also, please feel free to describe the process of the brain in which it aquires the accent, etc... I'm weird, but hey... Chicks dig accents ;) :D
 
It's really not hard, but I guess you have to have a nack for it.
(unlike that guy ?????? (also in Bull Duram, Waterworld, Postman, etc) in Robin Hood)
Watch lots of movies of said type and listen very carefully,
and then try it yourself.
good luck.
 
give me 5min of talking to someone and I'll pick up the accent... immerse me in it for a day, and I'll be using the accent like a native speaker...

give me a month in the culture and I should be able to communicate with the native tongue...

gift or curse, you decide.
 
You have to interact with a native speaker, to perfect an accent otherwise you'll sound like a dick. It's not just the way you pronounce the words but your use of grammar.

You can't help laughing at the Hollywood movies where every single European accent, be it Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Polish or Dutch always sounds like ze German accent from WW2 movies. :D

It's also easy to hear Europeans faking an American accent because they normally can't pronounce the z in president etc.
 
Some accents are harder to pick up than others.

An American trying to pick up a South African, Australian or New Zealand accent is just probably not going to happen but the other way round seems easier for some reason.
 
BOK said:
Some accents are harder to pick up than others.

An American trying to pick up a South African, Australian or New Zealand accent is just probably not going to happen but the other way round seems easier for some reason.
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LOL, Remember Lethal Weapon II? Never ever heard a dutchman speak like that, have you?
 
I only vaguely remember that movie. I'll have to check it out again just to see how badly they botched that accent :)
 
Nordic Viking said:
It's also easy to hear Europeans faking an American accent because they normally can't pronounce the z in president etc.
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With regard to Italian, the sticking points are usually the "r" and the "l". There is a significant difference physically, between English and Italian, in how those sounds are formed. Typically, an Italian has a hard time with the "r" and "l" sounds in English (especially American English), and English speakers conversely have a hard time with Italian words containing those letters.
 
KnifeAddictAK said:
Okay. I'm being serious here. Is it possible to aquire, say, a German accent without spending 2+ years in Germany? Reason being, I just watched the Rammstein DVD and thought it would be interesting to pick up an accent. What about scottish as well?

Also, please feel free to describe the process of the brain in which it aquires the accent, etc... I'm weird, but hey... Chicks dig accents ;) :D
Click to expand...
German is tough, Irish or Scottish...not so hard. Southern accent possibly? Just say caint, aint, paint over and over again. :D
 
BOK said:
Some accents are harder to pick up than others.

An American trying to pick up a South African, Australian or New Zealand accent is just probably not going to happen but the other way round seems easier for some reason.
Click to expand...

Here in New Zealand the accent is only half the battle as we commonly speak english mixed with quite a few Maori words thrown in.
We don't use Maori words when we speak to foreigners, but to one another and on TV you'll hear this English/Maori.(both being official languages here)
 
If I watch enough British TV and movies (Monty Python, Guy Ritchie movies) in a short amount of time, I'll actually start picking up an accent. A bad one, but I can't help but doing it without thinking about it. I'd imagine that if I went there, I'd automatically start doing it full time. Of course, I'd probably still look like Yank wanker trying to appear English.

Oddly, even through 4 years of German in college, I never picked up any sort of accent.
 
Most people learn their phonics well before their teens, and it is very hard to relearn those intonations as an adult. If you pay attention to diplomats, you will frequently see people who have mastered a very strong grasp of a non-native language, but they can seldom sound like a true native speaker. That is probably as far as most people can go.

n2s
 
It's easy -- go to another country, and you'll have an American accent. If you pick an English-speaking country you won't even have to learn a new language. :cool:
 
Hehe- may be due to listening to Sid Ceasar as a kid, but I can do pretty good ersatz German, French, russian, Japanese.... Ceasar said he would get letters from foriegn language speakers who swore they could understand him!

Ever listen to Prairie Home Companion? Garrison Kiellor always has funny ads for various things like the "Ketchup Board." One is for the Minnesota language institute, where you can learn foriegn accents. "Why spend years learning a foriegn language when you can sound like you do in only a few minutes?"
 
speaking for myself, and my mixed heritage, I easily start picking up accents. My friends get a kick out of it. When I talk to a spanish speaker I develop a spanish accent, when I talk to a good ol' boy I have a country accent. its not something done consciously , it just happens. Course, it might help that I've got family both one generation out of Peru and 6 generations in Alabama...

so yeah, I'd say its real possible to develop an accent- especially if you immerse yourself in the language or surround yourself with people speaking that language.
 
Planterz said:
Oddly, even through 4 years of German in college, I never picked up any sort of accent.
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My guess would be that your teacher was not a native German speaker. He/she probably spoke German with an American accent, so it would have been hard for you to acquire a correct German accent.
 
Everytime I watch Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and the movie Snatch, I always pick up that Cockney accent, have no idea what I'm saying!
 
silenthunterstudios said:
Everytime I watch Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and the movie Snatch, I always pick up that Cockney accent, have no idea what I'm saying!
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iwantakervan firmema :)
 
Nordic Viking said:
iwantakervan firmema :)
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I thought Snatch and Fight Club, well, Seven too, were his only good movies. Maybe Legends of the Fall thrown in for good measure.

WhathelldIwntwth acarvn wthnwheelsfr?
 
I had a girlfriend who grew up near Oxford (England) and had that accent- she then moved to East London (Walthamstow) and picked up the accent a bit. her parents were living here in the states (where she & I met) & she could do a dead-on American accent (her sister's was better). She then moved to Auckland, NZ & picked up some vocal intonations from her year there. When she returned to London, nobody could tell WHERE she was from.
When I was living in Germany, I spent my 1st 3 years in Heidelberg & picked up the local dialect (Badisch/Paeltzisch). When I was living in Berlin, I tended bar briefly & a customer asked me if I was from the "South". Being a proud Virginian, I said "yes, indeed I am, thank you very much" & he was referring to my Southern German accent. Imagine a German learning his English in the southern US- you're bound to pick up some tonal inflections.
That being said, I've heard a zillion faked accents (people recently returning from week's vacation abroad for example) and yes, they can make you sound like a dick. Funny how those who sound like dicks, are already dicks. Working in an Irish Pub, you get the occasional jerkass who after a few pints thinks he's from the 'Auld Sod' & tries his B.S. Brogue on women. I love watching them Crash & Burn. :p
 
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