Some Brits can give you a read-out on exactly where one of their fellow Brits is from just from speech, and
certainly identify which of the roughly forty class levels within the English social structure they fall. I found
the British pretty folksy on their home ground, but my late wife and I ran into one resort for the upwardly
mobile where the senior staff had a real problem with our not being able to "dress" for supper. We were
at one B&B -- which was frequented by comfortably upper crust -- where one fellow guest "complimented"
us by saying to a friend behind her hand, "They certainly don't seem like Americans." I'm afraid because we
weren't overweight and weren't asking intrusive questions. I have trouble with the BBC radio news. They
seem to recruit for either really awkward, hard to listen to British accents, or melodic singing accents that
sound like parody. Then all their interviews are with people with profound Mideastern accents that are
bewildering. Oh well, Walter Cronkite is gone, and may he rest in peace.