Accents

One of the first things I noticed more than ever, even the first time I came to Germany, was my accent.  Although I like to think I 'speak properly', it's actually hard to define what 'properly' is when there is a different accent just about everywhere you go in England, and even more in the 'English speaking world'.  One of the first things the teachers told their pupils when I worked as I language assistant was "Don't say your 'u's like Miss Shires", when I read them a story that included the word bus.  No matter how neutral I try to make my accent, that's the one thing I can't hide.  

I was a little surprised yesterday, however, when I met the teacher whose course I will be taking over in Autumn and he guessed that I was from Newcastle!  I have nothing against Geordies, I love Newcastle, the people and the accent too actually, but there is no comparing the Geordie and Yorkshire accents...or so I thought.  It seemed a little poigniant this week given the news item that Cheryl Cole has been axed from the US X-Factor because of her accent.  Surely they could use subtitles like they usually do when Brits appear in their programmes.

It's something that is different wherever you go.  Here in Germany I have always been rather safe.  With the exception of East Germany (Dresden) and South Germany (Munich), I have had no problems understanding the prevelant 'Hoch Deutsch' or high German.  My biggest issue this year has been picking up information in Plattdeutsch which is a whole other dialect that Nico's family speaks.  Of course, they are very good at switching into German for me but I like to listen sometimes and it's amazing how similar some words are to the Yorkshire or Scottish accents and dialects in English.  (Or not so amazing when you consider the history).  The biggest issue I ever had with German?  The Swiss.  I was completely lost every time my Swiss friends got together in Barcelona.  However, learning that German national television does actually use subtitles when showing the Swiss on TV helped me fell better!