This ever happen to you

[Lauri]

"Y'like dags?"

[Oddysee]

Erh... Hmm, Foxy luv', about the yank accents? Well, erh...
Some are nice... But your average person here finds them a bit dull. We only hear the ones from the metropolitan area's so we only hear the slightly neutral ones.
I also guess it's because of what you said. You're not used to them. But we're all used to American. It's on all the time, so I guess the magic of the accent fades as this is the "normal" accent of the world. Regardless of where you go, people learn American-English, not British. They'll say "Lite" not "light" and "Elevator" not "Lift". It's "Chips" not "Crisps" and "Sweets" not "Lollies".
It's all the small things that make us sound alien, and thus, interesting. It does work the other way round, but I guess we're more used to hearing you than you are us.

Personally I find Irish the best accent in the world. My own sounds slightly scottish to foreigners (some say irish, wtf?) as I'm from up north, wich means I get to use such delightful terms as "Oh aye" and "ye what?".
Things like "It's me mam" and "Our Benn" when talking about relatives all add to the mix... Northeners are the "folky" lot. We're the ones who sound as though we just might be slightly un-educated, which, I guess, is true for a large part of the former coal mining areas.
One thing I HAVE noticed tho, is that here in Australia, my accent is like a "Get out of trouble free" card. People seem to love it... It's cool ^^
Also tho, they only seem to have like one accent in this entire country. Back home we have like 7 accents, amongst which two border on dialect in Manchester alone. I'm not even gonna go into how many you'll find in London.
You guys should be used to them tho', as yanks have as many as many as we do. I would say more, but I sometimes wonder. For a small country like England, we have a ridiculous ammount of accents.
I mean, people here have a hard time understanding some of the scottish... Or Welsh... Or ,God forbid you should actually deside to talk to them, the Scousers!
The observant one will have noticed now that Scousers arne't popular. It's only because of where we're from. England is a competative country like no other. We'll fight over just about anything, and that means, that if you're not from our part, supporting our team (it's always about football) you might well get in a lot of trouble for no particular reason. I'm a Manc (Manchester) and Manc's and Scousers (Liverpool) go back... As in way back. Not getting along is somewhat of a birth right. It's like Brit's taking the mic on the Frenchies. It comes with the territory ^^


Tm

[Boinky]

Yeah the differences between The U.S. and Britain and all of Europe really with accents and pretty much everything always astound me a bit. Far as accents go you guys in the United Kingdom probably do have as many variants as we have in our entire country and we could fit the UK inside Texas with room to spare. Also there is the size/distance difference. I can drive to a place far north in my state and it might take 3 1/2 hours, in Europe you could drive for 3 1/2 hours and pass through 3 or 4 countries.

[Oddysee]

Yup... But it's all an age question really... Your country is what, 300 year old?
Everyone there is practically a decendant from the same english speaking colony.

England has has centuries to differ in accents, in the same way as Europe at large has. What was accents became dialects, and later languages...

I guess it'll come sooner or later (later mainly) but so far, you're still a young country.
So is Australia, I guess that's why there's only really one accent here too...


Tm

[Vallikat]

I think a lot of the little turns of phrase, like what Oddy mentioned, just add to the charm. My former mother-in-law was born and raised in Liverpool. For her it's not a trunk it's a boot. She doesn't use a flashlight, she uses a torch. She doesn't take a vacation, she goes on holiday. She refers to my son's friends as his chums. As a further example, the other day I got a phone call for an interview. The woman had a very Brittish accent. When I told her I could make the interview time she said "splendid" in that very Brittish way. It's not that we don't use the word "splendid", we just don't use it the way that Brits seem to. "Brilliant" is another word you like more than we do. For that matter you don't "like" things as much as you "fancy" them. It's just that kind of "old world" charm that intrigues us as much as the accent.