British people are finally honest in a poll

[Dauphin]

Americans rarely realise I'm English, as I have a pretty strong Somerset accent. They usually look puzzled and ask if I'm Irish or Australian.

As amusing anecdotes go, I've had Americans comment to me that "You Germans have really good English". When my wife and I are together many Europeans get confused as to where we are from as we have very different accents.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Now that's damning.

[Hauldren Collider]

You brits can't expect us to be familiar with all your crazy dialects, particularly when the only British Isles accents we're really exposed to are the Queen, Sean Connery and that leprechaun in the Lucky Charms commercials.

[Dr Strangelove]

It's axiomatic that when someone makes an English language movie about Rome they will find a posh English actor to play the emperor or the patrician. It was hilarious though that when the movie Alexander was made they chose Scottish accents for most of Alexander's staff.

[Uncle Sparky]

... I've had Americans comment to me that "You Germans have really good English".

Have you considered shaving off that little moustache?

When my wife and I are together many Europeans get confused as to where we are from as we have very different accents.

Oh, those silly colonials...

[Dauphin]

It's axiomatic that when someone makes an English language movie about Rome they will find a posh English actor to play the emperor or the patrician. It was hilarious though that when the movie Alexander was made they chose Scottish accents for most of Alexander's staff.

Why were mostly Irish actors doing Scottish accents?

[I AM MOBIUS]

Uh huh... you may indeed go ahead and try, but don't try to fool yourself that American women aren't thinking of Colin Firth or Benedict Cumberbatch when they hear "British accent".

Or MOBIUS...

Whilst I may be Welsh, it is a fact that I have the archetypal cut-glass British accent...

Here in Wales I'm considered 'posh' and public school educated people consider me as one of 'them' - which is frankly a bit of an insult!

(though y'all got nothing on Australians in the seduction accent dept, FWIW - there is a reason we cast Brits as villains in our movies but not Australians )

And we all know the women really love the bad boys - so far two American ladies have fallen victim to my charms, and I haven't even really been trying...

[Elok]

Ken, watch any of our movies featuring Brits (even Brits-as-other-foreigners). The accent they go for is always posh. If you sound like Mick Jagger, and you don't have Mick Jagger's money, you have no particular advantage here.

[Kidlicious]

I wish my country was so enlightened.

I wish there weren't so many bigots.

[Kidlicious]

And an accent that makes American women horny.

The stereotype of British men is not good here. "Not one of you has got any balls."
Actually that's Monty Python.

[kentonio]

Ken, watch any of our movies featuring Brits (even Brits-as-other-foreigners). The accent they go for is always posh. If you sound like Mick Jagger, and you don't have Mick Jagger's money, you have no particular advantage here.

a) No-one sounds like Mick Jagger except for Mick Jagger
b) I'll take my own personal experiences over your bitterness any day

[Elok]

What, do American women routinely tell you they're only doing it for your accent before hopping in the sack? Or are you, IRL, such a sack of crap that you simply can't conceive of any other reason why they might want it? Have you considered the possibility that you're really quite good at finding American sluts?

Also, what exactly is an "American accent"? Even we often find the NJ-NY-Boston type accents insufferable. But those are very different from Southern types, which are not strictly the same as Appalachian or Texan, etc. The Eastern Shore accent is fairly "neutral," and mine more neutral still.

EDIT: why would I be bitter? I'm married, and even when I was single I was still too religious to go trolling for *****.

[kentonio]

What, do American women routinely tell you they're only doing it for your accent before hopping in the sack? Or are you, IRL, such a sack of crap that you simply can't conceive of any other reason why they might want it? Have you considered the possibility that you're really quite good at finding American sluts?

Or perhaps I've just had many American women telling me I should spend more time in the states because my accent is sexy as hell?

Also, what exactly is an "American accent"? Even we often find the NJ-NY-Boston type accents insufferable. But those are very different from Southern types, which are not strictly the same as Appalachian or Texan, etc. The Eastern Shore accent is fairly "neutral," and mine more neutral still.

Just file them all under 'mangled English'.

EDIT: why would I be bitter? I'm married, and even when I was single I was still too religious to go trolling for *****.

That's the question isn't it Elok, why? Why does it force you to weep bitter nationalistic tears while you look back at the endless opportunities you wasted by thinking more about an invisible man in the sky than the hot girls all around you? Why? I just don't know...

[I AM MOBIUS]

[Elok]

Seriously, I don't want your life. I had the chance at one point, but I found the prospect revolting on all but the most superficial levels. If you like it, good on you. And I'm really not very nationalistic at all; every day I work, I stand in silence during the Pledge.

I am saying, as a matter of my experience, that most Americans are not really aware that there is more than one English accent, and think of "English accent" as "how Hugh Grant talks." I believe this is largely a matter of cultural programming, because by convention our movie directors give propah English accents to every foreign character they want to seem sympathetic or respectable. It's a kind of shorthand for "this character is exotic, but not in a scary way." Perhaps you have one of those accents, or something close enough that we can't tell. Don't care.