Why are so many young Americans adopting fake British accents?

Re:Why are so many young Americans adopting fake British acc... by stevekemp on Monday May 15, 2023 @12:04PM (#35950444)

I moved to Finland, from the UK, and I can identify many of the local people as having grown up listening to American TV.

It's a little disconcerting to hear American words ("fall", not "autumn"), and New York accents from people who've spent their lives in Helsinki.

Still I come from the UK, and for me it's easy to place which part of the country people spent their formative years - sometimes even which half of a city somebody has grown up in, let alone the changes you hear across 20-25 miles.

(I'm doing my part, raising a child born in Finland to understand Rab C. Nesbit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc4gB89LN7o It's also a well-known fact that Scottish accents aren't easy for voice recognition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbDnxzrbxn4 )

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Re:Why are so many young Americans adopting fake British acc... by FanaHOVA on Monday May 15, 2023 @12:21PM (#35950682)

> It's a little disconcerting to hear American words ("fall", not "autumn"), and New York accents from people who've spent their lives in Helsinki.

Why is it disconcerting? Should people adopt a British accent simply because it’s closer geographically even if most English media they consume is American?

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Re:Why are so many young Americans adopting fake British acc... by stevekemp on Monday May 15, 2023 @12:32PM (#35950849)

I can recognize my bias, but I grew up in the UK and so to me English is British-English.

Words like "fall" are something I've only heard on TV until moving here. (Or when visiting America.)

I appreciate American media is global these days, so people will pick up on the dialect, but it's still a little alien to me. I could hear "fall" a hundred times in films, but if everybody I ever spoke to about autumn holidays said "autumn" that's the one that feels more natural to hear.

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Re:Why are so many young Americans adopting fake British acc... by pbhjpbhj on Monday May 15, 2023 @12:51PM (#35951112)

One child in a family of my acquaintance uses Americanisms, despite heavy correction from their siblings. I think it's a 'Netflix Effect', it's cheaper to buy USA programming than make British-English voiced programmes.

Aside, try "Scotland the What" if you're interested in some different Scottish accents (I think they're mainly Highland, Doric Scots).

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