Can you fake accents?

[Ski]

Have you ever been told that you sound passably English despite never having been near the place? Are you a Kiwi who wouldn't be noticed in Texas? Have all those years of watching the Crocodile Hunter paid off?

Having watched the BBC World News a lot lately, I've been able to get a reasonable English accent (or what most people would consider English). I suppose I can pull off Liverpool when mimicking the Beatles, but not well. I can't really do much else, even around the USA.

[Igg]

I bet your English accent is RUBBISH.

Nah, what I mean is when Americans think they do a passable English it's usually not, it just sounds so to them for some reason. Don't go there with scouse..

I am useless at accents. I can say 2 sentences in a scouse accent and about 4 words in a welsh accent.

I can do a reasonable valley-girl type accent but it's just an impression of a girl I met at my cousin's wedding.

[Paul]

Hehe. BBC Presenters have such silly accents. As for faking an accent, I can't, but I haven't really tried either.

[Light]

I'm quite terrible at it actually.
Though, one question for Brits : can any of you do an American accent, though not a southern one?

[Yixzy]

I'm quite terrible at it actually.
Though, one question for Brits : can any of you do an American accent, though not a southern one?

I sometimes get told I have a slightly american accent. I pick up accents quite quickly, and I have a friend from Illanois...

By the way, BBC presenter accents are like 1% of the British accents... they get trained to speak like that...

Like, if you came to England your chances of finding someone who spoke like that who wasnt a news reporter would be like, none...

I can do quite a good norfolk accent... and I have a leicester accent...

[Ginger Harp Seal Pup]

I'm not good at accents. I tried to do an American one, sounded really good to myself, recorded it and listened to it and realised it was rubbish. A lot of American people can't do English accents and a lot of us Brits can't do an American one. I think it's because we try too hard. That's what my brother tells me anyway. My mom can do an Irish accent pretty good. My brother is good at most accents because he just tends to let it flow naturally, rather than force it out to sound good. He can do Australian too, which is hard.

[Ski]

Oops. I forgot to add Irish in, which is horrible, seeing as I learned from an Irish friend.

Nah, what I mean is when Americans think they do a passable English it's usually not, it just sounds so to them for some reason.

My physics teacher is English, and the one time he said I had it spot on, I didn't think so. Odd.

[MarchingDuck]

I'm told I'm very good at accents. I also have a bad habit of picking them up if I'm somewhere for too long.

[Ixist]

I'm OK at doing accents actually, especially an American one. When I went on holiday to both Florida and Las Vegas, I had to keep using my american accent so people could understand me as it seems no-one in America can understand a proper Scottish accent.

That, and for my school shows I have to put on an American accent.

[Zilary]

Well, I live in Texas, so a southern accent isn't hard to pick up. Valley girl is pretty simple. I've tried doing a Chinese/fob accent before, but I barely managed (I guess that's what I get for being an ABC...American Born Chinese). Then Russell Peters allured me to try to do an Indian accent, but that didn't go down too well either. I can make a horrid imitation of Steve Irwin

[shapu]

My best accents are:
American stoner/surfer
American southern - elite (pre-civil-war atlanta)
American southern - poor (redneck)
American southern - long drawl (alabama, mississippi, south and north carolina)
American English - Queens and Long Island
American English - North-central (wisconsin, upper peninsula of michigan, minnesota)
Irish
German English - light
German English - thick
Slavic English
Stereotypical chinese English (I'm convinced that this one's offensive. I try not to do it, but I can).
Pat Morita/Ken Watanabe Japanese English (probably less offensive, but I find it odd that I base my entire understanding of an accent off of a native english speaker in The Karate Kid and a second-language english speaker from The Last Samurai)
Seattle English (it's just like unaccented American english, except you wear flannel and sound depressed that you go through life as a musically-talented middle class white guy surrounded by good coffee and seafood).

I realize now that my Scots accent is several steps below terrible. I sound like a Russian with a head cold.

[Mongrel]

I can do a recognizable cockney(that's probably ear-bleedingly bad), and a southern accent. Occasionally I do an Eastern European accent that is basically an impression of Dracula actors. The older I get, the more I notice myself developing a real Kenntucky accent, which worries me.

Last edited by Mongrel on Thu Jan 15, 2009 4:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

[MarchingDuck]

I can do a recognizable cockney(that's probably ear-bleedingly bad), and a southern accent. Occasionally I do an Eastern European accent that is basically an impression of Dracula actors. The older I get, the more I notice myself developing a real Kentucky accent, which worries me.

lol I learned to speak cockney 2 years ago. I'm told I'm a "natural"...but that might just because I like it alot lol.

I have a natural southern accent but I can surpress it enough to make it sound like a midwestern accent (where is the usual accent for St. Louis). I can also do northern accents, boston or brooklyn accent and English accent. But my english also borders close to cockey.

I took 7 years worth of German...and I still sound like I'm chewing curd when I try to speak it. I guess I'll never be very good at it.

but I do Russian fairly well (or so I'm told...I dont think I do...but whatever).

I also do a very convincing anoying cheerleader/peppy sorority girl voice lol.

but like I said before...I have a terrible habit of picking up accents if I go anywhere.

& fyi, there is a difference between missouri boothill (hillbilly) southern and real deep south southern. there is also a mississippi/lousiania accent that is much different then southern.

[Byakuya San]

I can do a Greek accent pretty well...but then again, I am Greek, so I guess that doesn't count.

[Asthaloth]

I can still do my Southampton accent (as opposed to my current one, which is the unholy child of Southampton and... North)