Yattaruchan wrote:I am aware of that. And I didn't mean to imply GA and hb/rn are the only dialects in NA (or Ca).
Like most non NA/Ca people, yeah, I get most of my exposure from Movies/TV. But I also do get samplings from American news and Youtube/internet.
Anyway, my point is I get what you're saying, but I'd still think that generally, without getting to extreme cases, most American 'should' be understandable or other English speakers, unless they talk sloppily.
In a lot of Hong Kong movies and Japanese TV drama, one thing that always bugs me is that whenever they have westerners that speak english, they always sound SO wrong because they always try to sound artificially clear. Not remotely naturally sounding.
Not sure why. I don't think it's for the English speaker's benefit though. I know in Japan I think the government kinda encourages English learning for Japanese, so I suspect it has something to do with that. I don't know.
Does anybody else get a kick out if Eripon's golf swings?
If you're exposed to American English from people speaking normally, rather than just from people are supposed to speak a certain way for the camera/recorder, plenty of people "talk sloppily" even with a standard dialect. In fact, I'm listening in on my colleagues having a conversation right now and I can't imagine this being recorded for TV or anything because half the people are mumbling.