Skype chat: Thanks everybody for coming!
There were a lot of people on our chat last night!
I was really happy to see that all our English speaking friends lined up to come to the chat and help our non-native speakers.
There were six of us: Sakis, Jing-Melissa, Dakie , Culé, Cogumela and I
But there were lots of English speakers! Everybody went out of their way to attend the meeting and we heard some very funny stories on the topic.
Ron for example said he wished his wife was not listening, jeje, Ray was the cook in his home, Chris had a funny story to tell about an old lady who has somehow adopted him, 
, lots and lots of stories
I was also happy to be able to add Feliz , Sandy and Hotchick to the chat
I personally had a great time, it is not too often that I get to hear so many accents from four continents at the same time! A real treat for me!
And I am very happy to see that it was also considered a real treat for English speaking natives, lots of comments on the Café, gracias por las flores
Thanks everybody for coming.
21 Answers
It is indeed a small world when one can listen to all the nice voices from around the world. It was a pleasure to hear everyone and share various points of view.
A big thank you to the hosts, Ray, Marianne and Heidi for a very entertaining evening.
And to Cogumela, Dakie, Hot Chick, Culé and Jing I had no trouble understanding your English. I wish my español was on the same level.
It was a great chat, indeed! Multicultural and very funny! Thank you to the moderators and everybody of you for attending and for being so helpful.
Hearing so many voices and accents in a friendly environment is a privilege for me. There was such a variety last night! Four continents and ten different countries! The subject was also very entertaining, I loved listening all those different points of view throughout the world.
Even I couldn't understand very well some of the speakers I'm very happy for having the opportunity of being there.
I had to concentrate a lot. I felt a strange feeling when Sally spoke, because after hearing another accents, her English suddenly came up so clear that it seemed to me as if she were speaking in Spanish! I also understood very well to Sakis, Culé, Feliz, Dakie, Goyo, Ray, Heidi, Marianne, Joe and Margaret. It was a good sensation!
Thanks again!
Heidi, Cogu and Dakie - as native Spanish speakers (actually of course anyone can answer this, but you were all there last night!) do you think there is more variety in the pronunciation and vocabulary/colloquialisms of native English speakers than of native Spanish speakers?
It seems to me that there must be more variation in English, particularly in pronunciation of vowels. I love the differences and see my own accent as being rather boring, so my favourite English accents are those from the North of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and in the United States it's the southern states that I appreciate most - those long vowels are gorgeous!
Looking forward to more fun in the future.
World in unison!
Voices , thoughts, opinions, accents and humor from all over the world in a pleasant evening chat! Amazing.!!
It was a great pleasure and a wonderful experience to hear you all!
And of course many thanks to Heidi, Marianne and Ray who moderated this pleasant chat!
Bien hecho y muchas gracias..!!
I would like to thank everyone who was at the chat last night and shared their stories with us. It is very interested to hear the role men play around the world and it showed for some of us that although we live in close proximity to one another that there are still differences in our culture.
Thank you Heidi for organizing these amazing, fun, interesting chats. You are the life of the party even at 2/3 in the morning :D Thanks for all the hard work you do for us here on SD.
Thanks to all the people who was there, it's just impossible to describe how much does this help me (and of course all the natives who were there) to improve our English.
Yes Heidi, Ron and Ken's accents were so difficult but other than that I could understand almost everything people were talking about, sometimes your translations underestimated us ha ha, I loved Sally''s accent, she speaks so good, and of course I loved her story about "house-teaching"too, that was just new for a lot fo people. Paul's accent is not that difficult, it's different than the british accent I'm used to hear in the movies or the songs, actually we talked about foot ball at the end of the chat. It was also lovely to talk with Marianne, her English was the easiest to understand for me, also she did a great job tidying the chat.
I don't need to talk about Sandy or Ray, I consider them my friends and I am getting used to hear their voices, even I'm getting used to Ray's accent, which is not easy .
Hottie's accent was the hardest one for me, I just can't understand a lot of the things she says but I hope talking to her will help me even more with my English. Thanks to Margaret too, her English was also easy for me, and jing-jing's accent is very good too.
Well, thanks to everyone again, Heidita of course you have been a wonderful person inviting me to this chats, I appreciate a lot your help and comprehension.
Thanks a lot! It was really fun, I'm sorry because I had to leave early, as I'm preparing for an exam I have to be careful about the time and I was really sleepy... I tried to take a nap before the chat but I couldn't sleep, so I had to leave…
Anyway, it was really nice hearing all those accents!! I really liked Ken's and Ron's, the more complicated they are, the more interesting they become for me. But I wasn't able to be unbiased so I chose Ray. Hehehe 
Hope to be there for the next one!
The different voices are so interesting. Mine was never very clear to begin with and then the hinges on the voice box rusted from lack of practice and someone stuffed some cotton in there somewhere. I never did like to listen to a recording of my own voice.
In contrast to mine we have the sharp and distinct pronunciation from so many of the members, nice and audible and easily understandable. Sounds that ring clear like the chirp of a bird or the ring of a bell. Usually the women have the easiest to understand voices but there are several of the men I would love to be able to emulate. I refuse to name names - I’ll just sulk in my cave.
Thanks again to everyone who organized and participated, it was a very enjoyable evening.
Even I couldn't understand very well some of the speakers I'm very happy for having the opportunity of being there.
I personally think this is the best way to learn, just let the sound get into your ear so to speak, just listening and the more difficult, at a certain level of course, the better, like Ken said, in the end you can understand anybody !
Of course, Cogu's level of English is very good, so is Dakie's, they had no trouble at all understanding most of what was going on. It is also unnecessary to understand every single word.
And let's please note that Cogu, hopefully Dakie will step into her shoes
, is always there! She almost never misses a chat , even though some are very easy for her level, always a great help to all those trying to learn
I had to concentrate a lot. I felt a strange feeling when Sally spoke, because after hearing another accents, her English suddenly came up so clear that it seemed to me as if she were speaking in Spanish!
Oh, our Sally almost left before she could speak! 
I could not let that happen! jeje, I did think that her English would be the clearest and easiest to understand. Actually, Sally , do you always speak that paused or do you normally speed up a little?
And Sally told us a very interesting story about homeschooling, very intersting indeed. In any case, even though we are saying she left....it was after half past one AM for her! So no wonder!
In any case, it was half past three for Sakis, truly a legend on this site Half past two AM for Spain, And it was half past 6 AM (!!!O M G ) for Jing to get up to be there!
We all struggled a little but it was such a great chat
Thank you Heidita! It was a great time. We are so lucky to have so many great people here at SD and it is wonderful to meet them on chat. I always learn so much at both the English and Spanish chats. All of our non-native speakers are doing so well. Congratulations to them all. Thank you, everyone and thank you so much, Heidita.
and in the United States it's the southern states that I appreciate most - those long vowels are gorgeous!
Oh yeeeeeeeeeeeeees, jeje, Ken, as you can see you are first on the list for lots of people, jeje Marianne said the other day: the word well has three syllables for people from Alabama!
I like all accents, even though British English is very difficult to understand if spoken like by Feliz or Jenny for example. Jenny is from the north of England, very weird all her u's, :Feliz has a very beautiful accent, but his inflection might make it more difficult for those who are not used to hearing him
Ron and Ken were probably those whose accent was more difficult to understand from the States, I could see Dakie and cogu struggle
Anyway, our friend Hotty, now that is the accent of the day...wow, I must admit...as I have a vivid imagination, jeje, I understand her , at least most of the time, that does not mean, however, I understand all she says at times
It was a pleasure to have had the opportunity to chat with so many friendly people from so many different countries. 
I hope you could all understand me :-S
I really enjoyed listening to people's stories ( true accounts) of their experiences and share their views in their own natural ways. Cogumela is making such great progress with her English and becoming more confident in speaking out each time which is a joy to see.
I have to say that I had no trouble in understanding anyone's accent I could understand nearly everything Hotchick said 
Sometimes peoples' connections affect the clarity of their voices or interfere with the ability to hear different people as we hear crackling and other weird sounds 
I hope that Skype will be able to produce some new technology in the future to counteract that
It was a great time Thank you again, Heidi, for inviting me :-)
Thanks to all for a great chat. I enjoyed hearing everybody's opinions, and experiences. I am still amazed at how varied and wide-ranging is our membership. Imagine we met a woman from Peking, China!
Report from the home front! My wife thanks you all for whatever you did. She is responding to the fact that I came forward and told her that I would do the vacumning everyday from now on! When she picked herself off the floor, she was very happy about it.
Well, it only took 27 years!
This was great!!
Sorry that I kept getting bumped off in the end. I'm not sure if it was because we added too many people online or it was my internet service.
