Why can Americans imitate the British accent, but British people cant imitate how Americans speak?

Answer 1

The average untrained person of any nationality will have trouble imitating any other accent or dialect, they tend to way over do ti, most differences are very small.

If one is a trained actor and trained in dialects (there are entire books that after much research phonetically spell out the sounds of different dialects for performance on stage) they can be VERY good at it.

Answer 2

An odd question. Actually Brits can, believe it or not imitate how Americans speak. Example: Hugh Laurie who plays the doctor on the TV show "House" is as British as they come.
From Wikipedia:
"Although Laurie has been a household name in Britain since the 1980s, he only really came to the attention of the American public in 2004, when he first starred as the acerbic resident physician Dr Gregory House in the popular FOX medical drama, House. For his portrayal, Laurie assumes an American accent. As the story goes, Laurie was in Namibia filming Flight of the Phoenix and recorded the audition tape for the show in the bathroom of the hotel — the only place he could get enough light. His U.S. accent was so convincing that the executive producer, Bryan Singer, who was unaware at the time that Laurie is British, pointed to him as an example of just the kind of compelling American actor he had been looking for. Laurie also adopts the voice between takes on the set of House, as well as during script read-throughs."

Answer 3

Perhaps the British don't think the American imitation of the British accent is all that good. We always think we sound good in another language, or accent, and would be mortified to know how we sound to them.

Answer 4

They can't! Americans can't do many accents very effectively. Their British, New Zealand and Australian accents are appalling and sound nothing like what they're supposed to be.
I guess to an American, the British don't sound very authentic either.

Answer 5

They can, I lived there for a bit. They don't much care for our dialect however...it's considered improper. They also don't seem to make fun of other cultures/dialects like they do in America, it is considered rude and disrespectful in most circles.

Answer 6

Not true-Dr. House has a heavy accent