"Wickeddoll" wrote in message
...

"Arfa Daily" ...

"Wickeddoll" ...

"Cathy F." ...

If you get to the U.K. - go everywhere you can! Really diverse
areas, for a smallish place. ;-)

P.S. And they really *do* say "Ta", & "Thanks, ducks", & Ta, love".
;-)

Cathy


And "Thanks me duck" and "cheers luvvy" - And that's in the areas where
you can understand the people ! You should try Tyneside, or Cornwall,
or parts of Liverpool and Norfolk, and the Scots !

Speaking of regional expressions, it's always disconcerting to see what
British TV shows do to portray Americans. It's quite painful (they
rarely have a convincing American "accent"), but even more excruciating
is the way the "Americans" act. I truly hope that's not what the rest
of the world really thinks we're like!


Well, that's a bit of an interesting one. I visit America several times a
year, so have a pretty reasonable idea of the way Americans behave when
at home, and I actually think that it *is* pretty much as
(over)portrayed, which is confident, loud, a little brash perhaps, but
the thing is, it doesn't come over that way when you are there, because
of the sheer size and scale of the place, and everything in it. Sort of
'being big, in a big place', if you will.

You're not helping... :-)

However, if you think about it, American TV, and the American people, do
much the same to Brits, in reverse. I bet if you try to imagine a British
person, not having been here, and having only TV as a reference, you come
up with the very conservative stiff upper lip,
plum-in-the-mouth-newsreader-accent Basil Fawlty stereotype. And I'm sure
that many of us probably come across that way when we are in your
country. But if you asked those people about that, like you, they would
probably be horrified that you perceived them in such a way. I guess that
also, you are basing your view of our view of Americans, on TV programmes
that are often made to be, if not full-on comedies, then at least
amusing, and that is where another huge difference between us comes in.
These TV programmes often employ a 'lampooning' style of humour, which
appeals to Brits, so the 'archetypal' American that might appear is
deliberately 'blown up' into the brash, loud clown, for just that
purpose. Think Fawlty Towers - the Waldorf Salad episode.

Right, but even the dramas that have "American" characters seem to go nuts
with the stereotype at times. Such as "Dead Again" (terrible movie, but
Kenneth Branagh did an *excellent* American dialect - Emma Thompson
absolutely sucks at it - both there and in "Primary Colors") When Branagh
was the American character, he was much more aggressive, loutish;
absolutely no class. It was depressing. LOL

By the same token, British characters may also be overblown to the same
purpose. Again, think The Major or Basil himself, in Fawlty Towers.
Whilst such people do genuinely exist, they are actually a rarity, but
many Americans that I know, expect all British people to be like that,
because they have seen things like Fawlty Towers, and the similarly
archetypal 'Brit' that the American TV people put into their comedy
shows.

Does any of that make any sense at all ?

Arfa


Absolutely. As a black woman, I know all too well that the media in
general tends to overdo any archetype, but I haven't yet seen a subtle
American in a British production. Maybe I've missed some?

Natalie
Captain Jack in the latest Doctor Who's, and the spinoff Torchwood, perhaps
? Know what you mean though. It seems that neither of us can get it right. I
too cringe when I see an American actor trying to do a British accent, or
worse a British dialect like east end London. When you consider what a
'global' thing entertainment is, and how closely linked the American and
British film and TV industries are, you would think that they could get it a
bit more right, wouldn't you? Perhaps, of course, we are looking at this
from the wrong angle. Maybe, it is more about expectations than reality. By
that I mean that although America is now the number one long haul holiday
destination in the UK, I still don't know many people besides myself, who go
regularly, or even have *ever* been there, so have no idea of the reality.
I'm willing to bet that the situation is similar there. So a pre-conceived
idea of what an American is like, has grown up here, and likewise, the same
has happened over there about Brits. The TV and film industries then just go
ahead and feed those notions.

Arfa