Mar
16
I’m Sorry, I Don’t Understand a Word
ByI was standing at Pacific Street in Brooklyn yesterday morning waiting for the N train into Manhattan when I heard a group of tourists talking nearby. They sounded Scandinavian so I moved a bit closer (my wife is Danish and I think I have picked up her habit of listening out for Danes).
After about 15 seconds of pretending to read the Arts section of the Times while surreptitiously listening in, I decided they must be Swedish because I couldn’t pick out a single word.
A few minutes later I heard one of them say: “Honest to god, it was hell to get me jammies on.”
It was then that I realized they were Scottish.
12 Comments
March 16th, 2006 at 9:36 am
On a tour I had taken of the southwest US, overheard a couple speaking on the tour bus. I thought they were South African, because I’d been told there were South Africans on our tour. After listening very closely, it turned out that they too were Scottish.
March 16th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
I know this sounds ‘very American’ but I used to get all the English based languages mixed up-Australian, English, etc. until I started dating my boyfriend who is a Kiwi. Now I can decifer between everything BUT the Scottish, I still sometimes think they are not speaking English. How American do I sound? Is it in the movie About Adam that all the stars speak in a Scottish accent? Well, I couldn’t even understand the movie becasue of the thick accents.
March 16th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Aliandra, did you think they were speaking Afrikaans or English?
March 16th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
pdberger;
I assumed it was Afrikaans. It certainly sounded foreign – until I heard more of it. I’ve met Scots on other tours and had to listen very carefully to understand them.
They had no problem understanding my English.
March 16th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
Also wanted to add … the local TV channel in my area (Northeast USA) was doing a documentary on the Scottish fishing industry. When they interviewed the Scottish locals, they put the “translation” on the screen in the form of subtitles. I guess it was cheaper than dubbing, LOL.
March 16th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
What about when they leave subtitles for Oasis??? That’s hysterical.
March 16th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
The accent they’re speaking in About Adam isn’t Scottish, but Irish. As for the main character, played by Kate Hudson, a pretty bad fake Irish for that matter. I really don’t see what’s so hard to understand about it though. You have problems understanding people from Kansas too? I’m not even a native speaker of English, and I understand every form perfectly. So do most of my friends. What’s up with that?
March 16th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Hey Scots,
I think there’s an English guy making of you guys….
March 16th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Fecking english
March 17th, 2006 at 3:52 am
My sister lives in Glasgow. We were once there for a family Christmas, but as there were so many of us, we had to spill over to a hotel close by. I took a taxi on Christmas morning from the hotel to the house – a five-minute drive. In that time, I understood two words the taxi-driver said: “fuckin’” and “nationalism”. It was a gripping ride.
March 17th, 2006 at 9:58 am
As someone with a ‘Midwest American TV broadcaster neutral’ accent, I have no trouble understanding Kiwis, Scots, Irish, etc. But what I love about the Scots is how they *curse*. I mean, I was a soldier for years and use the f-word like a comma – these guys curse MORE! My favorite was a TV interview with a female singer – she sounded like a sailor with Tourette’s!
March 21st, 2006 at 7:46 am
Scots have accents!
…in other news the sun rises at dawn.