Hey, what's up? Welcome to English with Dane, a podcast designed to improve your English. As always, I'm your host, Dane, and you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter at English with Dane. I haven't released an episode in a while because I had a really busy week and I had to deal with a few unexpected things. So I apologize if I kept you waiting, but now I'm back. On today's episode, I'm going to give you the answers to the accent challenge. Accent challenge number two.
So let's start the show. You are listening to the 27th episode of English with Dane. Hit it. Some of you wrote to me and said that this latest accent challenge was a little bit easier than the last one, the one from episode 22. But then some of you wrote to me saying it was more difficult. So I don't really know how I feel about it yet. But it is interesting to get such polarizing opinions, right? Such different opinions. But okay, the answers.
What I'll do is I'll play them again so you can remember which one I'm talking about, and then I'll let you know the answer. Okay, number one was this one.
To me, it's not so much a particular period on because the same patterns emerge a lot of the times at different point in time, is uh is more those moments, you know, when uh when mob mentality takes over.
Because this accent is an Italian accent. The speaker is a man called Daniele Bollelli, and he is an author, history professor, podcast host, and I'm sure I'm missing a few other things too. He has a podcast called History on Fire, which I highly recommend if you are interested in history. So if your answer was Italian or Italian accent, then you were right. I wanted to add that Daniele Bollelli is a great example of something I was talking about several shows ago on episode 18, I think it was.
I think it's really great when someone speaks really good English, but with a thick foreign accent. I think accents are something we focus on a lot, and don't get me wrong, they are important, but they are more cosmetic than anything else. Unless you have an accent that is impossible to understand, you don't really have to worry, I think. You don't have to worry about how it sounds when you speak necessarily.
I consider Daniele Bollelli to be an incredible speaker, and the way he tells stories, his choice of words, and how he explains his ideas, I think is comparable to that of native speakers, yet he sounds extremely, extremely Italian. And I think that's a really cool thing. It makes you a lot more interesting. Anyway, let's continue. Number two was this one.
Well, when there is the sort of chaos which they obviously have, they may take desperate action and feel that an external enemy might unite some of the people there.
This one is from an interview and it was an example of the Indian accent. The woman you heard was Indira Gandhi, who, by the way, is still to this day the only woman to ever be Prime Minister of India. So if you answered India or Indian accent, you got it right. Some quick information about Indira Gandhi. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the first Prime Minister of India.
She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977, and again from 1980 until her assassination in October 1984. And this makes her the second longest serving Indian Prime Minister after her father. She was actually assassinated by two of her bodyguards at her residence. It was part of something called Operation Blue Star, which was a military operation with the objective of removing certain people from power. Okay, next one. This was number three.
But it's like when I had this garden party for my father's birthday, right? I said RSVP because it was a sit-down dinner. But people came that like did not RSVP. So I was like totally bugging.
This one was a funny one to include, I thought. And I mentioned that it was from a movie that came out in 1995. The movie is called Clueless, and the character is called Cher, played by actress Alicia Silverstone, who was also in Batman, by the way, as Batgirl. Don't know if you remember that movie. It's the one where George Clooney is Batman and Arnold Schwarzenegger is Mr. Freeze and Uma Thurman is Poison Ivy. Not a great movie, but I remember enjoying it.
Anyway, it is an American accent, yes, but if you guessed California, then even better. Her character in the movie speaks like a valley girl, which is a term that people have used to refer to girls who live in the San Fernando Valley area of California, which is associated with affluent families. I've noticed that the Valley Girl accent is the one that most people do when they imitate the American accent. Not sure why. Next one. If you guessed Australian accent, then you're right.
And if you guessed who the speaker is, then extra points for you. It's Chris Hemsworth, the Australian actor who plays Thor in the Avenger movies and, well, in the Thor movies too. I got this clip from an interview where he's talking about a movie trailer that he was in for a fake movie. It was actually a tourism campaign for Australia and the wonderful things it has to offer. If you get a chance, check out the trailer because I think it's really funny. It's like a fake crocodile Dundee remake.
I think it's a really original way to promote Australia as a tourist destination. I'll share it with you guys on social media after the show. Next, number five.
He was stronger than me, he was like three, four years older than me, and he was tall and strong guy. He's a hockey player back in the day. And yeah, we I couldn't beat him. Even with martial art, he was always stronger than me. He hurt me a lot like back in the day.
Now, this one was tricky, I think. If you recognize the voice, then you definitely got it right. But in order to do that, you have to be a fan of the UFC. So chances are you didn't recognize the speaker. The speaker is George Saint Pierre, who is a famous Canadian mixed martial arts fighter. So the accent you heard was the French Canadian accent, the Montreal accent. If you guessed French Canadian, you are correct. If you guessed just Canadian, I guess technically you're correct too.
But also there's a different accent which people associate to just the Canadian accent. It sounds similar to the American one, but with a twist, right? With some minor differences. Obviously, it depends on the region, but in general, around the world, I think Canadian speakers often get misidentified as American speakers. I might put some other Canadian accents in the next accent challenge. So who knows? Okay, last one, number six. This was the bonus one.
Getting better is just about learning from little tiny mistakes. It's all like little mistakes that you think you did wrong, and you work on them and you try and grow from them. And you know, people, I know there's a famous saying, like a lot of people say win or learn, but to me it's just you win or you lose, and I lost on a This one was also really tricky.
This accent is from Liverpool, located in the northwest of England. And the speaker is another fighter called Darren Till. The Liverpool accent or the Scouse accent is one of my favorites, I think. So if you guessed Liverpool, then you're correct. If you just guessed England, sure, I guess you're also right. But next time, really go for it, really risk it and try guessing something a little bit more specific. With time, you'll really start to see the difference. Well, hear the difference.
All right, that's it for the accent challenge. I hope you had a good time with it, and I hope it was useful for you. Like I said last episode, with accents, once you start finding a few key differences, a few key characteristics or features, you'll start to really be able to tell the difference. So don't get discouraged if you didn't get any correct or if you only got one, you'll have more opportunities.
Write to me at Englishwithdain on Instagram and Twitter if you have any suggestions for the next accent challenge, or if you want to submit an audio file or a YouTube link or for some general feedback. Remember, the best way to support the show is to share it with friends and family. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts, give it a five-star rating. Okay, talk to you soon. Bye bye.