I went to the baby shower of my friend's brother's girlfriend. I don't know her family very well and there seem to be hundreds of them, so I stuck to my friend's side. Now, M. is a very good friend I've known for years. Yet, she is a little status conscious and kept introducing me as " This is Sara, my friend who live in South America."
At one point, a lady who was sitting next to me (a cousin I think) said "Oh! It makes sense now. I thought I detected a slight accent." What!?!?! I have an accent? Here my whole life I thought I had a cutsie sort of Minnesota twang, but apparently not. Maybe it's because I try soooo hard to not let my accent slip out. Seriously, it only comes out when I'm under pressure like "Durnitt, I'm lost dontcha know?"
Anyways, I think that I should take advantage of this. It's not the first time I've been told I have an accent. Or maybe, I should just stop worrying and revel in my accent ambiguity.
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5 comments:
Sara, perhaps what happened is that you have lost your Minnesota accent, and therefore people in Minnesota perceive you having an "accent."
I wonder if through studying a foreign language and being immersed in the language while living abroad it is possible to either soften your accent or lose it. I think that we become more sensitive to the pronunciation of words when we communicate in a foreign language.
By the way, I've never thought that you've had an accent. Perhaps you just have more of the Midwestern accent and this accounts for the ambiguity. You should definitely use it to your advantage. =)
True...true... I totally should. I also notice that if I spend a lot of time around British people I sort of pick up a British accents. Is that normal?
I think it's probably quite natural to pick up the accent of whomever you spend a lot of time with.
I find myself picking up words or phrases from people I spend a lot of time with. I don't think that accents would be much different.
Everyone has an accent. I've never heard you speak, but I would guess you have the standard American accent.
There is actually a "standard" American accent? I know that there are a bunch of regional accents around the US, and I know that the Midwestern accent is the one which is probably heard more on TV/news. But I was unaware that there was a standard accent.
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