...and in response to sleiqu, we say "yeah" instead of "yes" a lot over here, probably as much as you guys... but again it depends a lot on class and region ;-) Fascinating really, it must be a minefield for Americans... we're so used to it all over here, but for Yanks it must be such a culture shock :-) Conversely, Americans seem to be able to identify their own local dialects whereas we can only differentiate between the "standard" American accent and the obvious Southern drawl... a friend in San Clemente was telling me about the "New York accent" only the other night, and I had to confess to her I didn't know there was one ;-D