European immigrants to UK speak American English

Posted by: warwick on 12 August 2012

I live in a flatshare in London. Two of my flatmates are from elsewhere in the EU. They only watch American television programmes, e.g. sitcoms. One of them usually uses greetings such as 'hey buddy'.

 

Now surely it would seem odd if Spanish immigrants to Germany only watched Australian shows ?

I was told that American English sounds clearer and that it can be hard for non Brits to follow Geordie or Glaswegian accents. Perhaps there are more cultural references in British programmes.

So globalisation equals Americanisation.

Posted on: 12 August 2012 by Cbr600
Sounds like a load of "pony and trap" to me!!!
Posted on: 12 August 2012 by Adam Meredith
Originally Posted by warwick:

Now surely it would seem odd if Spanish immigrants to Germany only watched Australian shows ?

Odder by far than a non-English speaker watching (American) English programs in an English speaking country.

 

Your 'question' verges on a statement, made interrogative by an implied 'High rising terminal'.

 

You caught this from Australian programs?

Posted on: 12 August 2012 by osprey
So there is not enough telenovelas available in British TV at the moment.
Posted on: 12 August 2012 by Adam Meredith
Not Originally Posted by osprey:
So there are not enough telenovelas available in British TV at the moment?
Posted on: 12 August 2012 by osprey
… or Deutsche Krimi series (or Danske komedier).
Posted on: 12 August 2012 by osprey
… and Adam, thanks for educating me.
Posted on: 12 August 2012 by Derry

Most english nationals, or so I believe, watch more US and Aussie tv shows than they do proper English ones - what is the world coming to - innit?

Posted on: 12 August 2012 by DrMark

"One of them usually uses greetings such as 'hey buddy'."

 

Don't become overly concerned unless it degenerates to 'waddup dawg!'

Posted on: 12 August 2012 by EJS

"Greetings, co-worker! Say, mighty fine tea, what? Well, must be off, toodle pip!"

Posted on: 12 August 2012 by joerand

Get a few Schwartzenegger and Stallone action films for them to watch.  See if they still think American English is clearer.

Posted on: 12 August 2012 by Tony2011

Nein, my freund!

 

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.
If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.
 
Zench yu!
 
KR
Tony
Posted on: 12 August 2012 by JamieL_v2
Originally Posted by Derry:

Most english nationals, or so I believe, watch more US and Aussie tv shows than they do proper English ones - what is the world coming to - innit?

That said does anyone make programmes  to such as high standard as HBO in the US? I was really jealous when a friend of mine got to work with David Simon for HBO a couple of years ago, and fairly releived when we didn't work on Dr. Who.

 

I was also talking the other day with my partner about police, fire, ambulance sirens, about how they changed years ago to the American wail, presumably to an extent influenced by people watching US TV and no longer recognising out good old 'na, na'. There are probably some sonic studies to it all too.

Posted on: 12 August 2012 by joerand
Originally Posted by JamieL_v2:
That said does anyone make programmes  to such as high standard as HBO in the US? I was really jealous when a friend of mine got to work with David Simon for HBO a couple of years ago, and fairly releived when we didn't work on Dr. Who.

I don't get HBO here in the US, but of the more mainstream cable channels I think that AMC and FX have shown some decent series (e.g., 'Breaking Bad' and 'The Shield').  'The Hatfields and McCoys' recently ran on the History Channel and was excellent.  I'm not sure these channels are actually making the programs as much as buying them from producers.  Maybe that's the game everywhere, though. 

Posted on: 12 August 2012 by jfritzen
Originally Posted by warwick:

Now surely it would seem odd if Spanish immigrants to Germany only watched Australian shows ?

 

Ahemm, Austrian please, if you meant "Kottan ermittelt" and the like.

Posted on: 13 August 2012 by Gale 401

Posted on: 13 August 2012 by Peter Dinh
Originally Posted by warwick:

So globalisation equals Americanisation.

it seems like that at the moment (for better or worse).

Posted on: 14 August 2012 by Jono 13
Originally Posted by DrMark:

"One of them usually uses greetings such as 'hey buddy'."

 

Don't become overly concerned unless it degenerates to 'waddup dawg!'


Rather than "Hello Gaylords!"

 

Jono