Ptp113

I have thank goodness

carolinephillips

Easily.

As an (ex-) actress I had to do loads of accents. Margo Ledbetter's is my most easily used one, particularly when dealing with cold callers.
The only one I had trouble with was Scottish- for some reason it kept slipping towards Pakistani.
I also pick up on people's accents very easily, so that if you put me in a room full of Geordies I'd be speaking "broad" pretty quickly, without meaning to.

LouiseR

I think I'll always keep mine. I say the odd word in Aussie, 'year' being one of them but on the whole it's a very English accent. I moved around a lot when I was younger so never stayed anywhere long enough to get a localised accent.

And I definitely agree about the Aussies and the Americans loving the British accent. In an interview for my current job they told me that my accent would definitely be a big plus

iamthecreaturefromuranus

I've never had that said to me.... dunno why?

LouiseR

I couldn't possibly imagine!

NigelWaring

I've been here about 40 years and it is quite clear to everyone that I'm a Pom. When I go back to UK many say that my accent has changed and quite often I have difficulty understanding what some of them are saying. On a recent trip to Eastern Canada we did come across several people with what sounded like perfect Canadian accents to us but they were also Poms, seems to be an easy accent to pick up but maybe they would not fool the locals.

tonyk38

I occasionally catch myself saying 'Naaoouu' instead of No...

I was talking to a man at the bus stop late last year who had a virtually impenetrable Scottish accent.

"I'm on holiday" he said (I think)...

"What's the weather like back home?" said I.

"Oh it's quite cold in Adelaide right now" (Well I understood the words 'cold' and 'Adelaide' and pieced together the rest).

"Oh right (realising he was an expat), so how long have you been here now?" said I (He was pretty old and I assumed he'd retired here).

"Since 1963" he said (I understood on about the third attempt)...

geordie mandy

Just over 18months in and ive still got my soft northern accent. Yet my geordie mate who has been here over 2 years still sounds as though she is back on the Tyne.

At work most people like my accent and chuckle when i say hoover, scooter and howay man when i get annoyed after speaking to some obnoxious person on the phone.
My kids are certainly sounding more aussie than they did last year.
I do tend to find if im in the company of fellow geordies i do slip back into a more northern accent.

Ive also met elderly expats who have been here over 50 years and most of a local accent for Darwin till i turn up on the door for a visit, by the time i leave many have reverted back to the English accent lol
Mandy

Pollyana

I've got a mate who hails from Lancashire, living down in Tasmania, came here in 1960, one trip back for 6 months in 1981, yet he sounds like he walked off the set of Coronation Street! His accent is still as strong as the day he left, very strange, makes me do a double take whenever i phone him.

commonwealth

The Simpsons as The Crimpsons, The Carltons, The Pimpsons, The Rumpelstiltskin, The Flinstones ... and The Cheese and Onions.

Scubaemma

I was talking to a guy the other day when I was at work. He had a strong Scottish accent so I asked him where in Scotland he's from. He told me where, but also said he's actually Victorian.

I assumed he meant maybe he'd moved to Scotland as a baby or something, but then he said he was 17 when he moved there!! Seventeen?! I couldn't believe it. He just laughed and said his accent is so strong because he has Scottish parents and joined a Scottish regiment in the Army. But now he's back in Australia and sounds like Rab C Nesbitt or something!

sammax

Would probably say still about 80% Pommie. I do yo-gurt but not parsta...

petensue

My daughter used to go to school with a girl of 5 who sounded like she had just arrived from Scotland but had never been there!Though having Scottish parents I guess she would talk like them.

I also remember being in a shop and this lady with a northern accent go a bit confused with some money and the cashier explained the right money to her than said are you here on holiday?The women said I have lived here for 26 years!

papilon

I have an Uncle who used to go on holiday to Canada for a couple of weeks every few years, when he got back he would always have a ridiculous Canadian accent, how the hell you pick up an accent after 2 weeks , we had great fun taking the piss tho.

BadgeIsBack

I have a variation of an 'International English' accent which is mixed with SE UK, London, public school, estuary, home counties et cetera - you name it.

I know for a fact i have picked up some Australianisms - I probably speak slower than I used to after living down under, and have elongated my vowels - I used to be far more 'clipped'. I find English accents very hard to follow now - almost rushed - and people in the UK would probably wonder where I had spent part of my life.

But they always did - I even got taken for a South African when I was a teen, either that or 'public school' was muttered behind my back - especially by people who seem aggrieved by these sort of things...such is life...