Or the marl?? I go to the shops! Much easier.

I go either to the shops or the morl (rhymes with ball).

Fan-bloody-tastic!

Damn - you mean I've gone to all the trubble fer nout!

True...if you blend in , you're just another Canadian, what's so special about that !?!

Is that not alright, Eh?

i'll piss you off then. I picked up ass and cookies in a 6 month stint in Ohio and have been in dublin for 6 months and started to pick up an irish lilt. I had an english accent before that due to 6 years in the UK and before that my native dutch one

though Mum is mum.
or the dutch Moeders.

Who cares?

Canada is an immigrant nation in itself. I love Calgary so much due to the fact I can walk downtown and HEAR 9 different dialects, 4 different languages and count 6 different nationalities every time I pop out for a Tim Hortons.

I cringe every time I say "soccer" but if I don't, no-one understands what the hell I'm on about when I say "did you see the football at the weekend!? What a game!!". I've had numerous arguments on this one topic alone!

Does that make me a fake-pretendy Canadian? Or a friendly resident?

Dialect change is a natural progression, voluntary or involuntary, that increases with length of exposure and the individuals propensity to change.

Shinkansen

Oooh, batty. I've come over all Blaydon Races like.

It's a while since I heard Trimdon Grange. Thanks.

I was born in quite a rough council estate in Leicester, and throughout my working life have dropped the 'Leicester' accent as it does sound very common when spoken properly (those from the midlands don't have a go, you know its sounds awful!!!) so I don't really have an accent as such, even when I moved to Norfolk my 'whatever it is accent stayed'.

What i'm trying to say is that I don't sound ike I'm from anywhere - now - over here is a different story!!!!

People try to immitate me and keep saying "I love your accent" and maybe I keep it up as it makes me feel special like!!! I don't know if thats being a fake or whatever, but when I go ino the coffee shop for my laaatay, and then say "thank you so much" when given the change its kind of a conversation starter.

Will it change? I don't know, Mr MMC will not lose his Norfolk accent but is using all the words like putting gas in the truck, going outside for a smoko!

I still put petrol in the car and go outside for a fag, but its words. Be and say whatever makes you happy and comfy and i'll leave this chapter and verse on a note similar to Oakvillians (I think)

Ricky Gervais on English in France:

"If they don't understand you, point, shout, and if they still don't understand - smash the place up"

(Obviously I don't go with that but that sums up the percieved English attitude abroad!)

Instead of getting that Canadian accent you could always have a practise and have a new scottish accent - no-one will understand you - better done with a few glasses of something alcoholic in you!!! You'll all be experts by Burns Night!!!

Tae A Fert

Oh what a sleekit horrible beastie
Lurks in yer belly efter the feastie
Just as ye sit doon among yer kin
There sterts to stir an enormous wind.

The neeps and tatties and mushy peas
Stert workin like a gentle breeze
But soon the puddin wi the sauncie face
Will have ye blawin’ all ower the place.

Nae matter whit the hell ye dae
A’bodys gonnae have tae pay
Even if ye try to stifle,
It’s like a bullet oot a rifle.

Hawd yer bum tight tae the chair
Tae try and stop the leakin air
Shift yersel frae cheek tae cheek
Prae tae God it doesnae reek.

But aw yer efforts go assunder
Oot it comes like a clap a thunder
Ricochets aroon the room
Michty me, a sonic boom!

God almighty it fairly reeks;
Hope I huvnae sh*t ma breeks
Tae the bog I better scurry
Aw whit the hell, its no ma worry.

A’body roon aboot me chokin,
Wan or two are nearly bokin
I’ll feel better for a while
Cannae help but raise a smile.

Wis him! I shout with accusin glower,
Alas too late, he’s just keeled ower
Ye dirty bugger they shout and stare
I dinnae feel welcome any mair.

Where ere ye go let yer wind gan free
Sounds like just the job fur me
Whit a fuss at Rabbie's perty
Ower the sake o won wee ferty.

No problem - pet

As we are all being northern, I was born in Sacriston. However, I was dragged up in Durham City so I really am posh. Hinny.

I know what you mean (not about sounding common, but about the Leicester accent - I was at uni in Loughborough, which my Canadian aunt always pronounced Looga-barooga). Conversely, I prolly sound quite posh to most English people - in that RP, public-school, silver-spoon-up-the-arse, BBC-English sort of way. Not as bad as when I were a lad, though: I heard a recording of myself aged 15 the other day, and thought "My God, did I ever really sound like that?"

After I graduated I worked for a year processing fish and chickens in a cold store in Aberdeen, then got a job selling computers in Walthamstow. I had to moderate my accent quite a bit in both places, if only to stop all my colleagues taking the piss. I never really got to grips with the Doric - I could understand but not return in kind (and it would have been embarrassing to try). In E17 though, I found I slipped naturally into East Lunnun just because it made life easier, innit. I shared a house with a guy from Salford and another from Colchester; all of us ended up with a sort of estuarial mess of an accent after a few months.

If the circumstance presents itself I can still turn on the la-di-dahs, but my normal conversational voice is now a sort of home-counties upper-middle-middle-class mishmash (well, I did live in Chiswick, dontcha know?) - not too offensive to anyone, as I hope Novo and dbd (the only BEites I've met in person) would confirm. I don't make a conscious effort over this, nor do I consciously include or exclude Canadian vocabulary, but if changing either the vocab or the accent helps you to be understood, why not do it?

Not offensive at all, old chap. And I must have sounded a right twat at Uni trying to keep up with all those posh buggers when stuck with a geordie accent. I probably still do.