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Post by movieliker on Feb 4, 2019 22:27:19 GMT
We Americans often need the closed captioning on to understand thick British accents.
Do the British usually need closed captions to understand American English?
(I am binge watching "Marcella" on Netflix. I need the closed captioning on to understand what most of the characters are saying.)
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Post by BATouttaheck on Feb 4, 2019 23:11:23 GMT
It's often lousy speakers …. British actors speak much more clearly now that I got a soundbar.  |
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Post by movieliker on Feb 4, 2019 23:13:55 GMT
It's often lousy speakers …. British actors speak much more clearly now that I got a soundbar. I'm American. And I have trouble understanding American English if it involves bad grammer, poor pronunciation (annunciation), mumbling or some obscure local dialect. |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Feb 4, 2019 23:15:34 GMT
But ... to answer your question... probably not. I look forward to hearing from some of the non-'Murican posters. It's actually an intriguing question.  |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Feb 4, 2019 23:19:41 GMT
It's often lousy speakers …. British actors speak much more clearly now that I got a soundbar. I'm American. And I have trouble understanding American English if it involves bad grammer, poor pronunciation (annunciation), mumbling or some obscure local dialect. More recent movies and tv shows are hard to understand even with the new speaks. Too FAST talking and mumbling seems to be the new "style" of acting. It has nothing to do with bad personal hearing ability or the need for hearing aids .. it's the actors and poor editing of sound. The background music in some films totally drowns out the dialogue. |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Feb 4, 2019 23:20:41 GMT
Politics board … OK … get me that Lifebuoy soap and open your mouth ! |
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Post by Catman on Feb 4, 2019 23:22:09 GMT
Catman recalls a show where the lead actress had such horrendous pronunciation (especially when she was drunk), that the other actors started repeating the key points of dialogue back to her as a courtesy to the audience.
She was fired and replaced for the remaining seasons.
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Post by Catman on Feb 4, 2019 23:23:38 GMT
I'm American. And I have trouble understanding American English if it involves bad grammer, poor pronunciation (annunciation), mumbling or some obscure local dialect. More recent movies and tv shows are hard to understand even with the new speaks. Too FAST talking and mumbling seems to be the new "style" of acting. It has nothing to do with bad personal hearing ability or the need for hearing aids .. it's the actors and poor editing of sound. The background music in some films totally drowns out the dialogue. It's the rival of the Marlon Brando style of mumble delivery. |
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Post by Stammerhead on Feb 4, 2019 23:30:21 GMT
It would sometimes help but, as Bat already said, it’s mainly down to bad pronunciation or poor sound. Some British actors get too much in love with their regional accents and forget that we often have trouble understanding our different accents in the real world so why should we be able to understand them on TV/film?
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Post by BATouttaheck on Feb 4, 2019 23:37:39 GMT
The only British Show I really have trouble with is Shetland and mostly only when Tosh is epeaking !
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Feb 4, 2019 23:50:29 GMT
I think and find it both funny BUT also INSULTING at the SAME time when they use captions on someone (usually a foreigner; English second language or so) that you can understand PERFECTLY or near so.
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Post by Catman on Feb 5, 2019 0:35:21 GMT
Catman recalls Janet Fielding saying that when she first appeared as Tegan Jovanka, John Nathan-Turner wanted her to really go all out with her Australian accent. After the first episode aired, he had her rein it in because a lot of the British viewers complained that they couldn't understand a word she said.
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Feb 5, 2019 0:45:40 GMT
Isn't either Gaelic OR Celt said to be the HARDEST English dialect to understand??
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Post by ck100 on Feb 5, 2019 7:01:46 GMT
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Post by Feologild Oakes on Feb 5, 2019 10:13:26 GMT
We Americans often need the closed captioning on to understand thick British accents. I find it so strange when Americans who speak English as a first language says they need subtitles to understand a thick British accent, i mean i am Norwegian and English is my second language and i don`t need subtitles to understand a thick British accent. |
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Post by Feologild Oakes on Feb 5, 2019 10:16:47 GMT
Isn't either Gaelic OR Celt said to be the HARDEST English dialect to understand?? Gaelic is a dialect of English ? i thought it was a completely different languages all together. |
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Post by charzhino on Feb 5, 2019 10:29:51 GMT
Im British and rarely need subtitles for American films. Only when the actor is mumbling very quietly like in Godfather or Bane in Dark Knight Rises. Other than that I think I can decipher all the American accents. I imagine though people from America might have a hard time understanding certain British accents like Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Scouse and Geordie.
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Post by persistenceofvision on Mar 22, 2019 14:40:25 GMT
Do the British usually need closed captions to understand American English? No, we're accustomed to American English because of decades of films and TV. I've never had a problem understanding anyone.
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Post by ant-mac on Mar 22, 2019 15:26:53 GMT
But ... to answer your question... probably not. I look forward to hearing from some of the non-'Murican posters. It's actually an intriguing question. As an Aussie, I have grown up on a steady diet of both American and British films and TV, along with a generous serving of TV from other nationalities. In general, I find both majors nationalities to pose about the same level of challenge when it comes to understanding them. However, the one thing I have noticed is the more recent the production, the greater the difficulty I sometimes have in understanding them. And this has no relationship to the era in which the production is set. It simply feels like the quality and standards in the industries producing these productions has... changed.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Mar 22, 2019 16:04:23 GMT
Isn't either Gaelic OR Celt said to be the HARDEST English dialect to understand?? Have you ever listened to two Jamaican people talk to each other? With full on slang etc., just couldn't follow it. I'll take any British or Irish, even Welsh, accent over that.
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