I was watching Torchwood on BBC America last night. After the program there was an announcement on how to turn on Closed Captioning (Subtitles) for those who cannot understand British accents. This was an entirely serious piece of advice, which left me laughing; far funnier, I am sure, than the Graham Norton show which was on later that evening.
They don’t speak American
The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://britinla.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/they-dont-speak-american/trackback/
I once watched a reality mini-series called ‘A Model Life’ about six young ladies from around the world who wished to secure a good modeling contract. The only one whose dialogue was routinely subtitled was the Brit. The Slavic gal and the Brazilian? Nope. The anorexic chick from Florida who had enunciation difficulties? Nope. Not even the Australian - just the Brit!
It just occurred to me that certain US English dialects are frequently subtitled: Appalachian, New Orleans, and some very heavy Southern regionals like Alabaman.
I’d like to see the subtitles to “Bottom”!
I don’t know, maybe because they have not mastered the command of the language quite yet themselves that they need help?
These people think Americans can read?
Of course we can read! How else would we be able to decipher the menus at the illustrious dining establishments liberally dotting this great land, such as Hot Dog On a Stick?