On 12/18/2017 at 6:30 AM, kmealy said:

Kentucky, and Poland)

Almost as bad as  Yuppers?

 

Once worked as a translater.....between an Instructor from New Hampsheer.....and a couple of fellas from Ar-kee-saw.....

 

An Olde Mick from Ohio....

 

have a few friends in New Brunswick.....

On 12/18/2017 at 2:41 PM, schnewj said:

 

 

I think the worst was when I met a guy from England with a Geordie accent.  I had to just sort of smile and look around at others to see if I could figure out what he was saying, if it was even English. 

 

4 hours ago, steven newman said:

Almost as bad as  Yuppers?

 

Once worked as a translater.....between an Instructor from New Hampsheer.....and a couple of fellas from Ar-kee-saw.....

 

An Olde Mick from Ohio....

 

have a few friends in New Brunswick.....

Four of my  grandkids are Yoopers.   I don't think they have much of that accent which to me, is a cross between Canadian and Minnesotan (watch Fargo for that).

 

I had a co-worker from NW Arkansas.   He went to Germany in the service in the '60s, married a German woman and lived there for 25 years before returning to USA.   He had some friends from D visit and took them to South Carolina.   He had a big laugh trying to get the English-speaking Germans to communicate with the SC waitresses.

4 hours ago, steven newman said:

Almost as bad as  Yuppers?

 

Once worked as a translater.....between an Instructor from New Hampsheer.....and a couple of fellas from Ar-kee-saw.....

 

An Olde Mick from Ohio....

 

have a few friends in New Brunswick.....

OK here is a good one to tell...we were having trouble with one of the metal lathes in the machine shop. Two of the Facilities Engineers were trying to discuss the cause and the possible fix for the MRM's (Machine Repair Mechanics) to pursue.

 

Let me set the scene. Mel who was from South America and had a slight speech impediment was trying to discuss the issue with Chris, a Mississippi country boy from up around Tylertown (So. central MS). Chris had this high squeaky voice. Both had work together for several years and sat two desks away from each other.

 

Every time Mel would say something, Chris would say, "what he say, what he say", in his high squeaky Mississippi country boy twang. So, I would repeat it to Chris. Then Chris would reply and Mel would turn to me and very s l o w l y say, "Ah, ah, ah, what did he say, Bill", in his heavily accented English. I would then proceed to repeat (read translate) Chris's question back to Mel. This back and forth exchange went on for a good 15 minutes, with me having to "translate" every question, statement, and possible routes to fix the problem.

 

All of a sudden I realized that I was hearing suppressed snickers from behind me. When I turned around, four of the six MRM's in the shop had pulled up chairs and were watching the exchanges. The other two couldn't contain their laughter anymore and had left the shop.

Was it Winnie that said that Americans and the English were separated by a common language?  Well, he didn't know the half of it. Us Muricans are separated by that same language.