steveq

We must be in a bubble here in State College, not one person has commented on my accent...but last week I went 25 miles south, and it took three people in Lowes to work out I wanted to collect an online order.

TheTokenBrit

Aside from people in person not recognising I have an accent that much, I have some hilarious phone conversations over here. Much more entertaining than I ever had in Britain. The best one was with a woman in Kentucky who kept addressing me as "Ma'am"!

kimilseung

When people do try to imitate my accent, they do what they think is an English/British accent, and it has no relation to my actual accent. They dont seem to bother actually listening to how I speak.

Sally Redux

That's what I found. It's like saying, "I love your accent, ching chong chang!" to an Asian person.

Bnet36

Oh I do hate that.

" I love your accent" and they proceed to imitate a cockney accent. I don't speak like that at all. I have a standard/Received Pronunciation accent.

Pulaski

I'll never tire of hearing that, probably because my muted Sheffield accent was ridiculed at school in Gloucester and seemed to be unappealing to people I met and worked with in London. ..... It is rare that anyone thinks I am Australian though, which is a plus.

kimilseung

As a Scouser I agree, nice to have people giving my accent compliments, which just shows the cultural assumptions people make about accents.

AlphaTangoMike

You should have shared your video with us. (Does ramble on a bit though):

Bnet36

I am ok with it as long as I am not mistaken for something completely different. They should stop at the compliment... I am a miserable git sometimes

Pulaski

Mrs P says I don't sound quite like that, similar but not quite the same. Like he said, the accent varies around the city. I am from south west Sheffield, nr Abbey Lane and Bocking Lane, if anyone knows the area. My grandmother lived further north, still on the west side, on Rural Lane.

ETA Oh, and I have never said "thee sen".

ETA2 Also I don't have as much facial hair, ...... but then again, who does?

Kneeno

Had a superb one recently. I had to take a customer complaint on the phone and after several minutes of explaining exactly why they couldn't have what they wanted I got:

"Where you from anyway? You sound Puerto Rican."

"I'm from the UK sir."

"Huh?"

"I'm British sir."

"Huh?"

"I'm English sir."

"Well they need to send your ass back over there."

*click*

I was born in Stockport, grew up on the Isle of Man but never thought I sounded Puerto Rican

I do get the Australian thing quite often though.

ChocolateBabz

Last Summer on a boat trip in Hawaii just the three of us relaxing until 2 really loud American guys decided doing their Scottish impressions - cross between Shrek and Mel Gibson in Braveheart - would be fun for us. Kept it up for at least a couple of hours "ha ha this is our party piece we do it at family occassions all the time for fun - we're not Scottish or anything".

petitefrancaise

my youngest daughter picks up accents embarrassingly quickly... she'll be on the phone to one of her classmates talking pure Texan and if I ask her something whilst she's mid-sentence (done deliberately) she'll reply with her very English accent - which in itself is mildly amusing since she's never lived in the UK. She speaks french like a toulousaine...

My Scottish friend who lives in france married to a french guy has kids who speak pure glaswegian when they switch to English.

elizabethjt37

I'm a brummie (person from Birmingham UK) living in Bermuda. Nearly every day i get asked about my accent! and many people often imitate it, mainly American people in a fun way though.

Things are the same as when i visit the UK, as my 4year old son has a Bristish/South african (father is from SA) with a bit of a Bermudian accent!

Its nice to be different!

sir_eccles

I just saw a local theater production of Mary Poppins while I was visiting the inlaws in Kansas City. A good friend of ours had the lead role and was very good. I wasn't quite sure if the guy playing Bert was trying to do a cockney accent or just parody Dick van Dyke.