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Comment by pqs | Hacker News Reader

You say that: "To put in context how freaking awesome this guy is: name a country in the world, and he can perform every dialect in the region flawlessly, as well as tell you how it originated and developed over time."

I'm sorry, but this can not be true. Does he speak every single language of the world including each dialect of each language?! This is plainly impossible. Maybe you think that the whole world speaks English, or maybe for you "world" only refers to English speaking countries. Even in this case, I doubt this guy "performs flawlessly" every English dialect.

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name a country in the world, and he can perform every dialect in the region flawlessly

I'd believe that when I hear that - I'd be flabbergasted if he can convince me in more than one of the three main accents of Cape Town, South Africa.

Hollywood actors have tried and failed to do a convincing South African accent. the only one who came close enough was, surprisingly, Leonardo Dicaprio

Then you'd be flabbergasted. :-)

Can't find any recording of him online, unfortunately - he's the kind of guy who teaches actors because he's one of the few who really knows how to do it.

You're right, though - accents from South Africa are notoriously difficult.

Maybe what he means is that he can (e.g.) imitate a Parisian speaking English flawlessly, rather than a Parisian speaking French.

Agreed though; whatever he means it must be an exaggeration.

Yes, it's English dialects - he's a theatre professor, so his work focused on representing dialects in English productions.

No, I'm not exaggerating re: his range and ability - Rocco really is that good.

Of course it is dialects of English.

English is not my mother tonge and I don't live in an English speaking country, so I really get angry when someone equates "world" to "English speaking countries". To start with, there is much more people in the world that do not know any English that people fluent in this language.

That was my point.

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