[ColdFire]

Originally Posted by Ray Allan

Well ColdFire, the small amount of German I know is all 'hochdeutsch' . .

Yeah . . I figured . . Standard German is already a difficult language to learn for non-native speakers . . To even learn / understand German dialects is a more difficult task . .

. . apparently the same as spoken in your area of northern Germany (Bremen/Hannover) . .

Yep . . us northern Germans are often commended for our almost 'accent-free Hochdeutsch' . .

My area brings that with itself . .

Whereas many people in Germany even until this day have problems talking accent-free Hochdeutsch.

But . . the ancient dialect of our area is also not forgotten even to the point that for children courses in 'Plattdeutsch' are offered to keep 'the old tongue of Northern Germany alive' . .

. . so I would have trouble understanding a speaker from Bavaria or Austria or even Berlin.

. . even I would sometimes have . .

Bavarian is a very strong dialect and many Austrian dialects are based on Bavarian ( largely the same tribe of people ) . .

As for the Berlin dialect , Berlin being located on the Northern German plain too , it did keep its dialect nevertheless . . . The Berlin-dialect is based on Plattdeutsch with Hochdeutsch-elements thrown in . .

Depending on what English pronunciation you learned (I'm assuming 'Oxford' English?)

I speak English fluently . . I'm also able to figure out whether someone is from the UK or the USA by hearing their accents . .

I myself , when switching from German to English , speak a 'neutral' English , some might call that an 'English without any regional accent' , some would call it 'how a German tries to talk English' . .

I can imitate a British accent if I want to as well as American but I'm 'neutral'

. . it would probably be difficult for you to understand American southern accents.

If they talk fastly maybe yes . .

Though ,I watch many films in English language in the 'original' , i. e. not dubbed into German , and came across movies in 'British slang' as well as movies set in the American south with people talking typically . . I'm a bit trained on that field.

Most of my family came from the South and Texas, but I was born and grew up in the West, so I don't speak in a Southern accent, but the flatter, more monotoned 'Western' accent.

Yes , regional changes can often lead to that . .