Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard XX
[0] I'm David Farrier, in New Zealand accidentally marooned in America, and I want to figure out what makes this country tick.
[1] Now, one of the amazing things about making a podcast about America is that I'm slowly getting to see a lot of America, and that means I get to hear a lot of America too.
[2] And wherever you end up in America, it sounds different.
[3] Americans sound different.
[4] He was one of the best pizza guys ever in New York.
[5] Someone in New York sounds different to someone in Philadelphia.
[6] New York might say they have the best sub sandwiches, hero, and stuff like that.
[7] Subway, and not to offend anybody, compared to the real Italian hoagies, it's not even close.
[8] And the Americans in New York and Philly definitely sound different to the Americans in, say, the Everglades.
[9] Hell, I was seven, eight years old, I was off on my own, you know.
[10] Same with, like, the fishing.
[11] I had a boat before, I had a driver's license.
[12] And that's different to how locals sound in a small town out of Oklahoma City that had just been hit by a tornado.
[13] Where are you from?
[14] I'm from New Zealand.
[15] New Zealand, oh, man, you've been walking far.
[16] Even up in the attic, where we make the show, everyone sounds wildly different.
[17] Throw up very loudly.
[18] I mean, loudly, loudly, loudly.
[19] And the dough ferments longer than New York style.
[20] Oh my God.
[21] I'm going to be honest.
[22] Half the time on the show, I don't know what anyone's really saying.
[23] My New Zealand ears desperately trying to filter these strange, wonderful voices all around me. I want to start trying to make sense of this weird mess and try and find out what the hell everyone's saying.
[24] So, get ready to figure out what your tongue's up to and how you're moving those lips, because this is the accent episode.
[25] Flightless, flightless bird touchdown in America.
[26] We're always talking about my accent so much.
[27] I thought, why don't we turn the tables and listen to your weird, strange voices that often don't make sense to me. This is really fun.
[28] I'm very excited for this episode.
[29] What's your favorite accent, an American accent, that just sounds the best to you?
[30] Southern accents feel familiar to me, so I like them.
[31] But I'm always so fascinated by Midwest accents when they're, like, Wisconsin is so specific.
[32] Or did anyone watch that show with Kate Winslet?
[33] Mayor of East Town?
[34] Yes.
[35] I think it's in Philly or something.
[36] Yeah, it's Pennsylvania.
[37] Okay, Pennsylvania is so specific.
[38] The ones that have these teeny tiny variations.
[39] Yeah, and I find some of them sound.
[40] I guess not coming from here some of them just sound like I'm in a TV show so whenever I hear a Boston accent I can't think oh that's just a Boston accent I feel like I'm in a show because it's so distinct and for some reason I think there's just a lot of things based in Boston that I end up watching and it doesn't seem real to me and I think I'm getting used to L .A I think L .A. feels sort of normal -ish to me now and the other thing that's so interesting is that if any New Zealander leaves New Zealand and gets an American accent New Zealand turns on them.
[41] They hate it.
[42] Oh, really?
[43] They hate it.
[44] I think Lord one time rolled an R on a word and New Zealand was like, oh -oh.
[45] New Zealand needs to chill.
[46] We do need to chill.
[47] Yeah, it's pretty funny.
[48] So, yeah, there's that aspect to it as well that I find very funny.
[49] What would be the one American accent you wouldn't want to have?
[50] Oh, no, I can't.
[51] That's really mean and I'm not doing it.
[52] Good, good answer.
[53] You think L .A. has an accent?
[54] Yeah, it's sort of stone and slow.
[55] And everyone says, I guess it's more a dialect, but people say like a lot.
[56] Oh, like Valley or Surfer, I guess.
[57] Yeah, it's like I'm watching Point Break.
[58] Everyone's just like a bit like, yeah.
[59] Do you have the inclination to repeat an accent if you're hearing a really strong one?
[60] Yeah, actually, this is interesting.
[61] When I was watching a lot of friends, I've talked about this a little bit, I started picking up a bit of their accents, I guess, which was a bit American.
[62] I really idolized Ross.
[63] I thought he was really cool, even though he was like quite annoying.
[64] Hmm.
[65] I was going to say he doesn't really have an accent, but maybe it's a teathe.
[66] bit New York.
[67] I don't even know what it is.
[68] I just remember I started to talk a little bit like his accent.
[69] Try it.
[70] Let's close our eyes.
[71] Oh, no, no, I couldn't do it now.
[72] It was just something that happened at the time.
[73] If I could, I would.
[74] It was this weird thing where I just, people called me out in it at school, like, why are you talking funny?
[75] And it was because I was watching so much friends, and I thought they were so cool.
[76] You know, had that cat called Chandler Bing, started talking like them.
[77] They were so cool.
[78] They were so cool.
[79] Ross says his real New York accent comes through once in a while.
[80] while in friends.
[81] Doesn't say what he's actually trying to be in friends.
[82] No one is trying to.
[83] I think you're a little confused in that you think everyone has an accent.
[84] They do.
[85] Oh yeah.
[86] Every American has an accent.
[87] I mean, we have an American accent.
[88] Yeah.
[89] But we're not doing either Southern or Californian or Boston.
[90] There's also general...
[91] There's mixtures of things.
[92] Yeah.
[93] But generally, you'll have an accent from where you're from, kind of.
[94] Like, where you grew up, but that will absorb, right?
[95] Yeah, but you're saying he's trying to do an accent.
[96] He's not.
[97] You know, I was just reading Twitter.
[98] It said an accent that comes through is New York.
[99] Right.
[100] As if he's trying to talk it down slightly.
[101] But you think that's just David Schumer's voice.
[102] Is Ross's voice the friend?
[103] That's the same thing.
[104] All these actors are just talking the way they talk.
[105] Oh, and friends they are.
[106] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[107] They're not doing like character work.
[108] Oh, no, no, totally.
[109] Yeah, I don't know what the fuck the dance was saying.
[110] It was just like, oh, I didn't even know.
[111] A lot of theater actors, which he is one.
[112] learn to give very standard American.
[113] Oh, so maybe that's what it was saying.
[114] Like, he's got more of a New York accent in real life, but in friends, he maybe tries to make it a bit more standard.
[115] Is that what they maybe meant?
[116] Well, he probably speaks standardly at this point in life, but maybe in his early age, he had more of a New York accent because that's where he's from.
[117] Yeah, right.
[118] He's probably diluted that over time.
[119] And then certain words come out.
[120] I have that.
[121] I mean, I'm from the South.
[122] Yeah.
[123] So your voices change?
[124] Like, your accents changed over the years, do you think?
[125] Since you moved to L .A.?
[126] I mean, every now and then.
[127] I'll have a southern pop -up.
[128] Right.
[129] But it's not, for me, I speak very standard American accent, I think.
[130] You sound, yeah, I guess it is standard.
[131] What do you think it is?
[132] I think you kind of talk like someone from L .A. It feels like L .A., but maybe I'm getting L .A. confused with standard American.
[133] It's got like a lilt to it or something.
[134] I don't know.
[135] It's like a good accent.
[136] Hmm, I don't know.
[137] I don't think I have an L .A. accent because I didn't grow up here.
[138] Yeah.
[139] Maybe you've absorbed bits of it.
[140] It should be.
[141] here, do you think?
[142] Or do you think, you've lost the Georgian, though?
[143] Because I grew up in the suburbs.
[144] I never really had a southern accent, but there are words I'll give you up.
[145] I used to say y 'all all the time.
[146] I don't anymore.
[147] I don't even know where it went.
[148] I don't know.
[149] I didn't do it on purpose, but it did go away.
[150] Yeah, y 'all is a good.
[151] It's making a comeback, though, because of pronouns.
[152] I use y 'all now instead of you guys.
[153] That's interesting.
[154] Oh, just as a, yeah, catch everything kind of a phrase.
[155] Yeah, y 'all.
[156] Bring y 'all back I miss it Y 'all's good I like hearing it from an outsider that you think we have at Well I do hear Rob's But I obviously Can't sound like L .A. to me You sound like L .A., Rob sounds like Chicago You do sound Chicago Do you hear it Or can you not hear your own I can't really hear it No Really That's the other thing None of us Even like listening back To our own voices That's always a weird thing To do as well And maybe that's just Because we don't like Hearing our Odd little accents or something Do you think I sound L .A.?
[157] No, I don't think you sound Georgian, though.
[158] No, I don't.
[159] I can hear it a lot in Canadians.
[160] There's like certain vowels that it's like, oh, you said sorry.
[161] Yep, or a boot.
[162] Yeah.
[163] And Dax has words, for sure, that are very Midwestern.
[164] Yeah, I mean, all three of you sound so, so different to each other.
[165] It's great.
[166] I mean, it's distinctive and wonderful.
[167] It's a great thing.
[168] My mom has a strong southern accent.
[169] You talked to her.
[170] Yeah, I did.
[171] Yeah, she's got a great voice.
[172] So, yeah, I never sound like her.
[173] I've never sounded like her.
[174] Because suburbs dilute you.
[175] I hit the street, as I like to do from time to time.
[176] And I wanted to talk to a bunch of Americans about different accents.
[177] And I went up to Griffith Observatory, so you get a lot of different Americans coming from all over America to the one place.
[178] Yeah.
[179] Did you get a PB &J?
[180] Not this time, no. It was shut.
[181] From trails?
[182] Yeah, from trails.
[183] It was closed.
[184] I was just wondering what you think the best American accent is.
[185] accent is...
[186] The best...
[187] You couldn't even understand me. The best American accent.
[188] It's just still there.
[189] No, no, no. What's to be like, what are your accents?
[190] What are you...
[191] Yeah, I'm from L .A. I'm from the Bay Area.
[192] I'm from Chicago area.
[193] What do you think is the best American accent?
[194] If you were stuck on an island and you had to listen to one American accent for 10 years, what would it be?
[195] I like myself, you know, so mine.
[196] Specifically my voice.
[197] No. I think they're all good.
[198] Minnesota.
[199] What does that sound like?
[200] Minnesota?
[201] Yes!
[202] It's a little bit like that.
[203] It's got a little bit of an upturn.
[204] What's the best American accent, do you think?
[205] I like Brooklyn, a good New York, tough gangster style.
[206] That's quite funny.
[207] I'm a Canadian.
[208] Sorry.
[209] Do you have a favorite American accent?
[210] Uh, not really.
[211] because I don't really, I don't really know.
[212] The best American accent, probably say a Texan accent.
[213] What do you like about that?
[214] It establishes strength.
[215] I don't know.
[216] It's just compared to like how we talk in L .A. with like, like, like them, it's just like, I don't know.
[217] It's very tough.
[218] What's your accent?
[219] I'm a Californian accent for sure.
[220] Like typical L .A. person.
[221] I say the in front of the freeway names.
[222] I say like, like 25 times.
[223] Like, I actually quite enjoy New York accents.
[224] I quite like the pronunciation of some of the vows and stuff.
[225] So I would say New York.
[226] And where's your accent from?
[227] I'm actually from Iceland.
[228] I think the best American accent is something in the South.
[229] It sounds very cultured.
[230] It sounds American.
[231] I would say L .A. is also good just because I live in L .A., and that's the accent I hear often.
[232] But I would say something in the South.
[233] You know, when you hear someone like Matthew McConaughey speak, it does something, you know.
[234] It's the best.
[235] It's the best.
[236] What's your accent?
[237] Well, I'm from Chicago.
[238] Most people say they don't hear an accent when I talk.
[239] Maybe the best one so far.
[240] I like South, like New Orleans.
[241] I like New Orleans accent.
[242] I think the best American accent is the New England, like the old New England, like Maine.
[243] Like not Boston, Boston's great, but that sort of like classic New England accent.
[244] I think is the best one.
[245] It's great.
[246] Where's your accent from?
[247] So I'm originally from the north.
[248] I'm from Montana.
[249] So people say that we have sort of a Midwestern meets Canadian accent.
[250] When I go around America or even, I live in the UK now, people oftentimes think that I'm Canadian with inflections and tone and things.
[251] But yeah, I think Montana's a bit different in that regard.
[252] But we don't...
[253] It's a good accent.
[254] We don't say we have an accent.
[255] We just sound like we're from Montana.
[256] What do you think is the best American accent?
[257] The best American accent?
[258] Southern, of course.
[259] What's the worst?
[260] Probably Boston.
[261] Where do you think my accent's from?
[262] Don't know, and I hate to guess.
[263] Can you pick where my accent's from, out of curiosity?
[264] British?
[265] Where would you think my accent is from, if you could guess?
[266] You can each guess.
[267] Australian.
[268] New Zealand?
[269] Yes, I was going to say Scottish, but that's wrong.
[270] Kiwi.
[271] Correct.
[272] People found that really difficult to get my accent.
[273] I got two people out of maybe 20 said New Zealand.
[274] I'm really bad at accents too.
[275] I find it so hard to know.
[276] It's hard to know.
[277] They're hard to do.
[278] There must be some sort of fun thing online where you can listen to a bunch and pick.
[279] I think this could be a fun game.
[280] Also, this is interesting to me. I think I'm learning something.
[281] I always thought the excessive likes, which I am definitely.
[282] I do that as well.
[283] It's a problem in New Zealand.
[284] It's a huge problem.
[285] I thought that was more age, like of an age.
[286] I just...
[287] It is a generational thing.
[288] I thought.
[289] I didn't think it was L .A. In New Zealand, it's definitely a younger person thing.
[290] But I think that's been picked up off social media from, probably from America, because that's what we were plugged into.
[291] Right.
[292] But how did it take off here?
[293] Yeah, when, it's such a...
[294] I think it's generational.
[295] Is it instead of saying, um, pretty much?
[296] Yes, so we had Valerie Friedland, a language.
[297] on armchair.
[298] And it was such an interesting episode talking about all of this and these what I call vocal tics.
[299] And yes, she said different generations have evolved.
[300] They've turned words into other words, basically.
[301] And like is, there's a word for it that I obviously forgot.
[302] You're waiting, your brain is ticking over and so your mouth blurt something out, right?
[303] Yeah.
[304] It's sort of a transition word.
[305] I mean, I'm mortified.
[306] Sometimes when I listen back to this show, because I like to think that like was okay, okay?
[307] I like to think I'd eliminated it.
[308] I know.
[309] And then sometimes, especially if I get excited and animated, the likes just start like coming out like all the time.
[310] And it's like, oh, my God.
[311] And if I'm interviewing out in the field and I'm a bit nervous, the likes are piling out.
[312] Yeah, but you know we edit those out.
[313] So if you're hearing them, that's just one random that crop in.
[314] It's constant.
[315] It is for me too.
[316] Especially when I'm editing the fact checks I find it very embarrassing for myself Yeah I had a mentor in New Zealand in the newsroom John Campbell and when I ever would come up with like He'd like grab my arm I just did it again It gets out of hand when you're so overthinking it Okay did you find the game Okay guess my US accent It's a BuzzFeed one Please call Stella Ask her to bring her from the store Oh it's the same Oklahoma or Texas of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese.
[317] Okay.
[318] Sounds like that Balbonds guy you talk to in Oklahoma.
[319] You think that's Oklahoma?
[320] I would say more, I would say Georgia.
[321] The options are Florida, South Carolina, Texas, or Arkansas.
[322] Oh, okay.
[323] South Carolina.
[324] No, that's wrong.
[325] I'm going to Arkansas.
[326] Arkansas is correct.
[327] Wow.
[328] Well, you already knew it wasn't South Carolina.
[329] That was too far east.
[330] Okay.
[331] No. Okay.
[332] Listen to this.
[333] Please call Stella.
[334] Ask her to bring those things with her from the store.
[335] Brooklyn.
[336] So the question is, which regional food represents this woman's hometown?
[337] A Brooklyn pizza.
[338] A main lobster roll.
[339] A Los Angeles taco.
[340] A Louisiana bag net.
[341] I don't know how to say that word.
[342] Benet.
[343] It's Brooklyn pizza.
[344] That's easy.
[345] Correct.
[346] She's from Brooklyn.
[347] Okay.
[348] Hey, here we go.
[349] Next one.
[350] Please call Stella.
[351] Ask her to bring these things with her from the store.
[352] Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob.
[353] That's so standard to me. Yeah, if that's Chicago, that's one.
[354] Okay, so your options are California, Colorado, Michigan, or North Carolina.
[355] California.
[356] I'm going to go Michigan just because it sounds normal to me. Let me hear it one more time.
[357] Michigan knows.
[358] Michigan's close to the Midwest for me. So if it sounds regular.
[359] We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids.
[360] She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.
[361] You still think North Carolina?
[362] No, Michigan.
[363] Michigan, okay.
[364] It is California.
[365] Yeah, that sounds like me, I think.
[366] Yeah, it does sound about that you.
[367] Orange County.
[368] Orange County.
[369] Very rich.
[370] Okay, here we go.
[371] Okay, we'll do a couple more.
[372] Please call Stella.
[373] Ask her to bring these things with her from the store.
[374] Midwest.
[375] Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob.
[376] Okay, options.
[377] Which are these baseball teams is from this woman's hometown?
[378] I got this.
[379] The Washington Nationals, the Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Yankees, or the L .A. Dodgers.
[380] Oh.
[381] I'll play a bit more.
[382] We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids.
[383] She can scoop these things.
[384] into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.
[385] Can we get the teams again?
[386] The Washington Nationals, the Philly -Fillies, the L .A. Dodgers, or the New York Yankees?
[387] Philadelphia.
[388] You think Philly?
[389] I'm going Washington.
[390] Okay.
[391] It is...
[392] It's Philadelphia.
[393] Wow.
[394] Good job, Rob.
[395] Yeah, Philly.
[396] All right.
[397] It's just process of elimination.
[398] That's kind of subtle.
[399] This is great.
[400] Okay.
[401] Now, how?
[402] How about this accent?
[403] Take this one in.
[404] Okay.
[405] Please call Stella.
[406] Ask her to bring these things with her from the store.
[407] Six spoons of fresh snow peas.
[408] Five thick slabs of blue cheese.
[409] Southern, but I wonder.
[410] Okay, so the question is complicated.
[411] Yeah.
[412] The question is, is this nice lady from Texas?
[413] Yes.
[414] Or definitely not, but she's from a southern state, but definitely not Texas.
[415] Oh, let me hear it.
[416] We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids.
[417] She can scoop these things.
[418] the three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.
[419] Wednesday.
[420] I don't think it's Texas.
[421] Yeah, I don't think it's Texas either.
[422] I think it's southeast.
[423] It's Texas.
[424] No. Yeah, I mean, look, BuzzFeedNews .com, that's pretty good.
[425] Do they say Wednesday?
[426] It says she's from Texas.
[427] I think they say that in Mississippi.
[428] Wednesday.
[429] Okay, last one.
[430] You'll be here all day.
[431] All right.
[432] Please call Stella Ask her to bring these things with her from the store Six bones of fresh schnobes Five thick slabs of blue cheese And maybe a snack for her brother Bob The question I do like how BuzzFeed does this When this lady walks her dog What does she see Does she see a barn in Oklahoma These train tracks from Indiana This boat in Mississippi or this tree in South Carolina Indiana.
[433] Let me hear it one more time.
[434] We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids.
[435] Yeah, I go to three.
[436] Okay, so you think train tracks in Indiana is what she sees when she goes on a walk.
[437] What are the other options?
[438] It's a big red barn in Oklahoma.
[439] There's a tree in South Carolina or there's a boat in Mississippi.
[440] It's not Mississippi.
[441] I don't know South Carolina well enough.
[442] I need to hear it one more time.
[443] I'm sorry.
[444] No, it's all right.
[445] This is, I mean, I have no clue, so this is fascinating for me. Please call Stella.
[446] Ask her to bring these things with her from the store.
[447] Six spoons of fresh snow peas.
[448] Five thick slabs of blue cheese.
[449] It's five thick slabs that doesn't sound southern?
[450] The old age is throwing this off, I think, too.
[451] Yeah.
[452] That makes me think it is South Carolina.
[453] Like, it is a Southern.
[454] I'm going to go Indiana still.
[455] All right.
[456] Okay.
[457] The correct answer is Mississippi.
[458] It was the boat in Mississippi, apparently.
[459] This is not true.
[460] Wednesday was Mississippi.
[461] This is not.
[462] It says, this dear lady's southern twang is from Mississippi, which also falls under the umbrella of Southern American English, according to linguists.
[463] Wow.
[464] Yeah.
[465] Well, then I wonder what the difference between South Carolina and Mississippi.
[466] to me, Mississippi is extremely southern.
[467] That's why this doesn't seem right.
[468] It didn't seem that intense.
[469] Maybe the oldness was throwing us.
[470] When you get old, your voice does do different things.
[471] Why do they do that?
[472] They should have had the same lady do all of them.
[473] It's all the accents.
[474] What a journey.
[475] That was fun.
[476] I love games.
[477] All right, I put together a little documentary trying to understand the accent.
[478] Would you like to listen to it?
[479] Okay.
[480] I did some Googling.
[481] and experts say when it comes to speaking English in America, there are roughly 30 different dialects.
[482] That's a lot considering there are about 160 English dialects on planet Earth total, meaning that about 20 % of them are found in America.
[483] Dialects are a combination of accents, how words are said, along with vocab and grammar, like how some Americans say pop and others say soda.
[484] I don't want to get into the weeds of vocab, that's a different episode.
[485] In this episode, I want to explore how Americans say things, accents.
[486] Not only do I want to understand what Americans are saying, I want to better understand myself.
[487] I'd love to just know your name and what it is that you do.
[488] I'm Joel Goldies and I'm a dialect coach.
[489] So I principally work with actors in the entertainment industry.
[490] And I'll also often work with people who are in the corporate world or have some highly motivated reason to change their accent, whether they're not being well understood at work or they do a lot of public speaking, attorneys, doctors sometimes.
[491] I had one guy who found he was not making himself easily understood in emergent situations.
[492] He's a OBGYN.
[493] So it's a real spectrum of folks that I work with.
[494] Folks, such an American word to use when talking about people.
[495] And as he just said, I'm speaking to Joel Golds, a man whose entire job is to help people take on other accents, including the American accent, which is why I wanted to have him on this episode to break down what makes up an American accent.
[496] The American accent is very peculiar in that we treat sounds in certain ways that don't have it in lots of other accents around the world.
[497] But one sort of cliche is that the American accent tends to be expressive on vowels and diphthongs, the two vowels together, whereas you might say an English accent is much more relying on consonant sounds.
[498] Where's your accent from?
[499] What is your accent?
[500] What part of America is this?
[501] I grew up in Northern California in the San Francisco Bay Area, just north of that, in Sonoma County, a little town called Sebastopol.
[502] When I went to grad school, all the seven members of my class and I had to read and record this story that I now used to collect accents.
[503] So it's got all the sounds of spoken English.
[504] There's several of these stories out there, sounds and sound combinations.
[505] And my professor said, okay, you've got a little bit of this, typically California, and you're dropping consonants at the ends of words.
[506] I think I did a thing that I actually heard in a clip of Rob speaking that you sent me. Instead of saying running with an in the back of the tongue going up, I would say running and make an E .E .N kind of sound.
[507] I found that's very typical of sort of the southwest U .S., the Bay Area, certainly Southern California.
[508] Arizona, but it's with action stuff, a lot of it gets shipped out because of the media.
[509] So there are things that people do all over the country that they may be learning from TV film, TikTok, YouTube, this kind of thing.
[510] Giant networks like Netflix alongside social media are changing how the American accent moves and shifts.
[511] Traditionally, accents follow geographical boundaries like hills and mountains, much more so than actual state boundaries.
[512] In America, they're being dictated the most by, settlement patterns.
[513] That's why there's more accent diversity on the East Coast.
[514] It was settled first.
[515] People have been there longer, and there are more people packed in, and accents have had time to form and change.
[516] In the middle of America, you get similar accents across multiple states, and by the time you hit the West Coast, there are far less accents.
[517] You might say the Pacific Northwest, maybe Seattle or Portland, where there's not a lot of discernible differences from, used to be called general American, then a bunch of speech, people realize that you can't say general.
[518] So it's now called so -called general American.
[519] Region free, you could call it a broadcast accent.
[520] So that's fairly middle of the road.
[521] And then accents maybe of the barrier islands in the Carolinas, very strong accents that were influenced by English sailors that came over and then have been isolated from the mainland for centuries.
[522] These accents have been allowed to develop.
[523] without a lot of influence from outside.
[524] But typical phrases, people from there are supposed to say, Hoytoyers.
[525] I think it's somebody who comes from outside as a hoi toider, a high -tider, I would say.
[526] Before I talked more to Joel about the American accent, I wanted to double -check his qualifications when it came to accents in general.
[527] So the biggest thing I've worked on recently is the Woman King with Viola Davis, who took me with her to South Africa.
[528] I had coached her as Michelle Obama in the Michelle Obama section of the First Lady, which was a series on Showtime, and ended up coaching the whole cast of that, and then ended up coaching almost the whole cast of the Woman King.
[529] And that was a very exciting thing to do, very wonderful to be in South Africa.
[530] I'd never thought about this before, the idea of someone on set, helping actors prepare to sound a certain way, to speak in a certain accent.
[531] I went back and watched some clips on YouTube and listened a bit harder to Viola Davis and Woman King.
[532] Train hard, fight harder.
[533] He fear no one.
[534] And then viola is Michelle Obama.
[535] I want you to punch this pillow as hard as you can.
[536] Obviously, you're mad.
[537] Trust me, I understand.
[538] To my untrained ear, at least, the accent sounded solid.
[539] Joel knew his stuff.
[540] The other big thing I've done recently was a musical called Come From Away, which is set in Gander, Newfoundland, this tiny town on the big island in the northeast of Canada, to which 38 jet planes were grounded on 9 -11 when the U .S. airspace was closed.
[541] There were these 7 ,000 passengers and crew that sort of invaded Gander and these towns around it and has 12 actors playing about 80 -some characters.
[542] So it tells passenger stories and stories of the folks who took them in.
[543] So everybody in the cast had to learn a Newfoundland accent, which is a funny mix of Irish and a bit of French and a bit of mainland Canada.
[544] And then also there's a couple of English characters.
[545] a guy from Uganda, New Yorkers, Texans.
[546] So it's a real gamut, 12 or 14 or 15 accents.
[547] All jobs have different levels of stress, right?
[548] I feel like some jobs you do would be one accent you're dealing with.
[549] The musical you just described sounds incredibly stressful because you're just dealing with a lot of different accents and dialects.
[550] Is that how it works with the jobs you do?
[551] Some are just like a nightmare and some are so easy?
[552] I wouldn't use the term easy because it's always stressful to be on set.
[553] And that's always quite pressure -filled because time is very short, and there are a lot of variables involved.
[554] But sometimes, you know, if I'm working with someone on an American accent, the project I've just finished, involved several actors from the UK and from South Asia.
[555] That's easier.
[556] We do some prep when we can, but then we run it before they shoot, and then I step in and give them a little notes while they shoot.
[557] I wondered what is main challenges in teaching people various American accents, and essentially it comes down to the challenge of what accent you use in your own life.
[558] The brain tends to filter what we hear through the sounds of our original accent.
[559] So I'm going to try to make this fit something that you've said on a podcast that I listen to.
[560] Well, you say litter box, which Monica interpreted this as a trash bin, and you were thinking of a letter box.
[561] Your brain had blocked you from hearing that Americans don't say, eh, for litter.
[562] We say eh like dress, and we don't say eh like kit.
[563] we say eh like dress for letter so that led to some confusion and that's often what i work with professional people on is helping them speak in a way that americans will understand them because we're quite lazy as listeners so we have to have things given to us in a very specific way in order to understand them so i found that what i have to do is teach someone how to make a new sound and i use this vowel chart that's on my website that's a simple chart that i've adapted for my own It shows where the tongue moves in the mouth to make various vowel sounds.
[564] And that's principally what we do to change vowels as we move our tongue around, the jaw and lips come into play a bit.
[565] But once they start to make the new sound, then their brain forms new neural pathways, which it turns out we're all generating hundreds of every day.
[566] And that learning new language, and I'm going to extend that to accents, turns out to be one of the most efficient ways to learn them.
[567] So once these new neurons get into place, they start to hear differences.
[568] I just had this experience yesterday with a client who grew up in Georgia.
[569] A lot of Americans from the South, and it's traveled all over the country, but instead of using the vowel -sounding address to say pen or men or remember, that middle syllable of remember or strength, they'll use an eye sound and say pin, min, remember, remember, and strength.
[570] Americans only tend to do that when there's a word that has that S sound followed by a sound that goes through your nose, like an N or an M or the sound, um, all right?
[571] So we do it less than you might in a Kiwi accent.
[572] So we've been working on this.
[573] I've worked with this guy for a while, and then things happen.
[574] He's come back.
[575] Time in between is a huge benefit sometimes because people can go off and play with this stuff on their own and their ears are learning to hear new sounds that they may never have heard before.
[576] So it gets easier.
[577] So we've worked on this a while back, but now he's really starting to distinguish between pen and pin.
[578] And so one has to practice this stuff in a very conscious way.
[579] Every day for a few minutes, a couple of minutes at a time, time in between, is important and then try it out listening to people who have the target accent trying to imitate not what he might think he hears but what's actually there stay tuned for more flightless bird we'll be right back after a word from our sponsors flightless bird is sponsored by better help now shortly after this episode goes dear i'm heading back to new zealand to spend time with my family over christmas it's going to be intense i want to see them but my parents and i can last about two days before things get.
[580] Hairy.
[581] You get tense, hairy, stressful.
[582] I know this dynamic well.
[583] But I do, I will say, I always schedule therapy for before I leave, for one during my time and then right when I'm back.
[584] Yeah, you prep that shit.
[585] Yeah.
[586] Yeah.
[587] Well, I know at Christmas time I'm never going to get my birthday gift and my Christmas gift because it's combined.
[588] I literally have talked about that with my therapist before.
[589] No, because it's like.
[590] Presence of love, right?
[591] And suddenly one of these is being revoked.
[592] Suddenly, like, your birthday becomes part of Jesus' thing and it's one gift.
[593] It's like, who do you love more?
[594] Jesus or me?
[595] Oh, this is serious.
[596] Anyway, everything's fine.
[597] It's fine.
[598] But it's good.
[599] You're working it out.
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[610] You can update it over time, which is really cool.
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[612] It's a really good gift for any occasion.
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[615] But honestly, if you go to a party and you give someone an aura frame and they plug it in and you're all there and the photos start playing, it's a good party trick.
[616] I think it's very thoughtful, because you do take the time to put in lovely images.
[617] One time I messed up and put the wrong photos on the wrong frame.
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[631] Learning an accent sounds like learning a new language, practice, and letting those new neural pathways connect.
[632] What's the most difficult American accent to teach people?
[633] Well, Boston springs to mind very quickly.
[634] Well, Boston almost sounds like a cartoon.
[635] I feel like when people are doing a Boston accent, it doesn't sound real.
[636] Well, the show that I just finished working on was set not that far from there.
[637] So I had a lot of people from the crew when they found out I was dialect coaching, oh, are you going to make us look bad?
[638] Somebody posted on a message board that I'm on some years ago, they said, sometimes the best Boston accent is no Boston accent, signed the people of Boston.
[639] So we endeavored to keep it very localized to where we were, and if you watch a movie like Goodwill Hunting, Robin Williams does a Boston accent, but it's quite light.
[640] He's not hitting us on the head with it.
[641] For me, I also struggle a bit with the speed at which people talk, slower American accents I can understand better.
[642] How much is speed a part of an accent?
[643] Because what I love about the South and when I've been there, it's just such a slow delivery and other areas I think New York feels very fast.
[644] How much is speed a part of an accent?
[645] Or are they separate things?
[646] No, definitely related.
[647] And I used to sort of ignore speed and pitch change, which is often grouped together as prosody.
[648] Very important aspects of an accent.
[649] The stereotype of the South is that it's hot and it's humid.
[650] So one doesn't want to expend a lot of energy doing anything, much less talking.
[651] So we hear the tongue, move from its relaxed place, uh, to the target vowel, like saying, you, not you and me, but you and me, you and me. And it took me years to look at the word drawl, but that actually just means lengthening.
[652] So sounds do get drawn out in southern accents, and that might be an aspect of the environment.
[653] All Joel thinks about his accents.
[654] He tells me he's been listening to Flightless Bird a lot while the writer's strike was on, work for him was slower, and he's even been breaking down our accents.
[655] I did find myself wondering, does his job as a dialect coach and his obsession with accents ruin entertainment for him?
[656] Can he watch or listen to anything ever again in peace?
[657] Are you watching shows and the accents are just taking you in and out of it so much more than it would for a typical viewer like me?
[658] Absolutely.
[659] I'd rather not know, quite frankly, I'd rather not know if someone's an English actor doing an American accent or something.
[660] But when it's bad, it must really great you.
[661] Well, I can't watch it lots of times.
[662] It's a huge turnoff.
[663] Years ago, when the series True Blood premiered on HBO, I heard about it and thought, oh, I'll check this out.
[664] And that show was set in a fictional town in Louisiana, and the accents were just all over the map.
[665] And I couldn't take it.
[666] What are they going for?
[667] Why isn't it unified, I thought?
[668] So I watched about 10 minutes and turned it up.
[669] Of course, years later, I was hired to work on that show a few times and realized, I mean, there were hundreds of actors on that show because it ran for so long.
[670] And they came from all over the world.
[671] Oh, the lead, Anna Peckwin, I think one of the leads was a Kiwi.
[672] Absolutely, right, yeah.
[673] And they would only have a coach in when an actor was having particular difficulty.
[674] I went into work with one, and we did the southern accent, Louisiana accent, that was sort of the target.
[675] And after a few episodes, I guess, they tried it without having a coach on set.
[676] And then they just changed the accent of the character to be the actor's natural accent.
[677] So they just get there like, okay, we don't have to spend the money, which is often the case.
[678] I remembered watching True Blood at the time, Monica, and I thought the accents, everyone just sounded so wildly different.
[679] I sort of remember thinking that at the time, weirdly.
[680] Really?
[681] I never saw it.
[682] It's a good show.
[683] I can't watch too much of it because it's got scary characters with big animal heads on, which is my main fear in life.
[684] Oh, yeah.
[685] I got really scared of that show.
[686] Ding, ding, ding.
[687] Halloween.
[688] But yeah, the accents were kind of nutty.
[689] Wow.
[690] This guy is fascinating.
[691] I love him.
[692] Yeah, he's great.
[693] So I did this over Zoom talking to him and he did have charts that I was kind of following along because what's so difficult when, at least how I find when you're listening to him, it's hard to follow because he's talking about these really specific noises.
[694] But when he's talking through it with me, he had charts up showing me what he was doing with vowels and sounds.
[695] It's so complicated.
[696] It is so complicated.
[697] I have heard that that the tongue placement is a huge part of accents.
[698] but I'm never aware of where my tongue is hitting.
[699] No, neither.
[700] And the next part of the dot, we talk a little bit about tongue formation.
[701] And I found it really hard.
[702] And a lot of the conversation was just me on Zoom, looking at my tongue.
[703] Did you learn some?
[704] Oh, slowly, but I'm also an incredibly slow learning with this stuff.
[705] I found it so frustrating.
[706] Moving and changing the way you naturally do things is so, so hard.
[707] Yeah.
[708] I feel like my tongue is invisible.
[709] Like, I don't feel it ever.
[710] I don't feel it right now.
[711] even being aware of it?
[712] You never think about it, right?
[713] No. Does your tongue sometimes get itchy?
[714] No. Do you get itchy tongue?
[715] No. I sometimes get the itchiest tongue in the world.
[716] I have to scratch it on my teeth.
[717] What?
[718] Yeah, really itchy.
[719] So itchy.
[720] Maybe like once a month, it'll get really itchy, and I need to scrape it on my teeth, and it's the best feeling in the world.
[721] It's like getting a head scratch, but for your tongue.
[722] That's an oral allergy.
[723] It usually causes that.
[724] Oh, shit.
[725] That makes sense.
[726] Something's going on.
[727] Inhaling pollen or eating raw for.
[728] fruits, vegetables, or certain tree nuts.
[729] Wow, I love eating nuts and I love eating fruit.
[730] But maybe you're allergic to them.
[731] Wow, could be.
[732] That's crazy.
[733] So you're more aware of your tongue then if you're having to scratch it.
[734] Otherwise, I don't think about it at all.
[735] Huh, all right.
[736] Yeah, but you never think about it.
[737] But it's so important, isn't it?
[738] You lose the tongue.
[739] None of us are podcasting again, are we?
[740] Be the end for us.
[741] That's the most important tool we have.
[742] Yeah, we take it for granted.
[743] We do.
[744] We never look after it.
[745] Do you brush your tongue?
[746] Yes.
[747] You brush it.
[748] I never brush my tongue.
[749] David.
[750] No, no, I don't.
[751] It's not a thing we would talk to do.
[752] Don't make that a New Zealand thing.
[753] No, it's a very a thing.
[754] No, it's a very a thing.
[755] How often are you brushing?
[756] I brush my tongue every time I brush my teeth, which is two times a day.
[757] Seriously?
[758] Yes, and I also brush the palate.
[759] I learned that recently.
[760] That's good.
[761] My dentist said you're supposed to.
[762] Really?
[763] So you're brushing the roof of the mouth.
[764] That's where a lot of bacteria lives in your palate.
[765] I've never brushed the roof of my mouth in 40 years.
[766] Try it.
[767] I will.
[768] I'll go home and give it a brush.
[769] It actually feels really weird.
[770] It does not feel good.
[771] But, yeah, the nun has said that a lot of bacteria lives in the palate.
[772] Do you use the same brush as the one you're using for the teeth or different brush?
[773] Same one?
[774] I use same, yeah.
[775] So same soft bristle, hard bristle, medium bristle.
[776] What are you using?
[777] Electric?
[778] No, mine's not electric.
[779] I use a manual brush.
[780] You've got a manual toothbrush.
[781] I do.
[782] That's unusual in Los Angeles.
[783] It is.
[784] I've tried.
[785] the electric.
[786] I've had many.
[787] They're good.
[788] For somebody, I think it's because I'm always skeptical of how clean they are.
[789] Where the head meets the base.
[790] It gets gunky.
[791] Yes, and I hate that.
[792] Yeah, I completely agree.
[793] It gets gunky.
[794] Close to your mouth.
[795] I just don't like that.
[796] Right.
[797] So you're manually, you're doing manual.
[798] The whole thing.
[799] The teeth and the whole mouth and the tongue.
[800] Yeah, whole thing.
[801] My grandmother used to have a tongue scraper.
[802] It was a tool for cleaning.
[803] Like metal thing?
[804] Right, and just scrape off a layer of gunge.
[805] I guess so.
[806] I haven't thought about it really, but maybe with this itchiness, I should be.
[807] Yeah.
[808] My tongue's probably like riddled with disease.
[809] It's horrible.
[810] No, why are we talking about that?
[811] Tongues.
[812] Tongues and the placement.
[813] The placement of tongues.
[814] I did have a lot of dialect stuff in acting school, in theater, and I was always so bad at it.
[815] And so I'm a little triggered, the tongue and the placement.
[816] I remember trying to learn that, and I was so bad at it.
[817] It's hard.
[818] Yeah.
[819] Actually, I'll get into things with the doc because he tried to teach me, and I found it near impossible.
[820] Rethinking those things that you know how to do innately, it's so difficult.
[821] I talked a bit about this earlier, but there are these moments in flightless bird when I can't understand Monica and Rob.
[822] With a dialect coach on the line, I thought it would be a good opportunity to see what's going on with my co -hosts strange voices.
[823] First up, I play Joel a clip of Monica talking.
[824] Oh, my God.
[825] Dax, you're going to get me arrested.
[826] Maybe we could talk about Monica's voice, what you take from that, what that voice is doing.
[827] Yeah, well, I don't hear much difference in what I would call a fairly typical American accents.
[828] I mean, she sounds like a younger woman.
[829] There's a little bit of what the outgrowth of what used to be.
[830] called a valley accent in the 80s, and she demonstrated this speech, oh, gag me with a spoon, all this kind of.
[831] Oh, totally.
[832] It's sort of evolved into surfer speak, and then it's mellowed out over the years.
[833] Yeah, the moniker's got a bit of the valley girl in it.
[834] It's even a throwback to call it a valley girl.
[835] It's just sort of a California accent, I would say, or Southern California accent.
[836] But I know she's from Georgia.
[837] I know she grew up there.
[838] I don't hear anything except in one episode, might have been the second health care episode, she said insurance.
[839] And then in the same sentence, I think she said insurance.
[840] So in the first instance, she stressed the first syllable, which is a very southern thing to do.
[841] I have a long -time client in North Carolina.
[842] He's Russian, but he says, when he apes a southern accent, he says, oh, I'm going to get my insurance.
[843] And there are several words like that that are just pronounced or stressed differently, stressed being a change of pitch on a particular syllable.
[844] So she might occasionally be flip -flopping between where she grew up and where she's been living for some time.
[845] Right, but there may be an awareness of that because she changed it as she said it again.
[846] I played him a clip of Rob Talking.
[847] He pretty much thought it was a bog standard Chicago meets L .A. Mix.
[848] Next up, I played him a clip from Dax.
[849] And I'm talking to the clerk.
[850] I'm like, okay, so here's the paperwork, excuse me, and I walk six feet to the bathroom.
[851] That's so close to the clerk.
[852] Go inside.
[853] And he picked up on that last bit, so close.
[854] close and got stuck on that.
[855] I'm really reaching here, but I found this one thing in that little clip you sent me, I'm going to play you this phrase where he says, I think it's so close?
[856] Yeah.
[857] So close.
[858] So close.
[859] So close.
[860] Most Americans would use two vowels for each of those spelled O's or those O sounds.
[861] We would go, so close.
[862] That's called a diphthong or two vowels, two vowels that are sounded as one syllable.
[863] So he uses, I'm going to listen again.
[864] So close.
[865] He uses a bit of a diphthong for so, but a short one.
[866] And then I think he's only using the vowel O for close.
[867] So that may be from his mom.
[868] It may be from Germans and folks from Ontario, Canada, emigrating into Detroit and into Michigan generally.
[869] There's lots of Germans, apparently, who came in there.
[870] You know, any accent is a reflection of the sounds around a person and we all want to fit into what's around us.
[871] I've found that this is much easier to do when we're younger.
[872] We get into much firmer habits of listening as we get older.
[873] And I've oddly found that the age 24 is kind of a cutoff for people, that it gets much more difficult to change one's accent on one's own if you wait until age 24.
[874] That was going to be a big question because I feel I'm not naturally changing my voice.
[875] I'm not coming back to New Zealand with an American accent.
[876] I think I'm set like this for life.
[877] Do you think that's fair?
[878] But do you think if I stay here long enough, I'm going to start sounding like an American without even realizing it?
[879] Do New Zealanders comment on your accent when you've come back to New Zealand since you've been here?
[880] We get very judgmental.
[881] So we have a famous singer Lord.
[882] And when she started talking in a bit of an American accent, New Zealand was like, oh, you've sold out.
[883] So New Zealanders are really quick to hear when a New Zealander starts getting an American accent.
[884] New Zealanders get very angry.
[885] And so far, people haven't gotten angry at me, so I assume it's not happening.
[886] Okay, right.
[887] So that would be one clue.
[888] I think you're right.
[889] When you get to a certain age, I don't think you absorb an accent.
[890] I don't think I'm going to start talking like an American unless I really try.
[891] Well, in those instances in which you find you're being misunderstood, you've made a shift.
[892] You've gone to some version of an American accent.
[893] I have, I can snap into it, but I've really got to concentrate.
[894] It's not like it's subtly just happening to me. No, but you could learn to go back and forth.
[895] Once you start breaking it down, this accent stuff is so complicated.
[896] And as we talked about what made Monica sound like Monica and Rob sound like Rob and Dax sound like Dax, I also realized they all struggled to understand me and something Joel had said earlier came back to me. I'll also often work with people who are in the corporate world or have some highly motivated reason to change their accent, whether they're not being well understood at work.
[897] Not being well understood at work.
[898] I realized Joel was talking about me. I'm not understood at work here on this podcast.
[899] It's like you're working into a porn store and the people behind the counter look that they work in porn.
[900] Oh, I want to be so clear.
[901] I think it feels just like a pawn shop.
[902] And the way you say porn, I thought you were saying porn.
[903] I was saying pornography.
[904] Maybe Joel could help me. I mean, I've tried an American accent before and it didn't go well.
[905] Hi, it's David Farrier calling.
[906] Could I please book my driver's test for Fry?
[907] at 10 .49 p .m. If you realize this is what Americans sound like, this is how they talk all the time.
[908] Hi, Monica.
[909] My name's David Farrier.
[910] Monica wasn't impressed at the time, and neither is Joel.
[911] So it sounds to me like you're over -curling your tongue.
[912] So you're relating to the fact that in your own accent, you'd say work, maybe, with no R -sound, that Americans would use an R -sound there.
[913] But you're what might be called hyper -correcting.
[914] so you're overdoing it.
[915] So if I can have you hold your hand out with your palm up, you can model the tongue, the shape of the tongue, with no R. Your tongue is flat like you might say fa.
[916] Can you say fa?
[917] Fa.
[918] And realize that your tongue tip is down at your lower teeth.
[919] Yeah, yeah.
[920] But if you curl your fingertips up about 45 degrees, not quite so much, so don't curl your hand so much, but halfway in between straight up and flat.
[921] So about 45 degrees, sort of pointing a bit toward the joint of the wall, where the wall meets the ceiling, you get a moderate sort of R like, far.
[922] Far.
[923] Yeah, that's maybe a little over -curled.
[924] Yeah, far.
[925] Far.
[926] But if you really invest some energy in your tongue, tense it right up and curl it a lot with your fingertips pointing to the ceiling and get far.
[927] Right.
[928] You might hear that in certain Irish accents or accents of the American South that were settled by the Irish and the Scots, where you get like work, you know, a lot of art. So we're going for this moderate one, so it seems to me that your tongue is currently a little more rolling, as you said.
[929] Yeah, I'm rolling too much.
[930] Yeah.
[931] I would use the term rolling to have the tip of the tongue touch the gum ridge, the bony ridge above the teeth.
[932] So like a rah, that would be a tap, I would call that, or a rah, ra, that would be a roll, like in Spanish, a burrito, or something like that.
[933] So just a difference of nomenclature there.
[934] The more we talked, the more odd little things he noticed about my accent.
[935] you were bitten by this mammal, which you call a a squirrel.
[936] Yes, could you say it again for me?
[937] I say squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.
[938] No, because people accuse me of saying squirrel.
[939] I say, I got bitten by a squirrel.
[940] That squirrel has rabies.
[941] I hate squirrels.
[942] Yes, now you've evolved over the three times you just said it.
[943] You evolved to how I've heard you say it on the podcast.
[944] I was self -conscious when I started.
[945] I thought there was a trap.
[946] No, sorry, it's not a trap.
[947] There are no wrong answers.
[948] What you did when you said, I say, you're a bit indignant, and you said, I say squa with a W sound, which we always use with a QU, like square or squire.
[949] But what I've heard you say, which is what you got to at the end of those three repetitions, you said, scurl, that's what I heard, with no what glide.
[950] So a scurl.
[951] So I thought, oh, that's very interesting.
[952] Oh, that reminds me, I'll mention this sound, but when you say the word K -N -O -T, W N. No one.
[953] Right.
[954] So you add, you add essentially an extra syllable.
[955] What am I to what?
[956] No, no, no, no. I'm saying no an.
[957] Or no, no, no, no, you're including a little W. What am I mean to say?
[958] You can say whatever you like, but most Americans will say known.
[959] So it's a diphthong, oh, but it's one syllable.
[960] We talked on and on, beginning to figure out how to make me more American.
[961] He opened up some worksheets on Zoom and got me to slowly start changing the way I said certain sounds.
[962] Hi, it's David Ferrier calling.
[963] Calling, don't round your left.
[964] Calling, I've gone back to that, calling.
[965] Could I please book my driver's test?
[966] Oh, no, it's honestly, I can't reading this.
[967] It's going to take a lot of work.
[968] Listen.
[969] I feel self -conscious already.
[970] You thought it was strange, but it sounded quite American when you cut yourself off.
[971] So that's a thing, too, is you have to get your own brain accustomed to hearing this new accent.
[972] And you thought it was odd.
[973] I also done another New Zealand thing where I automatically assume I'm a failure instantly when I start a new task.
[974] Well, it's also like a New Zealand problem.
[975] All right.
[976] I understand.
[977] It's more of a psychological.
[978] I need to talk to my therapist about this, not you.
[979] But people do this a lot anyway.
[980] They try it and they think, oh, that can't be right.
[981] It sounds so wrong.
[982] But it was right.
[983] So you have to make this reckoning between what you think it sounds like and what it actually sounded like on the outside, which was pretty close.
[984] I won't play out any more of this as it will make you feel.
[985] truly insane, but I was making small, good steps and sounding American, tiny steps.
[986] I'm going to keep working away at it, and slowly I might be more understood here in America.
[987] Or maybe I don't need to change.
[988] Maybe this Kiwi accent is part of what makes me me. And maybe, just maybe, that's okay.
[989] If you could choose one person to listen to from our show, Monica, Rob, Dax, and myself, Who do you think has the most pleasant accent?
[990] You know, if you were destined to a hell of listening to one of us on one podcast the rest of your life, what voice are you picking?
[991] I won't be offended if it's not me. All right.
[992] Well, I mean, I just love the New Zealand accent.
[993] So probably it would be you because those guys, they've got a fairly typical American sound.
[994] I might hear little anomalies here and there.
[995] If I'm listening to you, I've heard things that, again, I didn't know existed in a New Zealand accent.
[996] Look, it's good to know I've taught him something, too.
[997] I can't wait to go and find some more squirrels.
[998] That was my journey.
[999] Wow.
[1000] Okay, first of all, big fishing for compliment there at the end.
[1001] What in the world did you think he was going to say?
[1002] You, Dex, me, the person he's currently talking to.
[1003] He's not going to say.
[1004] For some reason, he picked me. I wonder why.
[1005] I wonder why.
[1006] I was staring at him.
[1007] Also, I love him.
[1008] I love this episode.
[1009] This was so fun.
[1010] I was mouthing stuff to me. myself, you know, is trying tongue stuff.
[1011] The insurance.
[1012] Just checking how you say it.
[1013] That's so funny that he brought that one up specifically because I did a progressive commercial.
[1014] Oh, no way.
[1015] And I said insurance.
[1016] That's how I say it, insurance.
[1017] And it's insurance.
[1018] So they stop me and so you have to say it like this, obviously, because it's a commercial.
[1019] And it took me so many takes.
[1020] stuck.
[1021] Yeah, it's so hard.
[1022] Because of even what's happening right now where I don't even know what's right and wrong.
[1023] No, and it's you're so, it's what he said, you're so used to hearing yourself in a certain way, the idea of changing it just seems crazy and it's so hard to do.
[1024] Because you don't even know how you're saying it, so how can you change it if you don't even understand what you're doing, right?
[1025] Yeah.
[1026] You got it eventually and like got the word out?
[1027] Eventually, we got one taken, I guess.
[1028] And you're just looking incredibly like stressed and worried.
[1029] Wait, can you look up how to say it?
[1030] Insurance.
[1031] That's so funny.
[1032] He just had such a detailed ear And he just zoned in on things You'd never think about otherwise And yet he'd been listening to it Because of the writer's strike I guess he wasn't teaching many clients Because no one was acting So he was listening to our show So he actually And I randomly reached out to him And he had Thought about it a lot already Which is kind of wild I love that He really put in the time Did you find it?
[1033] Insurance Insurance So I say insurance Yeah insurance Yeah right I say insurance And it's insurance Okay, try saying this, okay?
[1034] Because I just said, it's so flattering.
[1035] So you say it's so flattering.
[1036] It's so flattering.
[1037] It's so flattering.
[1038] Try to say it as an American.
[1039] Oh, I just say it's so flattering.
[1040] That was better than your normal, weird thing that you normally did.
[1041] You were a psychopath.
[1042] Yeah, you're like a seven instead of a ten.
[1043] Yeah, that was better.
[1044] I was curling the tongue too much in the old days.
[1045] Do it again?
[1046] That was so flattering.
[1047] That was good.
[1048] You've got down to a five.
[1049] That was really good.
[1050] See, yeah.
[1051] It's all about the tongue placement in the mouth.
[1052] Yes.
[1053] The dialectcoach .com is where he's got his material.
[1054] I'm going.
[1055] If you want to go and play with that a little bit.
[1056] And he's taught best of the best, Joel Goldies.
[1057] He's a good guy.
[1058] I really enjoyed meeting him through this.
[1059] Yeah, he's solid.
[1060] I found this to be one of the best episodes.
[1061] Great.
[1062] I'm glad you liked it.
[1063] We've all learned about ourselves.
[1064] A little bit I just took away a lot Yeah, great And we can all go and work on our tongues Definitely more American I'll give you That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me I thank you Mean it I've gone at multiple percentage points You really have Yes I couldn't speak a Kiwi accent He could probably teach you how If you spent time with Joel He'd probably get you talking Like I talk Which nobody wants or needs But you could do it Wow if we do end up doing, which you might do, Easter egg, a reverse, flightless bird.
[1065] Oh.
[1066] Maybe I'll learn.
[1067] Imagine if you just never snap out of it.
[1068] Call up, Joel.
[1069] Oh, man. All right.
[1070] Well, this was lovely.
[1071] Thank you.
[1072] Happy accent day.