A thread devoted to the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland).
Americans have long since forgiven them for trying to stop our Revolution. Now we think they’re flamablamablous. We devour their books, and we like their accents almost as much as Australian ones. Here’s a place to talk about them.
(Requested by The Man for Aeiou.)
I Like BBC T.V. (Doctor Who, old BBC Sitcoms.)
Yay! A new thread! Well, I love the Wales landscape, it’s perfectly beautiful! I’ve been to England a few times, I actually lived there for a short time when I was little (hence my midwestern/English accent!). I can do a pretty good imitation of the accent…
Well, about that “Orange” conversation…
I’m probably the only person in my family who can watch Monty Python’s Flying Circus and cry with laughter. A lot of great shows are imports from Britain, actually.
I haven’t been to the UK yet, sadly…but my mom brought me back tea from Harrod’s in London! lol
I’d like to go to the Lake District of England…my mom went there (she’s well traveled while I am not) and said it was the most beautiful place she’s ever been to.
As for accents, I admit I’m very silly and think that a good accent makes anyone more charming…haha
I would love to go to Ireland (and Northern Ireland, too), England Scotland and Wales. To listen to music.
I can do a rather freakishly good imitation of an English accent, due to my watching too many movies from A&E and the BBC. At least, it’s a bit more believable than most of my friend’s, although I’ve never demonstrated my talent to a friend who is actually a Brit.
Not to brag, or anything……….
3~ what sort of accent?
I once was talking to a group of people from the Midwest, and I finally had to ask them :Are you from Wisconsin?” They looked at me in surprise, and admitted that they were, asking how I knew. I replied that my mother was from there, and I visited the area regularly enough to acquire the accent myself when there, so I recognized it immediately.
To which they said, “Huh, well I didn’t tink I had an accent, it’s just you and your crazy Virginia accent, I talk normally!” (I was at Jamestown at the time.)
Laughing, I told them that I was from Maryland. Another visitor passing by remarked, “Really? You don’t sound like Maryland to me!”
I’m quite confused as to what I sound like to others, probably a slight mix of midwestern and Maryland. I also talk fairly quickly, which is unusual for this area.
5) Well I suppose I mean it can add real character to a person…usually, though, I mean “foreign” accents, not just regional US. But that’s interesting what you said about how your accent is perceived. I always wonder if I have some sort of California accent, and then I realized that I do slur a lot of syllables at times, and my words kind run together. that and I say dude a lot when I get excited haha
How interesting is all is! You’re right when you say everyone thinks they talk normally. It’s a shame we’ll never really know what we sound like to other people!
I think this is becoming an accent thread…
I talk really fast and quiet and use weird similies a lot. I don’t know if that defines my region.
A girl from my school is going on the People to People trip to Great Britain. I didn’t really want to go even though I could have.
7 – I wanted to go to that trip sooooooooo badly.
I want to go to Britain sooo bad!
My accent is a blend of everything(at least I think), because I ‘ve lived all over the U.S. & and in Germany. Go Britian!
((( There should be an accent thread)))
I’ve BEEN to London! It was right after the Halloween issue (the one about the Tower of London) arrived. I was amazed at the coincidence and NEARLY took it, but I may have left it, so I didn’t.
At least I had background info before I went.
I remember walking across Abbey Road. I’m just walking and I cross a road, and my mom’s like, “Archana! This is where The Beatles took a picture for their cd!” I looked at her oddly and kept walking
Anyway, I can do a pretty mean Australian accent too. My sisters and I like to use a different accent every time we talk, in a day. Today it’s been English, a weird kinda southern Indian, Irish, Jamaican, and Texan. I’m thinking next I’m gonna do maybe a strong Northern accent of some kind.
6~ Yes, I often wonder what I sound like to others, I hate the way I sound on recordings (to me my voice always sounds very nasal, high and thin, and loud), yet people still tell me that I have a “beautiful voice” and that my singing is “like an angel.” I enjoy singing, so I’m glad they’re of that opinion, although I disagree. Ah well.
I’ve never been out of the US, but I really wish I could go to Europe. *sigh* If I went to the UK and Ireland I’d be going out of my mind listening to as much music as I could possibly stand, and enjoying the oldness of the buildings and such.
It was such a culture shock when I went to Seattle and took the Seattle underground tour, the one that tells the history of the town. I enjoyed it, but what shocked me was how old the locals though it was, and it was only hundred and some years ago! I was thinking then about how I feel about colonial Williamsburg, Ft. Fredrick and Jamestown, which only goes back to 400 years, and thought about the Brits that come over and have remarked to me at Jamestown how “modern” this all is in their idea of history.
I think it was about then that I started really thinking about time, if these Brits were accustomed to seeing buildings, landmarks, etc. of many hundreds of years, and even more, that’s amazing, but then to think how modern all that is, it pretty much blew me out of the water.
Of course by then I had to run after my tour so as not to get lost in the tunnels…..ah well.
You know, I can sometimes really sympathize with Arthur Dent. Although I’m not quite as obsessed with tea.
I don’t think I have any particular strong accent. I mean, I know I have an American one (
) but I don’t know which kind. It’s a mystery. I’ve lived in three states here, Minnesota the longest, but I never quite picked up on the accent. I do say ‘like’ quite a bit, but I’m trying to kick the habit. 
oy loik tolkieg wit a bri’ish accent. i’s fahn. i dont think oy really ave an accent. thou i ave lived in minesota seince aye was two
6–is there such thing as a California accent? I’ve always had the impression that California was the only place WITHOUT an accent, and everyone else was weird
My English friend thinks that he’s normal and Americans are the ones with an accent. He holds that we are odd because we pronounce our r’s. Although he adds r’s in the wierdest places, like in the middle of saw –he says “I just sawr it!” No idea why. When I pointed out that there is no r in saw, he said “it’s silent!” and would not be swayed.
I love words from Europe (and Australia) that no one uses in the US. I told my friend to put her gear in the “boot” and she gave me a strange look until I revised it to “trunk”. I also say loads instead of a lot.
Anyone else with European words?
15 – Yeah, like, there totally is one, like, dude!
*ahem* Sorry. That was kinda Valley Girl, but, yes, California has an accent.
14 – *ahem* That’s Scottish, m’dear. And I think you do have some sort of accent. But, I must admit, I’m surprised you don’t have an MN accent, perhaps you have a Michigan accent?
15 – Yeah, there are loads of peculiar words I use but that nobody else uses, but I don’t know if they’re British. I do use ‘snogging’ sometimes, though.
12) That’s really true! I mean, I know around here if we say a building is two hundred years old everyone’s like “Oooh~”. In SoCal at least, the oldest things around are the missions (1760s), except for the Indian reservations but that’s a whole other story…Anyway, difference like that, just between two sides of the country, are fascinating.
And that’s so funny about the British who saw Jamestown…I always wondered what they must think! Didn’t the Queen tour it a few years ago?
15) heh, I think it’s mostly talking too fast and saying “like” way too much…at least up until a certain age. Of course, I think it sounds normal, yallz just crazy
Steering my comment back towards Britain, for those of you who have gone to the UK/Europe, what were some of your favorite places? Or great things you saw? I feel like looking at the pictures from when my mom and brother went…ooh I want to travel so muchhhh
I think Cinnamoon is British, but I’m not too sure. Oo, I love Monty Python! Oh, you can find out what Paul looks like by looking in the November issue of Muse in the mirror maze in the article about that “garden of surprises.” He’s the guy in the black jacket with the camera and a beard. He’s also kinda
fatbig boned.17 – 200 years old? Pssh. You should go to London. The buildings there date back to 1011.
A British friend of mine couldn’t understand why I was so excited about seeing Roman ruins. Then she said, “Oh, that’s right — you don’t have them, do you?” (I said no, the Caesars never conquered North America.) Europeans take such things for granted.
19- Sorry for being off topic, but did you berlin is only 300 years old? It’s the youngest capital in Europe.
20 – Haha. We also take things for granted, like… like… Well, I can’t think of anything at the moment.
21 – Really? Weird.
(22) Well, a written Constitution, for one thing. Britain doesn’t have one.
22- I learned it from my lovely Grandma. She has cookies in a Brandenbourgh gate box!
23 – Oh, right. I forgot about that.
24 – A what gate box?
25- The BrandenBourgh Gate. It was put up by those STUPID COMMUNISTS to keep the Americans out of their territory, namely Berlin. JFK and Ronald Reagon made speeches when they were presidents. Obama wanted to make a speech there, but the Germans refused he was’nt even PRESIDENT. It has an angel or a god on top of it. Look it up if you aren’t satisfied. It’s a box of cookies with the Brandenborough Gate painted on it. Further explanation, GAPAs?
16- Most of us slur a lot. And we overpronounce our R’s. Actually, we make fun of valley girls as much as you other people do. I don’t even surf and I have never worn a swimsuit without a swimshirt on top. I have the most white, sensitive shoulders you have ever seen. I get freckles, not a tan. Anyway, I’m listening to Spamalot. My surname’s family comes from Wales, I do beleive. But a lot of my ancestors are German. Yay for Northern Europe!
26 – Oh, okay.
(26) Zinc — The Brandenburg Gate (that’s how it’s spelled) was built in the 1790s. When what was then communist-controlled East Germany built the Berlin Wall around West Berlin in 1961, part of the wall ran near the Gate. The winged woman on top is Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, driving a chariot drawn by four horses.
29- Whoops.
Anyway, I got that information about a month ago.
I am shocked, simply shocked! No one has mentioned Britain’s most-flamablamablous contribution of all to world culture. Afternoon tea! OK, so it might not be the most-flamablamablous, but it’s up there.
One version of heaven for me is afternoon tea at a fancy London hotel, nibbling delicious sandwiches, scones and cakes, sipping tea and listening to harp music.
Another really good thing about England is its people’s fine sense of humor. Yay for Monty Python, P.G. Wodehouse and Jane Austen, to mention just a few standouts.
16–Ooh! Forgot about snogging. I like that word just because it sounds funny, let alone because of its meaning.
31–My English friend told me that instead of milk and cookies, kindergarteners are served tea and muffins (the real kind, not the american version) for snack.
31- Isn’t that want H&H is for?
I say snogging instead of kissing, and sometimes, tonsil hockey! That’s what Harry Potter does to you. But I agree; snogging sounds much better than kissing!
34–Tonsil hockey! I love it!
17~ Yes, the Queen was there in May of this year, most recently. The other time she went was 50 ears ago.
31~ JANE AUSTEN!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, and it seems that all my favorite actors are British. Hmmmm, yes.
34~ Snogging, what a lovely word. It cracks me up every time I hear or read it.
Tonsil hockey?? I like it!!
18- How dare you insult Master Baker.
31- w00t for w0dehouse! And Douglas Adams, obviously.
By the way, to wherever has Paul Baker gone off? Is he too busy with Diabolus in Musica? I miss him terribly.
18- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
do not insult his GAPAness PB&J!!!!!
37- I want him to change his band’s name to Museica.
PB&J > everyone
verily.
Another place I’d really like to go is Edinburgh. I watch the Travel Channel a lot since I never go anywhere, and that’s one of the places I really liked.
I looked at high school abroad programs..soo expensive. not like I could ever do them anyway.
My accent is pretty odd. If anyone has seen The Illusionist or a Jane Austen movie they know what I mean. Kinda like Eisenheim’s accent, but a little stronger, mixed with a mid-western accent. It’s hard to imagine.
18- No, I’m actually American, I’ve just lived in Britain for nine years out of thirteen.
32- Myth. Squash and biscuits is more usual.
Not the vegetable squash. I mean watered down juice.
Wahhh! I miss England. I’m going to go away before I start crying again.
(42) And the biscuits are what Americans would call cookies.
My friend has recently taken to using a “Brittish ‘quite’, not an American ‘quite'”.
I sometimes speak in a British accent when I’m excited, scared, mad, or frustrated. Hey, Kokonilly! I’m somewhat Philipino! My middle names are Felisicima and Edualino! (Don’t zap them! they’re my middle names, not my surname! My surname is actually very… plain.), And that was Leafygreen’s Extremely Important and Golden Nugget of Random Fact and/ or Wisdom!
45 – It’s ‘Filipino’ without the ph. My surname sounds very Spanish and my middle name is somewhat peculiar. And that’s great. There are hardly any Filipinos in Minnesota.
My first name is Fern, my middle name is Aviva, which is Hebrew, and my last name is very German. Yet I have a some English background as well, with Baker and Crew being names several generations back on my dad’s side.
I don’t have a middle name.
I have Chinese, English, Indian, and I think what was it–Tibetan?– relatives.
48~ Really? Hmm, that’s different.
Oh, and I really doubt that anyone can find me by the names I listed in my previous post…
I have never been to the U.K. Unless you count the airport.
I went to London a few years ago.
Here!
I haven’t disappeared, old things. Not entirely. The diary has merely been clogged of late with building a mechanical lion. Debugging control software into the early hours, that sort of thing.
Thank you, Piggy. I fear your defence is somewhat futile, however. I am indeed decidely corpulent, and far too idle to take realistic steps to ameliorate the condition. I sometimes think a tweed waistcoat would help. It wouldn’t, of course.
It’s lovely to hear you all discussing the British accent as if there was only one. There are still at least ten very distinct regional dialects, even with the flattening-out process of modern media. I’m beginning to realise that there’s more than one American one, too. And people tell me that Canadians speak differently from Americans, although I can never tell.
Everyone has an accent. Except our dear Queen, of course.
OK, I’m joking. Our dear Queen speaks broad Windsor. If Windsor people didn’t own most of the country, they’d be regarded as yokels. Since they do, Windsor gets to be “proper” English. It’s just another accent.
I concur with Rosanne about tea. It’s a source of endless delight and comfort. You must all make at least one pilgrimage to Britain in your lives, gawp at the scenery, and locate the nearest tea room. I hate to say this, being an Englishman, but the best I ever encountered was in Harlech. Closely followed by one in the back streets of Beverley.
Until then, just keep watching the BBC. You’ll get a slightly distorted view of Britain, but if it convinces you that we’re all certifiably insane, that’s pretty much accurate.
I think a Liverpooldlian accent is the best. It’s just awesome. I don’t know why. It just is. Ok, well, The Beatles were from Liverpool, but their accents were awesome.
I seriously do have an accent like Eisenheim in the Illusionist, now that I think about it. Or maybe I’ve just been watching it too much. But yeah, with of course the mid-west thing. Again.
I liked living in England, I lived around the area of Yorkshire, western. I loved it there. *sigh*
52- I guess figuring out other countries’ accents is difficult for everyone. Yes, here in the good ol’ US of A (said (typed) sarcastically) there are certainly an abundance of accents. Southern, Minnesotan, New York, Midwest, and numerous others. Not to mention the differences between different regions of the South. And yes, our friends from north of the border have a much different accent, in our ears anyhow.I once heard that Midwesterners, like myself, have the most neutral accent in the US.
On my recent whirlwind tour of Great Britain, I sampled the fares at several tea shops. I don’t have a favorite, but there was a lovely one in York which I liked ever so slightly more than the others. In Gretna Green, Scotland, I purchased a jar of lime marmalade, similar to that which is served at the H&H. It is fantastic. Well, goodnight to you all. May your dreams be pleasant and your morrow as well.
52 – Hm, that’s true, there are Yorkshire accents, Windsor accents, Liverpool accents…
There is a difference between a ‘Canadian accent’ and a so-called ‘American accent’, although a ‘Canadian accent’ sounds remarkably like a ‘Minnesotan accent’.
Midwesterners have an accent, oh yes they do.
55- My friends (except Leafy
) all thought a Midwestern accent was cowboy/hick sounding until Leafy and I righted them. What everyone else calls a Californian accent is Valley Girl and Surfer Dude. A Californian accent is pronouncing your K’s and R’s heavily and slurring. Yeah, everyone I know slurs sometimes. And I like Britain, again! I am grateful for Harry Potter, the Gideon Trilogly, Monty Python, the Beatles, and actually existing as a nation! And I have always wondered what British textbooks had to say about the Revolutionary War.
56 – Ha, they probably said something like “We wanted this land, but these people were stubborn so they, an army 10x smaller then us, crushed us.” And that’s probably it.
Oh, and I forgot King Arthur! I like that too!
Has anybody read CHERUB books by Robert Muchamore?
They’re Brittish books that are really good and have all those words like boot for trunk and stuff
I order them from Amazon because they’re not published in the US
ENGLISH MUFFINS ARE AWSOME!!!! I EAT THEM FOR BREAKFAST!!
52~ Good to see you again!!
I can hear differences in accents of British folks. (Movies, friends, radio…) Bit I can’t tell from what regions they’re from. I just now and then can tell that something was said a little differently, a vowel here, a consonant here, little irregularities.
54~ I love lime marmalade. Ooh, it’s so goooooood!
I got a CD of music from Northern Ireland the other day. I like it a lot, it’s a Smithsonian Folkways recording, so it has to be good. It’s a compilation, I like compilations……..
Jarlath Henderson is very, very good.
lime marmalade
is that like lime butter??
Lime Marmalade is excatly like orange marmalade except with lime, not orange.
The Mid-West accent is actually sometimes considered as the “Regular US accent” Than there is South-Eastern Mid-West accents. And Northern Mid-Western Accents. Hehe. A lot of accents!
thanx
i think there r a little to much accents for me to handle, personally
hehehe…Euro-Rock Rocks!
52- ’tis good to see you back, Master Baker! The Wungs are preparing a special jam that is awaiting your pleasure at the H&H.
Accents are great if they’re real, but faked accents are a pain 90% of the time. (like “Joisey” accents. No one says “Joisey”.)
63- There are indeed. And to make life more confusing, people sometimes call them by different names. Like when people say a New York accent when they mean Brooklyn.
63–although ironically, a midwest accent (at least a northern one)is derived very much from the Germans and Swedish who settled there.
63 – True, true… I consider myself to have a blend of accents.
67 – 67 – That is very, very true. Although Minnesotan accents lean toward Canadian, every third person is Scandinavian here. I’m not kidding.
67- Again, yay for Northern Europe! I think I might move to Germany when I grow up. I have family there!
I love Britannia. I want to move there.
The other day, standing on a tusnami trail and staring out at the ocean with a air of pruning shears in my hands, I was struck by the resemblance of parts of Oregon to Ireland. YAY!
1, 2 – Same! Monty Python is my favorite, but I’m currently addicted to a lot of other series that are or used to be on BBC America.
5 – Same here; I don’t think I have a noticeable accent, but I had a teacher from Boston who thought I did. I guess I would sound southern to people used to that accent. I’m hopeless at imitating accents; I can do valley girl, but nothing else that sounds even remotely close to the real thing.
15 – I did learn a lot of British slang at one point, but then I didn’t use it, so now I’ve forgotten most of it.
20 – The Caesars in North America….now there’s an interesting thought! When my mom and I were getting excited over ancient buildings in Prague, my mom’s Czech friend noted that her Egyptian friends laughed when she called those buildings old because some of the historic sites in Egypt are so ancient that they make the ones in Europe look practically new (yikes, sorry that was such a long sentence!).
52 – Welcome back! My English teacher had us listen to different English accents while we were reading “Pygmalion.” I had trouble keeping the names straight, but they all sounded nice.
I haven’t been anywhere in the UK yet, but I would love to study abroad there someday, probably in England if possible.
52- Nothing. nothiing whatsoever.
66- You should hear the “American” accent that many of my friends try to do.
I have no accent. None. Of course, the rest of the world thinks I do. My English friends say that I have an America accent, my American friends say vice versa.
When I lived in England (About three weeks ago), the first conversation I ever had with people often went along the lines of “You’re American? Wow!”
“Yes,”
“Can you say something?”
“No”
(Said in a stupid fake american accent) “I love your accent!”
Insert thin smile from me.
You get the idea.
71- Edinburgh is a beautiful city in which to study. A barely related family member is going there to study. The public transportation there is phenomenal. They’re building a tram system at the moment, in addition to their award-winning buses, taxis, and trains. I have to day Edinburgh was one of my favorite cities on my trip, if not my favorite.
72~ Yes, it always cracks me up when I hear people (especially from the UK and Ireland) who say how fun it is to hear American accents…….while I’m thinking how fun it is to listen to them.
Of course, sometimes when I’m interpreting at Jamestown someone will come up and harrass me about it.
“So, who are you supposed to be? Why is a girl on a ship, isn’t that bad luck?”
“No, women being bad luck on a ship is a much later superstition, and unfortunately Pirates of the Caribbean made it very popular. As for who I am, here we don’t do first person interpretation, meaning that I won’t play a character.”
“Huh. So, why are you dressed up then?”
“So that I can teach visitors about the clothing, customs, and lifestyle of people in the 17th century. The name they give the job is a ‘costumed interpreter.'”
“Interpreter, eh? How many languages do you speak then?”
[Laughing politely] “Ah, only one at the moment, English.”
“Yeah? Well it sounds like American to me.”
[smiling politely] “The accent, yes, although the language itself is mostly the same.”
“Huh.” [stumps off.]
[ignores unless they have another question.]
72–People here get all excited when my English friend starts talking. Once we were at the beach and a total stranger heard us talking and came over. He said, “Are you English? Like, from England?” And my friend said, totally straight-faced, “No, actually. I’m from Brazil.” The guy got this amazed look on his face and said, “Ohhh,” very reverently. And as he walked (waded) away, my friend said under his breath, “Oh yes, let’s all look at the Englishman, let’s put him in the zoo and toss peanuts at him…” I, of course, found the entire encounter extremely entertaining.
72 – You can’t not have an accent. The only time a person doesn’t have a speech accent is when they’re not talking. I speak in basically the same accent as my sister does, but that doesn’t mean our accents are nonexistent. That just means that we have similar accents and that we don’t recognize each other’s as much.
20, 71 – Actually, we have some sites in Britain that are MUCH older than the famous Egyptian ones (he says, gloating slightly). The Boxgrove site, for instance, is about half a million years old.
http://matt.pope.users.btopenworld.com/boxgrove/boxhome.htm
It’s not as impressive as the Egyptian stuff. Egypt has pyramids. Boxgrove has a few intriguing patches of soil with bits of flint in them. But when you consider that the people that made the flint tools were probably ANCESTORS of Neanderthals, it does make the mind boggle rather. They probably lived happily around Boxgrove for – oh, about five thousand years or so, until the ice sheets of the next glacial period swept down from the north and wiped them out or drove them south.
72- What does is an American accent usually typecast as? It can’t be Valley Girl, that’s stereotyped for the CA already. It can’t be a Manhattan taxi driver, either…
74- I have to regret that when I’m bored, sometimes I’ll go to Plymouth plantations and see how many characters I can break- my record is 6.
78–From what I’ve encountered, it’s usually a gruff, grunting sort of accent with a bit of a southern twang. Which is pretty much how Europeans envision us, I think.
74 – Sounds like a fantastic job except I would hate to deal with those people. :p
77 – Cool!
79~
What annoys me is obviously ignorant people who come in and just try to impress their buddies by harassing me.
(me) “Hello, welcome to the officer’s quarters. Officers would have stayed in these bunks, with the captain farthest to the aft, in his own cabin. Feel free to look around and if you have any questions just ask.”
“So, what are you, the ship’s wench?”
“No.”
(visitor’s wife) “So, could you tell me about your costume?”
(me) “Sure. What I’m wearing would be typical of middle and working class women of the 17th century……” *describes clothing pieces*
(visitor looking pointedly at shoes) “Yeah, and Doc Martins to finish the look.”
(visitor’s wife looks a little embarrassed.)
(me) “No, actually they’re Sketchers.” (A minute later I remembered we’re not supposed to sass at visitors….oops. He took it all right though, he knew he was being a jerk.)
76- I was joking
78- An accent that I’m fairly sure exists nowhere in America, though in a pinch I’d say probably mildly californian.
78- The New York accent seems to be somewhat well-known, but the most neutral accent, occurring from Nebraska to central Illinois, seems to be most widely used.
Does anyone know what the CT accent sounds like? I’m told we drop a whole bunch of constants that we jsut don’t wanna use. Like in the word constanant. I think (or at least have been told) we pronounce it as so: Con(like the verb) se (like you cut off the D in said) nent (tent without the T) but I have absolutly no idea. I do know that people cannot understand what I say and so far only two people in my life have come in and compleatly understood everything I say without haveing to ask me for a while. Not even my best friends in the world get me all the time.
82- That’s horrible! I find historical reenactment fascinating and have great respect for those involved in it.
STDP
Cake. I think that was off topic. I just saw the convo on accents up top, and then saw some going on down here. Sorry. *grimaces*
85- It’s hard to tell if you have an accent when you live in one place. I think CT does have an acecnt, but I’m not sure, since I was there for most of my life.
*just found this thread* I have been to england twice and Ireland once.
85- I have no idea what specialized American accents sound like. They are all the same to me.