[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by lio45

I'm really impressed by how fine-tuned your ears are... able to tell between different areas of Ontario? To my ears (and I've traveled all over the continent) there are basically two different Anglo accents that I can really distinguish in North America, U.S. deep south (found from east TX to the Carolinas, mostly outside cities), and North-American-non-U.S.-Southern. (Includes all Canadians... oh, actually not Newfoundlanders any more, now that I've heard videos, thanks SHH )


Having said that, I can immediately and effortlessly tell a Saguenay accent, even more easily a Gaspésie accent, and it's easy to tell from which area of France someone comes based on the accent (and if Belgian or Swiss instead), so I suppose that your amazing skills (to me) are just normal. I can actually even recognize a Sorel-specific accent, but the kids nowadays have of course zero accent, only people 50/60 or older, more or less. I think people my age and younger from southern Quebec don't really have regional accents any more.



I wonder how long it takes to develop that ability to recognize and identify ridiculously small differences in accent if you're not a native speaker... it's likely the very last thing you develop... or maybe never?

In my experience, is far more difficult to hear accents in a foreign language unless they are very pronounced. I am fluent in Spanish for example, but can't really pick out the differences among Central American accents, although all my CentAm acquaintances can immediately tell which country someone is from. As for Canadian French, I could probably tell if someone was a Quebecker or Acadian, but that's about it. It also depends on the amount of exposure - I have on occasion mistaken New Zealanders for Australians, much to their displeasure!