Native French Speaker Tries to Guess the English Accents

[@FrenchTastic]

Check out my NEW Channel 😊 with the second part! kzbin.info/door/7RUGlMliNKJji6EaItRF1Q

[@tifpo33]

I'm a Canadian living in New Zealand. I was surprised that a bus driver here picked up that I had a "Toronto Accent with something else in there". He was mostly correct as I have an Ottawa Valley accent with Toronto influences from my University and early working days. I asked him when he visited Canada and he replied that he's never left NZ - just really likes accents.

[@anonygent]

I picked up on an Australian accent from a customer once and he looked at me in surprise, told me he was born and raised in New York but both parents were from Australia. He said no one else had ever picked up on the Australian before.

[@thejesusaurus6573]

I'm Canadian in the UK and its surprising how many people actually peg me as Canadian straight away rather than just assuming American.

[@andrew20146]

I would say Toronto doesn't have that distinctive an accent in the context of most of Canada. Rural Ontario vs urban there is a difference.

[@k_airo]

The kiwi accent in this vid was probably a Maori guy from Auckland. We have various different accents too 😂

[@martinhami3]

@@k_airo probably not a probably haha :)

[@barriehull7076]

# 16 was Adrian Chiles who was born in Quinton, Birmingham, to an English father and Croatian mother, and moved a few miles away to Hagley, Worcestershire at the age of four. A feature of his presentations is his Birmingham accent. He also speaks Croatian, despite having a self-confessed imperfect understanding of the language's verbs, declensions, and cases. The Essex gezzer was tele "chef" Jamie Oliver. The Northern Ireland bloke was actor James Nesbitt.

[@zackspicer3481]

Bruh, she stood still for few seconds that I thought my screen froze

[@tomcarson8854]

.....Oh, and when I went to my son's graduation from his university, I sort of got into a conversation with a young chef from Scotland, and I couldn't understand a word he said! I felt like the gentleman who said that the response should be in writing! There are many different accents in just about every country! You know California always sends love!!

[@jeannettehope670]

Travelling in Scotland, I had great difficulty communicating with a young male sales assistant in Inverness. We were both speaking English, but I had trouble with his accent, and he with mine. I am Australian, and he was French, a student from Paris on a working holiday. I think what threw me off was the fact that he was wearing a kilt.

[@EasyENGLISHwithJames]

Great video. Really interesting to hear your reasons for guessing your answers. The difference in English accents around the world is truly enormous and must be so overwhelming for learners of English.

[@gazlator]

You stuck at it it! Good for you Marie. You might think you couldn't pick up on the little subtleties of the various British accents, but I bet YOU can "instinctively" tell apart the different French accents - northerners, southerners, westerners, etc. It's just the same for a native English speaker. And I imagine someone learning French would struggle to pick up on the different French accents that would seem so obvious to you.

[@myopicseer]

I got Australian, Californian, NY, American Southern, Indian, Midwestern US (which is my region), Scottish, Jamaican, Canadian, Welsh and a few others. I am a native English speaker from Central Ohio USA. These were tough. The differences for the most part are VERY subtle and might come down to a single word in a paragraph.

[@lekkymont9325]

Well done. This was a lot of fun. I imagine everyone learned something here.

[@trevorlambert4226]

#4 was Judge Judy; she's got a pretty distinctive voice that I was pretty sure I recognized with a couple seconds, and the content of what she was saying confirmed it. These are pretty easy as a native English speaker who's been exposed to these different accents, but obviously it's a whole different ball game if you're not a native speaker. All the countries with native English speakers have many different accents depending on the exact region. She got fooled by the first Irish one because she was in a different region of Ireland, obviously.

[@주니어-p8h]

I knew that voice sounded familiar. I thought it was Judge Judy right away, too.

[@protonneutron9046]

Canada has a a lot of different accents btw.

[@Gallagherxz]

I just stumbled upon this video and I want to say thank you for wanting to learn the standard "American" accent. Thank you so much and I appreciate your hard work!!

[@canadianeasybid]

Don't feel bad as a Canadian speaker of English I only got 7 right. I doubt many people would get the majority of them right.

[@an.american]

I surprised myself. Got the American, English, Irish, Indian and Australian. But then in America we have all these fine folks living here. And Canadian. Great show 🗽

[@dorukgolcu9191]

My wife, an American, worked as a language immersion teacher in France when she was younger. Apparently they did not respect her much at the school she worked at because she did not speak "real" (aka British) English 🤣

[@theblackbear211]

Even as a native English speaker - who has heard a lot of those accents spoken, and is pretty good with discerning accents - this was tough. A number of them were using conversations with some of the key "tell" words. - for example, the Canadian said "about" more than once... if you listen closely, it is very recognizable. The Accents within England... you might as well ask an English speaker to identify the regional accents of France. Fun video.

[@EricWillis77]

That was fun. There are more accents in America some people I can’t understand very well because it’s so different sounding. 😎

[@drowningclown1027]

I just discovered your channel today, but I too find the difference in regional dialect fascinating.

[@bert918]

The best accent ever is yours. It's always melted my heart. Hugs from Idaho...

[@kinglear5952]

It is lovely, I agree.

[@Carter-yh2df]

I worked with a man from Scotland a few years ago and it took me a solid couple weeks before I could understand and comprehend what he was saying to me 😂 I recently found out that he passed away but long story short, I’ll never forget that man! Repose en paix mon frère ❤️

[@samuelmncedisi1065]

It's hard to define what a South African English accent is. Unlike countries like France or America, that have one official language but variations of it depending on the region or state respectively, there are 12 official languages in South Africa, and then you have to take into account the different provinces.

[@matthiuskoenig3378]

One of the reasons no one can ever recognise us it seems, lol.

[@lydiarodgers]

well done for getting the welsh one because it’s actually a north wales accent which isn’t normally as documented on these types of videos. south wales accents are much more common, to the point where some people think it’s the only welsh accent that exists🤦‍♀️

[@halcroj]

This is the very hardest test of this kind that I've come across on KZbin. I'm British and I found them a bit difficult.

[@cassiemichael4697]

The accent they chose for America is a famous television judge called Judge Judy. She's very tough on criminals and scrutinizes everything. That's what makes her so good at solving cases of theft, certain types of assault, animal cruelty, and other sorts of non-felony cases, as that sort of thing, unless it is made into a huge celebrity case, will not be shown on television usually, as they are very sensitive topics not appropriate for mixed audiences with children present, for example.

[@kinglear5952]

Thank you for posting this great and fun video. I got a lot of then though others were beyond me. I thought that in some case, as with Scottish, the particular speakers were not that typical. It was impressive that you gave this a go.

[@aucourant9998]

Many of those accents were very subtle. I, as an English person, found many of them difficult too. The politician from Glasgow at the end was hilarious, he had a very strong accent.

[@remp5529]

I'm American (central) and I worked with some South African guys last summer. Even though we both spoke English I only understood about half of what they said and they rarely understood me.

[@mfree80286]

A Glaswegian "R" is larger than life and can wipe out all the other letters in the words...

[@PanglossDr]

Ireland has dozens of accents. The accent used here was very neutral. I wasn't even certain at first.

[@Allaiya.]

Got most of these. I have a tough time telling the Canadian/American accent apart, though. They sound very similar to me.

[@Discrimination_is_not_a_right]

If you speak with a French accent I guarantee people won't mind, as long as you speak clearly.

[@jameslambe9275]

12:41 best English support of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 independance ever voiced!

[@roberttrujillo1936]

Good to see you back on! Was getting worried something happened to you! Take CARE our # 1 French Fry!!👍🏽😜🐑👻👻👻👻👻

[@Realgrande]

I got 4 right... I live in New Mexico the State next door to Texas and to us their accent is very distinct and different from ours; would be like 2 entirely different countries with very different spellings, foods, dialects, etc. (New Mexico: Chile, Texas: Chili). Foods: NM: Posole, mutton, Chaqueweh, Huevos Rancheros, Sopapillas, Bunuelos, Navajo Tacos, Christmas Chile; Texas: Chili ConCarne, Gorditos, Fish Tacos, Shrimp, Lone Star Beer, Menudo.

[@inodesnet]

You actually did well. Great reaction video. The number of accents in a given country really requires time (and more so now with the world so connected). The UK has well over 60 distinct accents, although some are harder to distinguish and some can be very different over short distances. The US is younger and had a lot of influences over its young life and geographic distances that equate to over 16 at least (excluding cultural accents). Australia is unique in that although it has a geographical size slightly larger than the 48 contiguous states of the US, the colony was formed with convicts from many regions in what is now the UK (then free settlers). Linguists theorise that to avoid identification and infighting, the convicts nullified their accents or at least altered them to be understood. And in free settlers and then offspring and a flat accent formed. When colonies joined by roads, even colonies separated by thousands of kilometres had independently formed the same accent. With this in mind, and being a young country, Australia has 3 primary (not including cultural) accents.

[@joeseay2883]

I could understand you way better than the the guys debating in the chamber. You English is really good now. You have ìmproved since I started watching you. Your doing great.!

[@garyemagee7177]

What a fun video ! I've always loved different accents from all countries. And the USA and the UK may be the hardest for new English language students to understand. ( Regional accents are almost like different countries in both nations) But you speak better English than most ... in both the USA & the UK.

[@peternakitch4167]

This was fun, thank you. Out 22 of I got 18. I didn’t get Maltese, South African or English (Bristol) and Singaporean I picked as HongKong English so I was close but not right. I am Australian, but I have travelled in Europe and the UK - I have a lot of Scottish relatives and my mum is Scottish from the north-west islands.The Scottish accent is softer the further north you go; I had a aunt from Glasgow and after growing up with her I could understand her, my friends down here could not. When I was last in London someone thought I was Canadian! It’s all about what your brain and ear get trained to. I am certain I would not be able to pick regional French accents. A fun fact about the Australian accent - there are three. Broad, often spoken outside the cites (also you’ll hear it in lots of films); General, what most speak in the major cites, is much more neutral than Broad. And educated or cultivated, listen to Kate Blanchett or Nicole Kidman or Geoffrey Rush for examples. I grew up in working class Sydney so my accent is General (I think), but I have told I have an educated accent (travel and university education must have done that for me).

[@ieyke]

It's crazy that they reduced America down to 4 accents. "Southern" is....a MASSIVE simplification. Houstonians (Houston, Texas) speak VERY VERY VERY differently from the "Texan" accent. Louisiana, one state east, has TOTALLY different accents. Both Texas and Louisiana southern states, but the "Southern" accent is more from the states that are part of "The South" - like Arkansas/Mississippi/Alabama/Georgia/etc. But even THOSE have different accents. And then Florida AGAIN has different a different accent. And that's all before you factor in immigrants and ethnicities speaking different types of English. Like Houston is a WILDLY multicultural city, white, black, Hispanic, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian, Chinese, Middle-Eastern, German, Italian, etc etc etc etc... They all speak their version of a "Houston" accent, but each can be wildly different. And like my friends and I speak a much more proper pan-American English than, for example, our older relatives, who frequently have a much stronger Texan accent. I think it may be an underestimation to say there are only 160 English accents.

[@boo453]

My wife and I are from the midlands in England. We were in Greece on holiday and one of the other hotel guests was trying to ask my wife a question. My wife couldn't understand and said "sorry, do you speak English?". The other hotel guest was from Newcastle (North East England) and was speaking English in a Geordie accent...

[@denisbryce8746]

I am a retired Australian Linguist, which is something that I did Professionally for 45 years & I used to work at Australia's Immigration Department. I got to a point where I could tell most accents from first hearing, so I was able (in most cases, not all), to get them to where they had to be. Although I was able to tell what parts of the world people were from, I couldn't always tell what part of a Country they were from, such as Washington State or Florida for example. But, I can tell if somebody with a French accent is from France, Canada of New Caledonia. Or if a Spanish accent is from Spain or South America. The Australian accent is pretty much the same all over, but in some of the Aboriginal Communities, they still use their native tongue (although, these days they can all speak english) & there are still over 250 Aboriginal dialects around. It's also interesting the difference between a Russian accent & that of a Ukranian or a Serbian & Croation, but there are differences & there have been changes in accents over time with political changes in some countries.

[@kunou4527]

That first one was definitely not the archetypal Irish English phonology because there was no Brogue. The Northern Ireland one they gave was a bit closer, but still not very thick with Brogue. However it's possible that the Irish Brogue I'm used to from older Irish people in America is due to them knowing some Irish Gaelic through their parents/grandparents. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a change in phonology for Ireland's regional dialects due to changing demographics and a lack of integration. Much like how the regional dialects of America, especially in New York, are in danger of going extinct. The different boroughs of New York, for example, had their own dialects with a lexicon and phonology all their own. You could tell whether someone was from Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, or Yonkers. I grew up speaking a Yonkers dialect. I have maintained the lexicon, but lost the phonology (except in very specific words/phrases). The most extreme example would be if someone asked me for the time and it was "a quarter to four". The reason being because it would be non-rhotic.

[@pierreabbat6157]

I'm in North Carolina. Once I went to the bank on the 14th of July and asked the teller to say "qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons". She completely messed it up. My mother came from El Salvador (San Salvador-Ilopango area) and my father came from France (Normandy). Once I was at church and we were discussing the lesson in Spanish. I made some comment and the preacher answered in English. I correctly guessed that he was Salvadoran. To Spanish speakers from elsewhere, I sound native (presumably Salvadoran), but to Salvadorans, I sound foreign. I haven't met enough French speakers to know what my French accent sounds like.

[@corinna007]

Canadian here, and yes, as others have mentioned, we do have different accents. I have a west coast accent (I'm British Columbian), and I definitely sound different than someone from, say, Manitoba or Ontario. People from the east coast can sound a lot like the Scottish or Irish. Also, I remember on my last trip to Finland, my friend and I met an Iranian who had been living in Finland for years but spoke very fluent English. My friend is from the southern US but doesn't have a stereotypical southern accent. The Iranian lady we met could still tell the difference between our accents.

[@jamesparson]

You have all my respect. Trying to figure these out is very, very, complicated. I am a native speaker from California, I couldn't even get most of these. Also, can I get subtitles on #5

[@Andrew17B]

Salut Marie! J'suis hâte pour cette réaction!

[@timothywilliams2252]

As an American, I got less than half correct. However, on the American "Southern" accents, there are many. The one featured sounded very Appalachian. Which, sounds very different from a Texas "drawl"... Then, there is an "upper-class" Southern Drawl that is very distinctive from the rest.

[@bobbyscott5162]

You are so much fun!

[@coucoubrandy1079]

This is the best video I've seen. My accent was described as from quite a mix . Worked in a trave agency, and one day a client said you're english. I'm not exactly, but it was because I prounconced the T . Even if I speak very good French. English is a bastard language, most importantly is the meaning of the words. Again, a fabstic video. Btw, I've coined a new acronym CCS. Covid confusion syndrome. . Let's have fun . As everything has changed

[@fredklein3829]

National accents have sub-national or regional varieties as well. For instance, there are five varieties of South African English and when I studied linguistics, I had to be ready to describe all five in an exam essay. I was raised in Quebec as an English Canadian and you should hear our variety of Quebec English; the two greatest influences on it are French and Yiddish. French speakers in Canada speak English differently than people from France do in English.

[@terryomalley1974]

What about all the other regional Canadian accents they missed, like Newfoundland, Cape Breton, the Maritimes in general, Ottawa Valley? As a Canadian and a linguist, ai would've thought you'd pick up on those omissions.

[@fredklein3829]

@@terryomalley1974 Sure, those are all worthy of discussion.

[@inodesnet]

Love the Guardian clip where the MP (Sir Paul Beresford) asks to repeat in Antipodean English (Antipodean describes people or things that come from or relate to Australia and New Zealand). Sir Beresford is a British MP from New Zealand.

[@dylanchope8992]

Man all these regional english ones are super mild

[@Navyuncle]

Marie, I find it interesting how you speak American English considering that you were taught British English in school. Good job.

[@AndrewWatsonChangingWay]

This was a tough lineup of accents. Good for you trying it and posting the video.

[@Holdit66]

1:25 When on holiday in Italy my family got talking to a German family in the next apartment. When we we told them were Irish they had an aha! moment. "We knew you were speaking English," they said, "but we couldn't work out the accent."

[@dalefisk7667]

A really cool English accent is the drummer for Skillet, Jen Ledger. She has lived in Kenosha Wisconsin since 16 but grew up in Coventry England.

[@carllance8062]

Great video Marie. I had a hard time and I've been to most of those places 🙃 would love to see more like this

[@JakeV100]

I love how they used steve merchant talking about karl pilkington for the bristol one lol

[@kevinsimpson3374]

I Originally Come From Birmingham,England Although I Live In The Northeast Of England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, I Will Not Lose My Brummie Accent For Nobody! Even These Geordies!

[@stevej1154]

I think the voice was Adrian Chiles?

[@landrews7280]

This is a fun video Marie, thanks for posting!

[@anonygent]

It's funny, I met a black customer once who was obviously speaking American English, but I couldn't understand a word he said, but then at a training session once, there was a Dominican there whose English no one could understand but me. He understood me well enough that I ended up being his interpreter for a week.

[@Skenderbeuismyhero]

Haha, the Filipino one got me cause I used to date a Pinay and I knew which accent it was from the first syllable.

[@colinedmunds2238]

Check out Eric Singer’s US accent tour. There’s a massive variety of English accents in the Americas, not just based on region, but also ethnic/cultural background

[@garrettmckellar]

I haven't watched your channel in months...you are *absolutely* moving towards an American accent. 👍

[@Kestrel1971]

I'm from England (Cambridgeshire) and I speak with an RP (Received Pronunciation) accent, which is very clear and essentially a "neutral" accent. I live in Canada and I went to a pub with some Indian friends (they're from New Delhi and speak very clear, fluent English albeit with an Indian accent). When we ordered food, the Canadian waitress (native English speaker, not French-Canadian) took all the orders from my Indian friends first time without any issue, but when it came to me, I had to repeat myself three times before she understood what I was ordering. She apologised, saying my accent threw her off, proving that even native English speakers can be thrown off by English accents. :)

[@dennisstafford1749]

The international language of the world and spoken in so many ways.

[@dg-hughes]

French was the International language not so long ago (even in England) it was only about 1900 did it stop being so due to growing US world influence.

[@payet_the_mechanic]

Love the LSU shirt. Thanks for showing love.

[@dstrong86bluecoffee]

Marie - YOU DID A WONDERFUL JOB WITH THE DIFFERENT ENGLISH ACCENTS. I'm American (from the midwest where "we have no accent"). -- With most BRITISH ACCENTS I cannot tell the difference between them, but we can also hear differences for individual words that are spoken differently. For the IRISH voice, I have heard heavier accents also. The WELSH (Wales) was more difficult (we do not hear it very often). Sometimes the INDIAN accent can be heavier and difficult to understand (see You Tube videos from India). To me CALIFORNIA sounded like my midwest (no accent) the same as # 10 American North Central. # 11 English (Essex) sounded like standard English -- The American Southern accent matches history (the Confederate states). But a lot of Florida sounds more basic American to me anyway. -- I MISSED WRONG / HAD NO IDEA: Jamaican (I've heard other Jamaican pronounced differently) # 8 English Geordie, # 9 Singaporean (Singapore), # 13 South African, # 14 Filipino, # 15 Scottish, # 16 Birmingham (England), # 18 Canadian (although Canadians do say and spell certain words like the English / England). # 19 BRISTOL (ENGLAND) SOUNDED MORE LIKE AMERICAN so I do not believe that recording. # 20 ENGLISH WITH SOME IRISH makes sense for NORTHERN IRELAND although (please correct me) as I assumed that all of Ireland sounded the same with some heavier accents (except Gaelic). # 21 New Zealand (I thought Australian), # 22 Maltese the island of Malta in the Mediterranean (I thought English / England) -- I also have trouble understanding a HEAVY SCOTTISH (Scotland) accent. One of my teachers from school visited Scotland and she was riding on a public bus and she told the people that they had an accent and they replied back to her that "we don't have an accent ... you're the person with the accent" -- There is also HONG KONG (since it was a British colony like Singapore) but usually we hear a light Chinese accent, although Hong Kong and southern China speak Cantonese and the rest of China speak Mandarin (which has either a Beijing Northern or a Southern accent). -- When I was starting high school, everyone said that FRENCH WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT LANGUAGE TO SPEAK WELL, so instead of French, I decided to study German in high school and university ;-)

[@according2petey25]

HELLO0O0O0O0 miss marie🤗 your facial expressions was mine every year in high school🤣🤣 take care🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

[@bobwallace9814]

For at least half a century, the only accent Americans thought the UK had was Scouse. The Beatles did that.

[@bigdawg210]

They missed about 8 or 9 Canadian accents cause we definitely don’t all sound the same, not even close, as someone with the Rocky Mountain accent I cant even understand half the stuff someone from Newfoundland says when they talk

[@Blue_Star_Child]

I'm American and I got like 17 even down to the city/state. The Maltese, Singapore, (which I've never heard) and 3 of the English cities (which I don't know enough about their accent). Awesome. My Acorn TV subscription is paying off.

[@timdyer5326]

I'm from Cornwall and we know where people live from their accents even 30 miles away. As for brummy, scots, Geordies, mancs, scousers, Yorkies, Glaswegian and Welshies accents.. lots of fun on the beach. Please try the Celtic languages also.. another breed. Alba, Kernow, Cymru, Manx, Breizh.. you have much to discover. Meir ras.. dydh da. 🥰

[@eundongpark1672]

I'm super impressed with her English pronunciation. Compared to other French people, when speaking English, she doesn't sound very French, so her pronunciation is great! But still a long way to go before she sounds American. I had no trouble understanding any of the accents; none of them were extremely broad accents, but I miss identified Northern Irish (I though it was from somewhere in England) and I missed the Singaporean accent (I'm ashamed...I hear it all the time so I should know better). I got all the American regions right and all the rest of the countries right (I'm treating Wales and Scotland as different countries), but within England, I just knew they were English, not which region they were from. I'm Australian, lived 40-ish years in Australia and 10-ish years in the US.

[@lvg777]

As a native English speaker who has lived in Australia, NZ, Philippines and South Africa, and well travelled beyond that, I got most right. I missed Singaporean and Welsh. It was a very difficult test even for an English speaker. Each country has different levels of English proficiency and some of the examples were newscasters who don't usually have very strong local accents. In most cases, the "man on the street" in each country would sound different to your examples, and a bit easlier to locate. Actually, my favourite English accent in the whole world is the French English accent and your English is very pleasant to hear.

[@paulrichardson5892]

its a big ask for a non english person. but you did ok. i got about 3/4 of them .

[@coucoubrandy1079]

3 only as well . This is a great video ! I'm going to share it with my friends. Hope that everyone who watched this does . Best wishes to all !

[@pretoshohmoofcguy6523]

The California and Canadian Accents are identical!

[@ihatebofa6]

No

[@terryomalley1974]

Close, but not identical. The 'ou' pronunciation is different.

[@pretoshohmoofcguy6523]

@@ihatebofa6 Yes, As a Canadian I notice it a lot.

[@karenmcneill2602]

Wow! That was hard! I only speak English (Australian and New Zealand) but I really had to listen to some of them. The ones I struggled the most with were the Asian accented speakers. Years ago I was in NZ visiting my Father. We had to ask for directions (way before GPS) so I asked this couple. They were definitely Kiwi. They gave me the details and I went back to my Dad. He asked what they said and I had to tell him I didn't understand a single thing they said! No joke! Thickest NZ accent ever!

[@callmeneutrino7136]

First time viewer here, but I thoroughly enjoyed this video. I'm so impressed with your amazing English - I wish I could speak French as well as you speak English, and was able to differentiate regional accents. It sounds stupid, but it didn't even occur to me that French people *in France* had different accents. (I had only assumed there were different accents in various French colonies.) Of course, it probably seems obvious, but you never know what you don't know!

[@richardlong3745]

I missed a number of them myself especially the ones from the Caribbean Islands and Singapore. Also India has allot more accents than that one that was taped.

[@adwood201]

I have the strange ability/habit of slipping into the accents of people I converse with. This has made for some hilarious situations especially in bars......

[@HopefulInnocence]

i had a lecturer who was Scottish and had a broad Yorkshire accent. Little ol' me from Manchester needed an yorkshire friend and a year before I culd make out a single word he was saying.

[@michaelheliotis5279]

When you know most of the regional accents because you recognise who's speaking and know where they're from. Tbh, I even recognised most of the national accents.

[@sketchur]

7:42 Mrs. Doubtfire enters the scene. (RIP Robin Williams ♥)

[@Rob749s]

The reason for so many accents is that English as written is non-phonetic. The words on a page or screen do not tell you how to pronounce it, only what the word is.

[@paulk.6969]

I loved this video. I had a good laugh because I was in the same boat you were !!!! Don’t feel bad . This was good fun!!!! 😎👍👍👍👍

[@theguyfromsaturn]

I am pretty sure France has similar French variations as England does English. Everyone can recognise, for one, the very different accent from Provence, but I remember watching a documentary once, and wondering where it was filmed. The rural landscapes, had a strong European vibe, but the older people talking in the interviews sounded so "obviously" from Quebec. It later turned out to have been Normandie. I am not familiar with any other local French accents, but that made it clear that it's probably just as varied. French movies only tend to portray either Parisian or, on rare occasions, Provençal.

[@shushunk00]

All British post-colonial countries have their own English accents and idioms, phrases.

[@dennisstafford-cq2xz]

Not only do accents change or fall out of practice but the slang does also. These are American slang terms almost lost to modernity: polecat (skunk), 'swell', skidaddle or skedaddle, 'the cat's meow' (really cool and all), petting party (sexual groping), flapper, 'bobbed' haircut, cheaters (eyeglasses), a rat or snitch, greenhorn, fresh off the boat, square, teased hair, SNAFU, FUBAR, a cup of joe, carpetbagger, to spin a yarn, yank, beat, beatnik, hippie, gonzo, vamp, a smoke, blast-off, sock-hop, pedal to the metal, cream rises or creme de la creme, hobo, tramp, palaver, have a pow wow, and many more. Most of these are old and no longer of frequent use.

[@bryannguyen2383]

I wish we could put every English accent in a room and watch the chaos of everyone trying to communicate lol

[@exordguy]

Earlier in my career, I found myself acting as translator between two colleagues at work. One has a very deep southern accent (she is from Louisiana), the other was raised in New Jersey (with no perceptible accent to me). The one with the southern accent spoke VERY quickly. So the one from New Jersey was never able to completely understand her until he worked with her for almost a year. I was born and raised in Florida and have a barely perceptible southern accent (so I've been told). So fortunately, I was able to understand her southern accent. I'll admit it was a challenge to understand her however, simply because of the speed at which she talked.

[@nigeldepledge3790]

#1 is a Northern Irish accent, but it's a very soft one - both speakers have had their accents diluted.

[@jerseydevs2000]

I'm a native American English speaker from New Jersey living in California, and I got all of the countries correct except for Singapore, South Africa, and Malta. I was able to identify all of the American regional variations and slightly more than half the variations within England (being an Anglophile helps.) I guess you would probably do very well if there were a similar video comparing French accents from both France (Paris, Marseille, Lyon, etc.) and elsewhere (Belgian, Swiss, Quebecois, Haitian, Cameroonian, etc.)

[@daerdevvyl4314]

This isn’t a story about accents as much as dialects. When I was in high school in Canada, there was an exchange student from Malaysia. He had just arrived in Canada, so was probably not very familiar with some slang terms. At one point he asked me if I knew much about China (probably assuming correctly that I knew very little about Malaysia). I answered “Kinda.” I don’t know how common this is in other countries, but it’s a lazy way of saying “Kind of” as in “Somewhat.” He said “No, China!” I was puzzled and said “Yeah. Kinda!” He was getting frustrated now and said emphatically “No, China!” I didn’t understand where the communication problem was and again said “Yeah! Kinda!” He gave up with a frustrated shake of his head. It wasn’t until afterward that I realized what had happened.

[@RobertsAdra]

The one I have NO CLUE about was the Maltese one. Could not place it at all ... and then I realized that I have never heard it before.

[@jimmythetout109]

My sister years ago , was Program director for the Cincinnati ballet , which would travel the country , staying at least at a time in various US cities .....My sister would come home , and in such short times , would pick up the various local accents , such as in Boston ..

[@andrewhogan6533]

I got about 15, the different English dialects were what got me, I’m not familiar with which goes with which yet.

[@MrAnanthaP]

#2. The word SURWIVE was a clear give away. (Indian)

[@rmsg7504]

I had a difficult time understanding the man speaking toward the end of the video as well. During the test I got most of the accents except for Welsh, New Zealand, Maltese and one other. I am from the USA and only speak English. Fun video