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I find it a little annoying (Aussie here), but the one thing that irritates me is when people can't tell the two apart! They have completely different pronunciations with most words! Kiwis mix up vowels, and Aussies drawl on them, for one.
Yeah, that I can't understand either. The accents are vastly different.
Not my favourite accent. There's a Kiwi at work and I sometimes have to stop end thunk about what she jest sid. It's just so odd to do those weird things with vowels.
I'd put the Kiwi accent up there with that real ocker Aussie accent, a la Julia Gillard, for annoying. Actually I'd rather listen to a Kiwi than her.
I'm from Europe and have been living in Australia for more than 5 years. I know some Kiwis and have also visited New Zealand.
I agree with some of the people above that many Australians can sound very "uncultured", for lack of a better word, and Kiwis generally sound a bit more civil. However, I can't help but still giggle a bit when I hear those vowels mixed up. To me, that just sounds wrong and some words really then do sound like a completely different word, sometimes with humorous/offensive effect...! You do get used to it though and I find it quite endearing, actually. :-) It's not annoying, anyway.
I find it a little annoying (Aussie here), but the one thing that irritates me is when people can't tell the two apart! They have completely different pronunciations with most words! Kiwis mix up vowels, and Aussies drawl on them, for one.
Of course, to an Aussie or Kiwi, the differences would stand out more than the similarities. I think US and Canadian accents are similar. As an American, I can tell the difference, but I wouldn't except an Aussie or Kiwi to, because once in a while I can't even tell say a person from Vancouver from a person from Madison, Wisconsin.
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I'm American and enjoy the NZ accent quite alot.I listen to internet radio to fall asleep and find that Radio New Zealand International is very good at getting me to sleep. Australian accent is nice but a little rougher around the edges or harder if you will. The white Afrikaner accent I listen to quite a bit on Talk Radio 702 in Johannesburg is actual quite good too but not nearly as relaxing as the Kiwi accent.Plus the locales they talk about in New Zealand are much more exotic sounding Nieue,Papua New Guinea,Solomon Islands,Fiji and other islands I have never even heard of. Also the weather on Radio New Zealand is done in a way that I really can't describe except to say it is different and you would have to listen just after the top of the hour to hear for yourselves.Newstalk ZB has commercials and I prefer non-commercial bRoadcasts as to not disrupt the flow.
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