do japanese people do that same exhale-inhale-gasp-thing as anime in real life?
this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2026
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Or say a person's name in hushed tones to show that they are concerned or impressed or whatever with them?
I hate that trope so much.
Nope, because too many people have main character syndrome and just talk over everyone else
I think as an immigrant, I might actually more qualified than Americans to answer that. And broadly speaking, yes. The accents will vary; the conversation isn't rehearsed so there are a lot more uhms, ahs, and interrupting one another; witty banter is less prevalent; stuff like that that is the usual differences between a script and real life. But the cultural differences? They're there. Most US media is incredibly grounded in their reality. I caught myself befuddled in many situations because it felt surreal, like I was in a TV show. I couldn't believe what I watched on the TV was real and not just something contrived to drive the plot where the writer wanted. But it was real.
Got any examples of real situations that surprised you?
I'm racking my brain to remember something, but it's usually very mundane stuff, and I've been here long enough that I got used to it all so it faded to background. What I do remember clearly was the uncanny sensation of being inside a TV show, and it happening with a certain frequency in my first year. I can't really recall the exact situations that triggered it, though, sorry.
Nobody is actually that emotional or forthcoming about their feelings the way people are typically portrayed in movies and tv shows.
That question covers a huge amount of media, land, and people. There are likely hundreds of accents in the US.
Generally for media depicting fairly modern times, the accents are accurate. For example, Superbad, Clerks, and the TV show Reservation Dogs all depict different people and accents in the USA accurately IMO.
Movies from the 1920s to the 1960s seem to have more artificial accents, such as the Mid-Atlantic accent.
Newscasters speak differently than normal, probably so they can be understood more clearly.
Same with game show announcers and reality show narrators.
Its a big question and it depends on the media.
The 1920s to 1950s movie and radio voice wasn't just a random choice. It was done because the recording tech at the time was very limited and words had to be pronounced in a fairly specific and clear manner in order to be heard. Some accents had to be ommitted or suppressed, such as many Southern US accents, not out of disliking them, but simply because they didn't record well.
I was watching a new short series that takes place in maine. Half the characters have a boston accent and it's honestly driving me mad. Maine is distinct from boston..
The show is wierd and Idk if I like it, and I def dont remember what it's called.
Not to mention the myriad actors using a US accent(s). FWIW, I can't recall a movie/series that, when based in a region the actors know personally didn't do the local accent wonderfully. But, that's the rub: it's such an enormous, overpopulated populated landmass that it's bound to have innumerable dialects.
Although, perhaps what OP's asking is which, if any, is/are considered the common/baseline dialect of US English? π€·πΌββοΈ
I truly find the mid Atlantic accent too be fascinating
Check out the Tangier Island accent, a coastal island that's part of Virginia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIZgw09CG9E
Interesting, that instantly reminded me of the West Country accent (think Hagrid)
Sometimes life imitates art. Sometimes art imitates life. A bit of a dog's breakfast.
A lot of media is a midwest accent which is considered the most plain. Many movies have various regional accents depending on location. california, southern, boston, chicago, etc. regions and cities and areas of cities have accents but the city ones especially can be a bit rare unless your in a pretty specific area. Heck I did not even know about the northern middle country thing that sounds more canadian until fargo.
You're assuming all of Canada sounds like Fargo. Right after explaining how all USians don't sound the same.
Even within prairies, you won't find Calgary sound anything remotely similar to Fargo accent.
It's also a class thing, like any other country. You notice urban and globally exposed Newfoundlanders sound nothing like the old timers.
Same goes for Quebec. Their english accent doesn't resemble anything remotely close to Fargo accent. Canada also has Whistler, BC where so many people speak in the urban, uppity Australian accent for some reason.
omg dude. I was not saying all canadians sound like that. just that its the same accent over the border. people really make some assumptions. Wait for me to say all canadians sound like x instead of the fargo thing sounds like a canadian accent. a. one of many. singular.
I'm glad y'all solved that with kindness. That's great to see! ππΌ
That said, you might enjoy looking into the cultural hotspots that developed during CA & US' infancy and how whole regions were shaped by them. I find it pretty fascinating, but my nana was a geneologist, so π
It was all in good fun. Didn't mean any harm.
I doubt anyone outside Canada even cares whether we do or don't sound the same. Or what Whistler is all about, except maybe Australians.
No. People interrupt each other, stumble over words, and sometimes need time to think before speaking. None of that happens when the dialog is pre written and rehearsed.
Someone's never seen a Robert Altman movie haha
Edit: watch The Player to see exactly what I mean starting basically from the first scene.
We dance to live music and Dont just add it in post. We also go to the bathroom and choke on our own spit randomly.
FWIW, going to the bathroom wasn't allowed to be shown on tv/in films (US) until Leave It To Beaver did it. βπΌ
And the first couple to be shown in bed together and the first pregnant woman was on... The Flintstones!
Was that not I Love Lucy?
Iβm sure my dad screamed, βholy shit, he just like me for realβ when that happened.
In fact, it was Mrs. Cleaver, IIRC. π«’
As in an "American equivalent" to the "anime voice" type thing? Um no... Not that I'm aware of except maybe cartoons do that.
Or do you mean like the overall speech including word choices and how sentences gets put together? I think TV is just way too polished. Irl is more like a police bodycam footage, or a random street interview thats unscripted (i mean even those street interview youtube videos are kinda overedited/polished compared to off camera conversations).
I mean as in lots of filler words and awkward silences. Lots of: "um..." "so..." "like..." wait..." "you know..."
Lots of colliqualism you dont really see on TV.
(btw I type exactly like how I would speak irl)
But on the other hand, idk if all the Breaking Bad type of "talking like a gangster" thing even is real either cuz I never been in those circles but when i was in K-12, like in highschool, I overhear lots of those "yo" "whatup" "fam" "dude" "bruh" a lot between classmates, and these are the most "gangster" looking kids (I mean as in they are the disruptive ones in class) so maybe the "yo" thing is actually what gang members use, or maybe its to show that they dont use formal speech and use heavy colloqualism to imply that "these people dont have college education".
So yeah police bodycam footage (theres lots of those from the US due to Freedom of Information Act) captures lots of those IRL moments of awkwardness, even without a stressful factor like being in proximity of a cop, lots of those awkwardness really does happen with average conversations.
-Hi from Philly :D
Lots of colliqualism you dont really see on TV.
That and sharing are probably the biggest differences. Most people (and scripwriters) tend to "tame down" their language when on camera. They will shift more towards "standard" English (or what they perceive as standard), and use less colorful language.
for the most part americans talk like the people surrounding them growing up. if they intentionally want to change their speech, they may choose someone on tv to sound like, but generally speaking that's rare. southerners sound like they're from the south, no matter how much tv they watch, bostonians sound like they're from boston, same for new yorkers, minnesotans, cajuns, etc
edit: if you want to hear a fantastic minnesota accent, check out that movie Fargo
if you want to hear a fantastic minnesota accent, check out that movie Fargo
Seconded! And, right next door, you can get a blend of that and the Shicahgo accent throughout Wis'cahnsen, don'chanoh.
(O'hun, djeet-yet? Ya look positively hollow, ya do. Goan an' getcherself some hotdish now.)
The depressing thing is a lot of these wonderful regional accents are slowly dying off thanks to the significant exposure to national and international media that people consume. Like you'll still encounter older individuals with these regional Midwestern accents, particularly in smaller and more remote communities, but the accents are slowly disappearing (or more accurately, speakers are slowly subconsciously moving to a more generic Midwestern accent that's more widely understood)
I hear you there. If I may offer a shift in perspective: linguistic change is inevitable, though it certainly doesn't help that the US insists on calling them "accents" vs "dialects" βpresumably to pin up the illusion of underlying cultural unity across the country. Whereas, defining them accurately could play a part in their preservation, instead of insinuating they're inconsequential, dispensable, fleeting, etc. π₯²
You can answer that just by asking about your local tv/movie/cartoon feeds and how they talk. Itβs scripted and embellished for their intended audience. Itβs not βrealβ but itβs not fake either.
You underestimate other cultures inclination to making up the most straight up bullshit for escapist entertainment.
I think that the question is really, really broad. "Netflix" covers a lot, and "Americans" covers a lot, and "how someone talks" covers a lot.
Movie scripts are going to have more time spent on them than text that someone comes up with on-the-fly. They have carefully-crafted one-liners. They have professional actors, who are often going to be, say, better-looking and more-suave sounding.
On the other hand, relative to English in whatever country you live in, there probably is slang and any number of things local to the US that does show up in Hollywood movies more than in your country.
So I think that any answer pretty much has to be "yes...and no".
If you can narrow your question down to a very specific, like, oh..."do people actually say X in the US in real life", you might get a more-meaningful answer.
TVTropes has a whole list of things that people do on phones in film, for example, that typically aren't reflective of real life. To choose one, people on one end of a phone call repeating what the remote person has said so that the audience can hear it. People don't do that in real life; it's a technique to help storytelling in movies.
Or another one of my favorite quirks
I like a lot of military history. Often, you'll have war movies where very-expert characters, like General or Admiral So-And-So, will basically be explaining big-picture things in very basic terms to each other on some kind of pretext. That's for the benefit of the audience, so that the characters can basically act as narrators for the audience. That wouldn't be done by those characters in real life.
But that doesn't mean that real American culture and mannerisms aren't present in movies.
Depends on the film, and I believe the same can be said for a lot of places (just my opinion).
Like, you're bound to have Hollywood films more representative of life in America, however it will of course have some theatrics added.
There is also the elephant in the room: how bloody massive the US is. I've travelled through a bit, stepped foot in 39 States (if I'm honest I travelled around only about 25-28 or so), and it was easy to see a good variation in the way people talk, not just the differences in slang.
In a lot of cases the representation of a character would be based on the influence of a real person, however the amount to which the impression is exaggerated depends on the film or show.
I would not say my friends and family remind me of any film to a great degree, yet there will be some aspects within. However the same can be said about here in the UK.
We all know a bit of a Rodney, etc.
But in my experience I'd say no, I've rarely met someone who genuinely behaved fully like a TV or movie character whilst visiting and living there, unless they were trying to make an impression of the characters.
Hope this made sense.
However the little things are a real life thing. Like, when films and shows of the 90s depicted people, on a street corner, with a boombox and folks just breakdancing for fun... Things like that definitely happened and were very cool to see as a kid in New York.
Actually, Iβm a linguist from Prussia (in Germany, not Pennsylivania) and coincendentily I have studied this in detail. During my research I have discovered that Hollywood uses a arsinal of βspeech drugsβ - substances that alter speech! Tablets, injections, all Chemical stuff to modulate the voices of the actors, so that they are more becoming to the audenices. So, for instances Clooney has a voice which is several octaves higher than on the screen, he sounds like a barmaid after inhaling laughing gas. And Signorey Weiner has a raspy Bariton. Tom Cruise has a voice more in line with his pint-sized bodily built. Jennifer Aniston screetsjes like finger nails running over blackboard. Only Adam Sandler has a hallway acceptable voice, but he happens to be a jerk.
The actors definitely play up their charisma and more confident and skinnier than 80% of Americans. Most Americans are polite but not just jumping into conversation spontaneously anymore. Depends on the content, really.
In a way. Photographic and video expression have molded they way Americans express themselves over time. People very much tend to express themselves according to the examples given in popular media.