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> or something along those lines nearly always works fine for me and is no more distracting than having a conversation with somebody in the car with me. Until

> or something along those lines nearly always works fine for me and is no more distracting than having a conversation with somebody in the car with me. Until you have several Freds in your contact list. Until you have friends with foreign/uncommon names. As long as you have near-perfect American pronunciation. As long as... There are too many variables to consider and think of. Sometimes I can't get Siri to reliably understand what music I want (and my Engilsh is pretty darn good), much less anything more advanced.

scarface74 4y ago
> As long as you have near-perfect American pronunciation. There isn’t a such thing as an American accent. Ask anyone who is not a native speaker and either hasn’t been to US that long and tries to understand my natural deep southern accent. I can adjust my accent if needed and if I think about it.
- simiones 4y ago
  There is an accent that is typically called "standard American" or something along those lines, which is what you'll hear on things like national news programs. I'm not sure how many Americans actually speak with this accent, but it's usually the one that all of these devices target initially.
  - dmitriid 4y ago
    Yeah, I was thinking along the lines of "General American"/"California English": - General American https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/united-states-of-accents-general-american https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/united-states-of-accents-... - California English https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-united-states-of-accents-california-english https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-united-states-of-acce...
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    The "Standard American" accent is the west coast (mostly California) accent. It is far from universal.
    - whimsicalism 4y ago
      It is Midwestern and, while not universal, it is the majority of speakers on the coasts and people I have met from the Midwest.
      - ghaff 4y ago
        It's essentially how a homogenized middle+ class of people born/raised in/around metropolitan areas that aren't in the South/Texas speak. (In general, stereotypical accents associated with various cities are mostly more of a working class thing, e.g. Southie in Boston.) The South is the main outlier. Colleagues I work with from and living in North Carolina generally have a distinct southern accent albeit a mostly slight one. But, yeah, historically we'd have called it Midwestern.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      I think historically we'd probably have said it was Midwestern. But, yeah, however the network news anchors speak.

scarface74 4y ago

> As long as you have near-perfect American pronunciation. There isn’t a such thing as an American accent. Ask anyone who is not a native speaker and either hasn’t been to US that long and tries to understand my natural deep southern accent. I can adjust my accent if needed and if I think about it.

simiones 4y ago
There is an accent that is typically called "standard American" or something along those lines, which is what you'll hear on things like national news programs. I'm not sure how many Americans actually speak with this accent, but it's usually the one that all of these devices target initially.
- dmitriid 4y ago
  Yeah, I was thinking along the lines of "General American"/"California English": - General American https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/united-states-of-accents-general-american https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/united-states-of-accents-... - California English https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-united-states-of-accents-california-english https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-united-states-of-acce...
- JohnFen 4y ago
  The "Standard American" accent is the west coast (mostly California) accent. It is far from universal.
  - whimsicalism 4y ago
    It is Midwestern and, while not universal, it is the majority of speakers on the coasts and people I have met from the Midwest.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      It's essentially how a homogenized middle+ class of people born/raised in/around metropolitan areas that aren't in the South/Texas speak. (In general, stereotypical accents associated with various cities are mostly more of a working class thing, e.g. Southie in Boston.) The South is the main outlier. Colleagues I work with from and living in North Carolina generally have a distinct southern accent albeit a mostly slight one. But, yeah, historically we'd have called it Midwestern.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    I think historically we'd probably have said it was Midwestern. But, yeah, however the network news anchors speak.