fellow expat in Paris right now I'm from the US from the Midwest and I talk about

expat culture, writing, creativity, things like that on my channel. Andrea and I have

actually just filmed another video where I tested her on Kiwi slang so I don't

know if you guys have seen my videos on New Zealand slang but basically I've

picked a few of the more difficult ones and put her to the test so you can

go and see how she did in her video on her channel it will of course be down

below and I'm gonna put her to the challenge today. We've got an accent

challenge to do where basically we want to compare our accents and read out a

list of words together and listen to the differences in the way we pronounce them

and try and figure out why. I know it's really hard because in the US there

are so many different regional accents but you've got quite a neutral accent

don't you? Yeah I come from sort of the st. Louis

area and I think we generally have a very what we what would you would call a

standard American accent, we don't sound like we're from anywhere. So she's

my standard copy American and I am the standard New Zealander.

Let's go through the list and see who says what and how. So word number one.

Do you wanna go first? Sure. So I would say [pronounces word]. I wouldn't be shocked to hear aunt

I feel like some people call their...if you were actually talking about their

name like Aunt Mary, you'd say Aunt. It's like a little British hangover like 'Aunt Mary' (British accent)

Alright so the second one I would say [pronounces word]

Yeah the envelope makes logical sense

with English pronunciation but I think because this is a French word I think "en"

is sort of trying for the "en" sound in French true somehow I don't know why we

would but I say envelope. So the next one I have heard people pronounce it

differently but I would say [pronounces word] generally. Me too. I've heard route a lot

I think on certain GPSs maybe like re-routing. Actually re-route, yeah, we would say

re-route also. mmm-hmm. Interesting. Very strange.

Gosh there's a melting pot of English that's the thing, like if you think about

it the accents between New Zealand Australia South Africa Canada like I

mean it's crazy how many English accents there are around. And when there's

crossover and when there's not, how our languages evolved differently.

And then like because the UK's the motherland you know but then just next

door you've got the Irish and you're like what are you saying?! Yeah. I would

say this [pronounces word]. We shorten everything so it's very

lazy so it's like theata like almost like it's an A at the end whereas I

can hear you saying the 'er'. mm-hmm that's the American accent definitely.

The next word I would say [pronounces word]. Same, [pronounces word]. No, not same!

The next one I would say [pronounces word]. okay so you don't pronounce the L? no.

Occasionally I've heard people pronounce the L.

Okay the next one oh this is controversial. I would say [pronounces word] until I moved to the

UK and one of my good friends was with me and I was at Starbucks and I ordered

a caramel latte. A what? And he he lost it in the nicest way, he was my friend

so he's allowed to laugh at me but I was like what's going on? And he was like

you just pronounced caramel like carmel. Yeah like do you have one in your mouth right now?

So I now say caramel when I'm anywhere but the US but

caramel is how I normally would say it. Okay and I would just say caramel.

Again 'mill' rather than 'mell' sound. We've definitely got a thing with our vowels, it's almost like the Es

become Is almost so it's like cara-mill. Yeah the vowels in New Zealand

are very different to pretty much any other accent. Yeah unfortunately!

No it's super cool, actually! I mean this one is another like its disputed where I come

from but I would say coupon. I would also say coupon, how else could you

possibly say it? [pronounces word]. A lot of people in the Midwest I think say

coupon. The next one that's another one that's at least in the US it's very

disputed but I say [pronounces word]. oh I say [pronounces word]. Pe-can as well depending on where

you come from the US but that was one for some reason growing up it drove me

crazy when I heard it because I only heard it from a few select people so I

just have pecan so ingrained. That's funny because for me that sounds super snobby

like "pe-caaan". It does sound a bit more posh, yeah.

[pronounces word]. Okay to me that sounds very English okay the lawyer

sounds so American gonna law-yer okay sure lawyer is just North American and

then how you are saying it is everything else. Wait what did I say?

Okay the next one [pronounces word].

Wait did you pronounce the T? No, I mean I pronounce it but...

it's like it almost a D, whereas we're like "waTer",

Would you like a glass of water? Yeah the American T in those

situations although it's often an australian and new zealand thing, it's pretty

much everything except your classical british, but the T becomes more

like a D but it is a different sound. I've had so many people say it's a

D is it's not it's a it's kind of like a tongue flick but that sounds like a D

it's not quite the same thing. [pronounces word] that's like identical oh we

found the soul mate word! Okay this one we pronounce and spell differently

[pronounces word] see a lot of people have said

this one's pronounced just weirdly in North America I actually don't know

which one Canada says but we don't have that last I in there we say aluminum. How

interesting! The next one I added it to the list

especially because I know it's a thing.

[pronounces word]. Say it again - milk. Yeah it's like it's gonna W in there yeah

yeah that's interesting see I thought the New Zealand twang will

be on the i because the vowels are usually different but this one's different.

yeah this one's really random. [pronounces word]

so there's just the 'R', my Americanness is coming through strong. Alright so now we

have some sentences. I chose these sentences because I knew that they

may highlight again a bit of the accent. If you can figure out the rule of the New

Zealand accent please let us know down below because maybe you're a linguistic

expert and you can explain it away. I really need to paint my deck. I really

need to paint my dick. The vowels are really different! It's really awkward when you're saying to

people like yeah I'm just gonna go sit on the deck like people are like oh! you

do that then. I write with a red pen a blue pen and a black pen. I write with a

red pen a blue pen and a black pen. Yeah it sounds so much like an I which is

funny because at least in the u.s. a lot of people will mix up the words pen and

pin and they'll say pin for pen but they actually are thinking of pen but it's

actually a common thing. And we just collectively kept making the mistake over and over!

I think school is really cool. Okay the double O is definitely a bit

different. Yeah this is for me when you hear an Australian it's like school

cool like it's got that real drawl to it. Yeah okay but then we really

need to go to bed. Yeah okay but then we really need to go to bed. Okay so that's

it so again if you have figured out the secret to the New Zealand accent and you

can explain it to us please let me know down below, there's something weird going on it

must have been that six month voyage all the way across the ocean that made

people a little bit loopy but thank you so much for watching and if you want

more content on language learning, French, Kiwi slang, culture that kind of stuff

please think about subscribing and give this video a thumbs up

and I'll see you guys next Wednesday. See you next time! A bientôt! Bye!