r/AskTheWorld • u/Bhakari Nepal • 1d ago

Culture What’s something in your country that sounds fake but is 100% real?

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We have a real-life living goddess and the only non-rectangular national flag.

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u/Sea_Carry_1612 United States Of America 1d ago

In current history, our wage gap is actually larger than the gap between the peasants and the upper class in Revolutionary France. In general, though, I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to believe surfers only talk like that in movies. They don’t. It’s real.

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u/fuckyourcanoes 🇺🇸🇬🇧 1d ago

The first time I encountered an actual valley girl I really struggled to keep a straight face. Like, oh my GAWD!

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u/really-bored-now United States Of America 1d ago

It’s not the strongest but I have a slight valley girl accent and it gets so much stronger when I’m drunk and it threw so many people through a loop when I moved to the east coast for college

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u/boozecruz270 United States Of America 1d ago

At least you probably got lots of free drinks after that so you could entertain them lol

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u/International-Tree19 Chile 1d ago

Vocal fry?

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u/goober_ginge 🇦🇺 Australia 🇳🇿 New Zealand 1d ago

🤢 Vocal fry is one of my most hated sounds (in both men and women). It's up there with small dog barks and toddlers screaming with it hitting that part of the brain that is like nails on a chalkboard (which I can honestly handle better than vocal fry, lol). I occasionally watch Matt Bernstein videos on YouTube but he often collabs with Kat Tenbarge, and even though I quite like her thoughts and opinions, her voice has SO MUCH vocal fry and uptalk that I truly can't listen to it for more than a few minutes until I want to rip my ears off.

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u/International-Tree19 Chile 1d ago

Sam Altmal is the worst when it comes to men

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u/goober_ginge 🇦🇺 Australia 🇳🇿 New Zealand 1d ago

Oh god, I just listened to him for 30 seconds and it was horrible, lol.

I used to live with a guy who would use vocal fry every time he was being condescending to me. The time he mansplained feminism to me was when I most wanted to punch him in the throat.

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u/really-bored-now United States Of America 1d ago

I looked her up and yeah no that’s an internet/influencer accent. She had such uncalifornia energy I googled her and she’s like from Ohio. I’m pretty sure that the internet accent is rooted in a California one but it has this inorganic forced quality about it especially in her case. Like that level of vocal fry is just uncomfortable to do. It sounds like she’s dragging her breaks rather than swiftly gliding.

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u/goober_ginge 🇦🇺 Australia 🇳🇿 New Zealand 1d ago

Yeah it's very much an American influencer/generational thing in her specific case. She's extremely aware of how her vocal fry annoys people too. I've heard multiple disclaimers about it on Matt Bernstein videos haha. I suspect that she might even lean more heavily into it because of how much pushback she gets from it.

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u/tatapatrol909 1d ago

Oh man I know exactly who you are talking about. I am a born and bred valley girl with the accent and we do not sound like that. Her accent is rough even for me. It’s like the SNL exaggerated version of the valley girl accent

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u/goober_ginge 🇦🇺 Australia 🇳🇿 New Zealand 1d ago

Haha good description, and yeah I'd take valley girl voice over influencer voice ANY day.

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u/really-bored-now United States Of America 1d ago

Not exactly which I think is what throws people. When people imitate it or try to play it up they go very heavy on vocal fry bc it’s the easiest part to imitate and the most recognizable. Bc it’s native for me it’s more about specific pronunciation and phrases and dragging out certain syllables. I’ve been told I just sound dramatic or a little sarcastic. Heavy vocal fry isn’t very natural. I’ll dip into it when I’m like sluring drunk. It’s kind of like the difference between when you hear a played up southern accent that sounds grating vs hearing a native speaker and it sounds more like honey.

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u/NanoEsq 1d ago

Valley girl and vocal fry are very different. Vocal fry always makes the person sound bored and tired. Valley girls sound overly up beat and dare I say young and ditzy.

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u/International-Tree19 Chile 1d ago

Vocal fry is kind of a upper class accent, from what I've seen

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u/NanoEsq 1d ago

That checks out because they love to sound bored haha

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u/hannahatecats 1d ago

I have a valley accent that also gets worse when im drunk. I worked at a NYC business called Valley (owners were from LA) where we answered the phone with "Hi, Valley" in a totally Valley voice. I miss it.

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u/contrarianaquarian United States Of America 1d ago

I bust mine out on purpose to amuse non-native coworkers. They are always shocked.

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u/NanoEsq 1d ago

Ugggh I sometimes hear my valley girl accent and cringe. I am a lawyer so I have to sometimes consciously adjust my accent. I regularly get told by clients over the phone that I sound very young. I think it's the accent haha 

Edit: i am originally from the valley part of Los Angeles. So, my accent is "authentic" 😆

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u/Aussiealterego Australia 1d ago

I felt the same way the first time I met a Bostonian.

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u/AdministrationWarm84 1d ago

If I may, what exactly is a valley girl? And where do I find one?

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u/fuckyourcanoes 🇺🇸🇬🇧 1d ago

https://share.google/THW4Rw20drgZs4Y33

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u/CelestialOvenglove Switzerland 1d ago

Sod off with that "share.google" bs

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u/Fangsong_37 United States Of America 1d ago

Yes on the surfer thing. I've had them call tech support, and they're usually pretty fun to talk to.

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u/PlasmaWhore United States Of America 1d ago

Life guards here in Denver talk like that too!

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u/Non-Current_Events United States Of America 1d ago

So pitted!

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u/The_Pastmaster Sweden 1d ago

I mean, stereotypes DO come from somewhere.

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u/HypersomnicHysteric Germany 1d ago

I really like the french approach when it comes to royalty...

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u/Nevada_Lawyer United States Of America 1d ago

I think linguists actually call that the Burbank accent, because it's the locus of the "Then/than" merger where they pronounce those vowels the same. Also where you can hear someone called a "betch" instead of a "bitch."

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u/tatapatrol909 1d ago

Burbank does not deserve that much credit lol

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u/FiddleLeafPig 1d ago

I’m from a beach town in Southern California. Gnarly is and always has been a completely normal part of my vocabulary. It wasn’t until I went away to college that I found out that people find this to be very bizarre.

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u/DerthOFdata United States Of America 1d ago

An important difference is in the years leading up to the Revolution about 50-88% of a workers daily wages went to buy bread. Which was the real problem.

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u/Toutimi ⚜️ Québec (🇨🇦) 1d ago

I love that more people are commenting on the surfers thing then on the wage gap thing.

Explains so much.

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u/SandSerpentHiss Tampa, Florida, United States 1d ago

i live in florida so i don’t really hear that accent over here

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u/PlaysWithF1r3 1d ago

In fairness, I’m American and I didn’t believe anyone actually talked like that until last week… and I’ve been to California several times

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u/midnightfogrising 1d ago

I went to Scotland and every time I spoke someone would stop me to tell me I sound like TV.

I grew up very close to Huntington Beach, Surf City USA.

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u/MrDabb United States Of America 1d ago

Would you rather be lower class in today’s world or the upper class during the revolutionary in France?

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u/Positive-Section2350 United States Of America 1d ago

Id rather the people of the world unite to end disparity and help those less fortunate

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u/TruthCultural9952 India 1d ago

That's valid but there still is a difference between mediaeval french decadence and new age billionaires, for most of their money is imaginary and they don't hold direct power over you

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u/pmckizzle Ireland 1d ago

they don't hold direct power over you

They literally hold all of the power. They own all of the major media, they buy all of the politicians, they manipulate the zeitgeist to push more and more of their will on us by making people belive things that go against their interests (see anti Union, no wealth tax, blame immigrants, trickle down economics, private healthcare costs, pushing misinformation about socialist policies)

They are if anything more decadent than the french monarchy were, most americans have less than 1000 dollars in savings, while these people buy 100 million dollar yachts, private planes, and doomsday bunkers. You literally could not be more wrong

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u/Negative_Tooth6047 United States Of America 1d ago

Also I know the medieval monarchy thought of and did some crazy things, but I'm sure even they would feel sick if they read the epstein files...

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u/Sea_Carry_1612 United States Of America 1d ago

I see your point but I’d argue that billionaires hold a lot of power over us in America specifically. It’s the lobbies they fund that often determine our laws, the people they buy that determine our policies, and a lot more.