British is a gender.

Lesley Niyori wrote:
Books are where I hide from life actually. I live vicariously through them.

Oh, I have been heartbroken before. To varying degrees. It always hurts the same I have found.
It has come close to killing me too.

That is what I am saying. I am so broken that I cant even escape from it anymore. Whenever I read a fantasy my mind tells me I am pathetic and its just a weak pathetic attempt to hide from the fact that I am so alone and hopeless.

Plenty of British, indeed mostly English have a very posh accent. I'm watching horseracing from Ascot on TV at the moment. A lot of the horse racing fraternity come from a certain social class and their accent reflects that. The presenter Oli Bell is the quintessential handsome well spoken young Englishman. The female presenter, Francesca Cumani, despite her name and heritage has a very clipped upper class accent. While it's not a typical accent anymore, it's still very common.

It's the kind of accent that I think many non English people find attractive and even authoritative. Being Irish I certainly do. Accents are funny thing and vary widely. My neighbour is English with a Geordie accent, Way ay and all that. The chap who does my garden is also English but a southerner with a way different accent. I'm from Dublin and we're famous for out inability to pronounce th, so this, that these and those becomes: dis, dat, dese and doze. My wife when she lived in London was asked by her English friends to say 'Thirty, three and a third, then fell around laughing at the pronunciation. Even my nine year old makes fun of my difficulty with th's. He is very well spoken surprisingly, think of the kid in the comedy 'Young Sheldon'.


I think in America generally there is a pretty standard accent except for the well known exceptions down south and Texas. But on this side of the pond accents vary widely over quite small areas. I heard some local kids here talking but didn't understand a word. Yet many people around here have a very neutral accent. My kids do but so do I. In fact I'm regularly mistaken for being English. One friend of mine told me that when he met me first. I must have been irritated or something and said something offhand. He said he thought to himself 'This English bastard is going to give me trouble'. I thought it was quite funny or maybe I should jolly funny, old boy.

But I have to go now, Top of the mornin' to ya. Begorrah I have chase the pigs out of the parlour of my thatched cottage. Put on my flat cap and head to pub for a pint of the blackstuff. Bejaysus I can't wait. Slainte!

What is also quite funny, is lots of well spoken people cannot pronounce the letter 'r', it sounds like a 'w'. One chap in a local I used to go in to many years ago, used the term 'top rank' quite a lot. It sounded quite different! I was about the only one that thought that he said it on purpose.

That was a nice read Marie. Celia xx

I tend to find my accent while fairly neutral (nothing like the local accent were I grew up), is fairly fluid and I will subconsciously alter it to whom ever I am talking to aid understanding. The most extreme example is when I am in Kentucky USA I would slip into a more of BBC / "posh" voice so that I could be understood.

My own dad is hard for me to understand on the phone at times

He's from Bishops Stortford (a small town near Stanstead Airport northeast of London).

I love talking with him, but I tend to miss a lot of words

Celia Eriksson wrote:What is also quite funny, is lots of well spoken people cannot pronounce the letter 'r', it sounds like a 'w'. One chap in a local I used to go in to many years ago, used the term 'top rank' quite a lot. It sounded quite different! I was about the only one that thought that he said it on purpose.

That was a nice read Marie. Celia xx

Thanks Celia, Lucy Worsley for one. But she has a slight speech impediment. I absolutely adore her. She could make the phone book interesting. I love her female oriented TV historical programs without being preachy.
Of course Jonathan 'Woss' is another with r problems. But no one could call his accent posh!

mariehart1 wrote:

Celia Eriksson wrote:What is also quite funny, is lots of well spoken people cannot pronounce the letter 'r', it sounds like a 'w'. One chap in a local I used to go in to many years ago, used the term 'top rank' quite a lot. It sounded quite different! I was about the only one that thought that he said it on purpose.

That was a nice read Marie. Celia xx

Thanks Celia, Lucy Worsley for one. But she has a slight speech impediment. I absolutely adore her. She could make the phone book interesting. I love her female oriented TV historical programs without being preachy.
Of course Jonathan 'Woss' is another with r problems. But no one could call his accent posh!

Oh her and Mary Beard I could listen to allday! Please dont let any of them be terfs I would be very upset!

Hi Abby and Marie,

I doubt that either are TERFS Abby, they are far too educated. I admit to not knowing much about Mary, but I have watched Lucy on TV and she is a very knowledgeable young lady and her shows are always both educational and interesting. Best of all, she has no airs and graces about her, she just gets on with it and if you've watched her shows, she also has a sense of fun and is up for a little fun, with plenty of humility about it to boot. I have to admit, I never thought of her with the dropped 'r's sounding like 'w's, but now you mention it she sure does. When we do it, it's cute, when a man does it, let's face it, it's funny!

Celia xx

MBs Twitter is brilliant, along with mark Hamiltons are the only non trans ones I follow. Got her history of Rome to read on holiday this year.

I'll look her up Abby and learn more. The only thing about Mary that I knew was the way lots of ignorant folk were quite rude to her a couple of years ago..... (like everyone on tv has to look like Marylin Monroe or something)..... she seemed quite normal to me.

Oh, just looked, she's a novelist. I am wading through Lucy Maud Montgomery's stuff, there is a lot and I mean a lot! And not a bad novel amongst her works, quality and quantity, that's rare.... I like the Victorian, Edwardian and classic books, even the Victorian penny dreadfuls, one day I will start reading modern stuff again.

Celia xx

(joining the conversation at an arbitrary point - sorry!)

I could not understand most of the dialogue in 'Trainspotting'. Several British TV exports have secondary audio programming in American English.

The most perfect English accent I was ever privileged to listen to was from a younger (mid-twenties) Indian export to the U.S. He was schooled wholly by British teachers in English schools in Calcutta (Kolkata). I would buy him lunch every time he came back to the office from a client.

I also had a neighbor in the 1980s who, and his entire family, were from London. I could understand every word they spoke to me as their English was perfect. There were some terms I didn't understand - but then, he didn't understand baseball and my passion about the sport.

I think there is a 'laziness' in how some speak a language. There are street dialects in the States I cannot understand - Boston (and New England) residents are sometimes very difficult for me. I once had to call 411 information for Tulsa, OK. The operator was so unintelligible that I had to ask to speak to her supervisor.
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Apologies for butting in...!

MichaelaSJ wrote:(joining the conversation at an arbitrary point - sorry!)

Me too!

As a person on the schizophrenia spectrum, I voluntarily do not possess a firearm. The damage I would have done at my worst with a gun is unfathomable.

Apologies for butting in...!

Me too!

Kaibeth wrote:

As a person on the schizophrenia spectrum, I voluntarily do not possess a firearm. The damage I would have done at my worst with a gun is unfathomable.

No idea what this has to do with british as a gender, but judging from the out-of-context way you post that does not seem like a bad idea. However, to imply that all persons with a history of mental illness should be barred from guns, is very ablist and transphobic, and daresay Nazi-ish even. The mentally ill had their guns banned by hitler, same as the jews. What you seem to be doing, is fulfilling the role of an obedient jew.

MichaelaSJ wrote:(joining the conversation at an arbitrary point - sorry!)

I could not understand most of the dialogue in 'Trainspotting'. Several British TV exports have secondary audio programming in American English.

The most perfect English accent I was ever privileged to listen to was from a younger (mid-twenties) Indian export to the U.S. He was schooled wholly by British teachers in English schools in Calcutta (Kolkata). I would buy him lunch every time he came back to the office from a client.

I also had a neighbor in the 1980s who, and his entire family, were from London. I could understand every word they spoke to me as their English was perfect. There were some terms I didn't understand - but then, he didn't understand baseball and my passion about the sport.

I think there is a 'laziness' in how some speak a language. There are street dialects in the States I cannot understand - Boston (and New England) residents are sometimes very difficult for me. I once had to call 411 information for Tulsa, OK. The operator was so unintelligible that I had to ask to speak to her supervisor.
_____________________________________________

Apologies for butting in...!

Hi Miki!

Well, it's funny you mention Boston, coz I was listening to a man on MASH called Major Winchester just last night and I was amazed just how much he sounded English to my ear and so I looked him up but he is American. I've also watched a programme about fishermen out of around the east coast, is it Yarmouth? Around Cape Cod anyway and they had English West Country accents, mixed with a teeny weeny little bit of Yankee, it was quite strange!


Celia xx

I could have sworn there was brief mention of the mentally ill being forced to have their guns taken in this thread. I'm off my game.

Regardless, my voluntary non-ownership of said firearm said absolutely nothing about other people, or the government's role.

I have chosen for myself to not be a threat to my neighbors.

HA! Found the relevant post, and Angelic, dear, you started the gun talk!

I KNEW I wasn't as crazy as I used to be!

Angelic wrote:
Green party wants to ban guns of the mentally ill, so they are same as Hitler, they want mentally ill to be vulnerable and die, they are also transphobic, because I have been diagnosed as mentally ill and they want to ban my guns so that I will be defenseless against bigots, and when the government starts killing civilians I won't have anything to defend against the soldiers.

Hi Everyone,

Talking guns is fine, but why not start in a new topic. I know lots of topics deviate a little, I'm as guilty as anyone of doing that, but we will be cross talking here about wildly different subjects, unless ya want to say the Brits don't use guns much, not that it's made much difference, many idiots can get them easily enough, or use knives and acid. I won't move it, if we want a gun chat, it's just that gun chats in the past have got more than a little heated. Personally, I hate guns, but that's me.
Celia xx

Celia Eriksson wrote:Well, it's funny you mention Boston, coz I was listening to a man on MASH called Major Winchester just last night and I was amazed just how much he sounded English to my ear and so I looked him up but he is American.

David Allen Ogden Stiers was the actor who played Major Winchester on MASH. It was Ogdens schtick to play like he had a schtick up his butt. He is/was (died  March 3, 2018 ) a good actor and I usually enjoyed his performances.

Oh Miki! I love MASH and watch it often, they rerun all the way through on British TV and Major Winchester is quite established after Major Frank Burns left recently at this point in the series'. I think he payed a great character and I am very sorry that the actor, David Stiers, as you have informed me has passed on. Actually, he is my kinda guy, I know that sounds disrespectful, but he is. Anyway, he must have felt bad playing a stooge to Hawkeye and BJ's antics, though in one episode he teamed up with them against someone else.

The characters were terrific, Hotlips, Klinger, Radar, Henry, Potter, BJ, Winchester, Burns, Trapper, Hawkeye and the Chaplain et al.

I always feel old when people I knew in series I remember watching when young pass on, but not nearly as sad. RIP David, you are still entertaining people like myself to this day.  xx

Interesting detail, the characters from the film Mash, which the show is obviously taken from, were actual people.

Lesley Niyori wrote:Interesting detail, the characters from the film Mash, which the show is obviously taken from, were actual people.

Whoah!!! I never knew that Lesley, I always thought it was pure fiction, that's amazing! I must look up more about the series, I've been watching lots lately, they made plenty and it will take me months to get through them all!

I've not had a lot of free time lately, truly to myself..... just always so busy, but I am determined, that Monday, my first day off, I'm gonna do absolutely nothing coz I need a rest. That would be except catch up on lots here, pamper myself bigtime and chill.

I may even add to my fun thread! Or as I had this idea a while ago, if ya not doing anything Lesley we can PM/e-mail girl chat about anything and everything! It'd be afternoon/evening here and morning/afternoon for you though, and Miki, if you want to join in three way chat too! I reckon it could be cool! Though I don't know how that would work, I'm sure one of you would know, but I'm sure it can be done! I'm doing absolutely nothing Monday..... official!!!!

Celia xx

I'm always open for some form of group banter Celia.
Just pick a day and I'm open.

Lucy Catherine Schoon wrote:Lots of our sitcoms were actually remain in your country. Lots of your most popular sit coma are actually British remakes.

Some of the sitcoms that made it here don't even register as comedies to me. I loved "Are You Being Served," always got a good laugh watching that pretentious old Hyacinth Bucket get her comeuppance in "Keeping Up Appearances," "Waiting for God" had its charms, and I love the absurdist humor of "Red Dwarf."

However, "As Time Goes By" just didn't do anything for me. When PBS started running it here I watched the first episode. There wasn't anything there that registered with me as a joke. I continued watching it because it was the bridge between "Are You Being Served" and "The Red Green Show" (a Canadian "redneck sketch comedy" show for those unfamiliar with it), but it never did register as a comedy with me and the dramatic elements were so mild that it left me thinking it was just one of those things that only lasted beyond the pilot because apparently people liked watching Judy Dench.

I asked an Australian friend about it and she verified that it's a sitcom, one that she found quite hilarious, I talked to a British couple in Second Life who said it was the funniest show they've seen before looking down on me for liking Are You Being Served, but to me there was no humor and the plots of each episode were so mild that to me it was just like watching home movies of an elderly British married couple.

...one foot in the grave was just another thing ruined by bill Cosby....

I've never seen One Foot in the Grave, but I'm familiar enough with Cosby's body of work to confidently state that they only borrowed the basic premise of a man forced into retirement with a boomerang child. Beyond that it was pretty much taken from his standup material.

Hi Tiffany!!!

Well, As Time Goes By was quite different tbh, the main character played by Geoffrey Palmer, now 91 btw. Palmer is an actor with very dry, ironic wit and I am sure it was written with him in mind as the humour is just that, ironic and dry, not to everyone's taste. I like Judi Dench, she is a superb actress and Ladies In Lavender is a must watch!!!

Are You Being Served? is from the same genre of British comedy as Dad's Army, 'Allo 'Allo and It 'Aint Half Hot Mum They are archetypical British comedy series and much revered over here.

But we do get American humour, I simply loved Newhart and still watch it on YouTube occasionally. When you think about it there has been quite dark American comedies, M*A*S*H for example, which was loved over here as much as it was enjoyed in the USA. It's another that I watch frequently along with Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, both big hits in the UK.

The most successful over here is/was undoubtedly Friends, superb American humour that is simply brilliant. The only modern one that really hits the mark over here now is Big Bang Theory, it is very good and I watch that sometimes too.

I guess we are not so distant cousins after all.... Celia xx

It is probably more of a product of my personality (depressed) but I have not watched a 30 minute comedy or any of the 'reality' shows in decades. I did like some of the original stuff from England - but the U.S. made stuff is for the simple minded (IMO).

Give me a good drama or docudrama anytime. I just finished the 3-part 'Queen Elizabeth's Secret Agents' last night and it surely beat out the U.S. produced racially insensitive 'The Neighborhood' or 'Man With a Plan'.