Can you Brits understand this video?

Question

I had a somewhat hard time comprehending the British accent in London. (Which is why I would turn to American TV programs to feel at home)

A lot of you speak like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIIY-5MjZLE

I no problem comprehending the Canadian accent, but why am I having such a hard time comprehend the British one? Why do you people speak with such a heavy accent?

Answer 1

Wow, I am an American who understood the clip. I've been in London for a couple years now. When I first got here, I would have had no clue. "Am I bovverd?" Well Tony Blair is making fun of the character, whose mantra is "Am I boverd (bothered)?". Basically she says this when she's being confronted by authority figures, teachers, police, etc. The character is supposed to be representing a teenager from a London comprehensive school. That's her whole schtick, saying "Am I bovverd?" with a bad attitude to get out of troublesome situations with teachers and the like. Tony Blair, head of the government, head authority figure is now saying it back! Anyway it's making fun of South London teenagers as far as I can see. Yeah, only Brits would find it really funny.

When I first got here, sometimes I didn't understand people, but now I mostly do, with the exception of some Scottish people.

Answer 2

Thanks for that link. I've been wanting to see that cos I missed Comic Relief. Brilliant!
Anyway, to answer your question, the person in the clip is imitating teenagers and generally Brits don't speak like that unless they're teenagers with attitude. Same way if I went to the Bronx for example I probably wouldn't understand a word they say.
We don't all speak with a heavy accent - it varies a lot depending on where you go. I think anyone from different countries has trouble understanding each other.
I speak with a home counties accent which is almost like having no accent so I would say quite easy to understand. A few years ago I went to Londonderry in Northern Ireland where I was trying to have a conversation with this girl. Bear in mind that we're both speaking English but I couldn't understand a thing she said (understandable but she had a really thick Northern Ireland accent) but she also couldn't understand a word I said which I found really bizarre because as I said I don't really have much of an accent.
Just one of those mysteries of life I suppose!

Answer 3

I'm afraid it's the way we're born. I'm from Sunderland in the North East, I'm classed as a Mackem and our accent is a softer version of the Geordie accent.

For some reason, our accents change about every ten miles or so. It's just part of our ... charm.

Thanks for the clip, that part of comic relief was on after I left for work, I taped it but I haven't watched it yet. apart from the sound being seriously out of sync, yes, I understood every word, Catherine Tate is a very popular comedienne, not to my tastes but she must have something. Only the cream of British comedy make it onto Comic Relief, which must say a lot about us to the rest of the world.

And obviously, the Prime Minister speaks perfect and measured English.

Answer 4

Yes - us Brits understand this just great. I am a Brit who has lived in Canada for the past18 years so it was refreshing to hear an unfettered British accent. There is so much slang and we tend to leave letters off words, so it's not really surprising that we are misunderstood.

Answer 5

That girl is a character called Lauren, from the catherine tate show. she is what we call a chav. that is a classic chav accent. chav=uk version of white trash/ ghetto wannabes