Irish people with fake American accents

Actually I have met one or more in my time working. I work with ppl from US from time to time, so when hearing one particular girls accent I proceeded to ask the usual..so from where in US you from? Answer: I'm sorry what, I'm from Dublin. She had been to USA maybe once on holiday. I think its basically combination of things, usually sign of weak personality and also perhaps an inferiority complex...i.e I will assume a Bi-polar personality. (by the way she was a nice person and no issue there)Hey that's just my 5 cents (Euro cents!) don't shoot me down buddy, what do I know.

Maximus
Because Im worth it
 
I blame Disney. There are 8 year olds in his country that sound like high school musical.
 
what about all the damn adverts with fake american accents - sorry, your product is no more appealing cos of that
 
Try getting the Luas to Dundrum - really grates on the ears after a few minutes!
 
It works in reverse as well. I worked with an American from the mid-west who was on assignment in Ireland for a few years.

He delighted in starting conversations with "Hey lads" and enjoyed liberally using the f-word as an adjective. We used to joke that he would need to go to "Culture Awareness" training before he could return to the States.
 
Dundrum on a saturday could create a falling down moment a la Michael Douglas, the american sounding, make up plastered, fuzzy haired ugg wearing tweenies are everywhere.
 
I was there last Saturday and two very early teenage girls in Penney's were greeting each other with the usual shrieks of joy, arms thrown around each other and 'oh my Gawds' being shouted all over the shop. You'd swear they were long lost twins separated at birth. In fact, they were probably in the same class in school and hadn't seen each other since the previous afternoon. When did teenagers start all this hysterical over the top stuff?
 
Maximus152 said:
I think its basically combination of things, usually sign of weak personality and also perhaps an inferiority complex...i.e I will assume a Bi-polar personality.
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Actually the ability to take on accents willfully or unwillingly is a sign that you are musical, all to do with the ear.

But I think this thread is discussing something different than accents; the Jedward, Dundrum girls (with ugg boots and back combed bed hair), south county dublin "Like"s and then the cork "Like" is nothing to do with the american accent. For years people have been using the word "like" in Ireland - if it ever had a tenous link to the american accent I think its long gone and very much established as Irish. Whether we Like it or not, Like.

cas (who lives in Switzerland but is actually from south county Dublin....like)
 

I don't understand how people pick up accents - do they consciously decide to speak differently?

My sister has lived in the US since she was 19 (20 years now). Other than short stints abroad of a few months at a time I've always lived in Dublin.

My mother & sister's husband can't tell us apart on the phone as our diction, accent, intonation etc are still identical.
 

How did you pick up an American accent then?!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I don't really pick up an accent but if i spend even a small amount of time in someone's company i pick up alot of their mannerisms, gestures and phrases without meaning to. Are we all just sponges with different levels of absorbancy!!?
 
I used to love the Australian accent, I thought it was so strange sounding! If I'd stayed on to live there I definitely would have picked it up partly anyway. I think the inflective question at the end of every sentence has been kind of adopted by people who feel more comfortable with asking a question than they do with making a statement. But it's really silly when they start actually putting question marks at the end of their sentences in emails?
 
The opposite annoys me as well - people who mutter at foreigners in heavy Cork accents and then complain about them not understanding plain English . . . ...

Ciaraella said:
I don't really pick up an accent but if i spend even a small amount of time in someone's company i pick up alot of their mannerisms, gestures and phrases without meaning to. Are we all just sponges with different levels of absorbancy!!?
Click to expand...

Ciarella, I'm definitely a bit of a sponge as well and I would pick up accents etc quite easily. I think it's something to do with wanting to communicate as well, when I am trying to make myself understood I am more likely to mimic the other person's accent rather than jabber at them and then they have to say 'what?' all the time.
 
Slightly off topic but what I find hillarious is when someone Irish is speaking to someone from say France, and, if the French person has minimal English, the Irish person puts a French accent on their broken English as if this makes it easier for the French person to understand.
 

it's one of the muppetisms, like some people do when they meet someone who doesn't speak their language - they start speaking reeeeeeaaaaallllllyyyyyyyy ssssllllloooooowwwww and believe the other side will eventually understand ..
that said, there are people who do this to foreigners no matter how fluent their English is - I totally hate it when they talk to me like I'm slightly on the mentally handicapped side the moment they find out I'm not a native speaker ...
 

And raise the volume slightly as well without actually slowing down!
 
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