Stephen <mcavoysAT@aolDOTcom> wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Aug 2009 05:41:12 +0200, clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> >Then I drove down to the English Midlands, and at some point had to ask
> >for directions late at night. I stopped and asked some bloke that
> >happened to be there. He told me, and I nodded and thanked him politely.
> >
> >Then I drove further down the road to ask someone else... >_<
>
> Scots is a Germanic language and if you have a noticeable German accent the
> people will speak slowly. Which is more than can be said of a lot of people in
> the midlands (Bill excepted, I'm sure :). They make no allowances for outsiders.

Well actually if you'd asked me for directions you'd hear a generic southern,
possibly south london accent - I don't originate from these parts!

I think a lot of the difficulty with understanding brits (I'm sure this holds
true in other languages too) is the huge variation in vernacular and idiom.
Rhyming slang in particular, a great deal of which has been absorbed into
standard english without many people noticing - there's a brilliant and
hilarious scene in Guy Ritchie's 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' where a
minor character relates a story using well over 50% cockney rhyming slang. Even
the english versions of the film subtitled that scene!

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