Speed Bump by Dave Coverly for June 05, 2023

We sometimes do that for even “american english” movies… because old ears don’t distinguish the voice from the background on the sound track.

In my dorm, there were two students from England and one from Scotland. None of us could understand more than about half what the Scot said.

Just wait until the German Shepherds come on.

I’d need em if the dog on the right is from Bawstun

As an English Setter owner, I can avow they are quirky dogs.

Mine are always on.

I was watching a few minutes of some turgid drama set in the north of England once and laughed to see English subtitles. The accents were that thick.

English from England isn’t hard to follow but the same can’t be said for English from down under". NZ is the hardest to follow.

I don’t have a problem with English Setters. The Irish Setters can be a tad tricky though.

Anyways, a spot of tea?

When My mother worked for a company that made historical clothing, they had a couple from Scotland who wanted clothes made for a war reenactment. The Manager of the company was American and she had to get my mother to act as an interpreter as she was Scottish by birth. The thing is mum was brought up in England and has a British accent which is why her boss could understand but mum could understand the Scottish accent as her dad was Scottish and had a really strong accent. The funny thing about the who;e thing was that the boss asked mum why he kept talking about chickens. When mum asked what she meant she said he kept talking about hens. Mum laughed and said that “hen” is a term of endearment in Scotland like honey or sweetheart.

Even though I consider myself an Anglophile, I once watched a movie where the English was so difficult to understand that I DID have to turn on subtitles. Cold Comfort Farm was the film.

When watching a Brit movie, subtitles are absolutely needed, along with a Brit to American dictionary

I had an English Setter, and they are beautiful, but not nearly as pretty as Irish Setters, of which I had two.

I keep the closed captions on all the time no matter what language or dialect the characters are speaking. When I’m dealing with a person who speaks with an accent greatly different from mine, I find myself wishing I could turn on the closed captions for him/her.

The confusion is Britain all over their faces.

I don’t normally have any trouble understanding British English, but the original dialect of “Kes” was so difficult they added an alternate audio to the disc. Too bad I didn’t discover that before watching the whole movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jHfY0dDZxA

I understand the English setters better than I understand the French poodles.

Every once in a while I like to post this very short video:

https://youtu.be/ySyBMTo-1sc

Same here on all BritBox…

I find myself doing this more and more with movies and television. I admit there is a possibility my hearing is diminishing with age, but I understand normal conversation just fine. But movies and television— methinks their sound editors think mud is crystal clear.

Have directors forgotten how to tell actors to “slow down and speak more clearly”? And the low-tone, barely audible conversations… we can’t hear the actors whisper when the boom mike is 6 feet away!

Okay, rant for the day over. On to the next rant. mwahahahaaa….

Who’s got the remote?????? :)