MiniBrit

and 'plate up' instead 'of dish up'

Pulaski

Same here, I'm certain (for tomato), and my friends back in London would wonder WTF is wrong with me saying "gah-rahj" .... I always feel like I am doing a Hyacinth Bucket impression when I say it that way.

SultanOfSwing

As long as you don't answer the phone saying 'the lady of the house speaking', I think you'll be fine

Sassyjaybabe

My daughter was born here only 7 months ago and I am interested to see what accent she will have seeing as me and hubby have southern accents having grown up near Brighton.

What I find interesting is when I went back to the UK for 6 weeks people were picking up on American ways of speaking some things I was saying and some accent (no idea how given that I have only been here two years) then when I got back people I know here were picking up on British things I was saying!

Pulaski

Some people pick up an accent after a lot less time than that .... it only takes my sister a few minutes! .... the complete opposite of me.

MiniBrit

I think it has a lot to do with how appealing you find the accent personally. I lived in Australia for a year, and after 6 months sounded like an aussie. Been in the US 8 years, still sound very British...

Pulaski

I love the accent here, and my wife has an accent to die for, but none of it rubs off on me. FWIW, I think it is a measure of your listening and empathy (which might be connected to "how appealing" you find the accent and the people who speak that way) skills.

cindyabs

My son has lived in the South over half his life-VA, GA and now AL. He was also an Army brat, Germany 3 years and Netherlands 4 years. He went to an International DODDs school in the Netherlands so was exposed to Brits, Canucks etc. He has always had a talent for accents, it's pronuciations that throw him. His father is from the Midwest and with me from New England, there are certain words like aunt and route that he would be confused as which way was correct,

SultanOfSwing

I think in your case it's your own accent that its the reason (if I'm remembering correctly that you have a Yorkshire accent.) I've heard, anecdotally, that a southern American accent is very easy to pick up because it's so strong but your northern English accent is just as strong, so it sort of gives you an immunity of sorts.

They really don't have a strong accent by me and even though I have a reasonably 'soft' Northern Ireland accent, there really isn't anything for me to pick up here. It might be a different story if I lived elsewhere, even within the UK.

Michael

Northern accents are usually pretty neutral and seem to be the most accepted accents. Although I've never lived in the south, it seems that even southern news broadcasters mostly appear to have a neutral accent since whenever breaking news occurs from the south, I don't notice the southern accent with their broadcasters. In fact English accents on news channels seem to more common than southern accents and Peter Jennings has a very neutral accent and suspect most Americans don't know he is Canadian.

Beaverstate

Was Canadian.

Steerpike

I'm in IT and we work a lot with Indians. I swear, after a few days of meetings with a bunch of Indians, I'm subconsciously speaking with their intonations! And when my mom (mum) visits for just a few weeks, even now after 30 years, people at work comment that "I sound different".

When I first moved down from 'up north' (eh, bah gum...) to London to attend university, NO ONE could understand me; it was quite frustrating and annoying. For whatever reason, I very quickly adapted to the local 'sound'.

I suspect this has to do with 'how' different people learn languages, and more generally, learn anything verbal. For me, there is a 'tone', or a 'cadence' to a word, and that's how I remember it - not just the underlying word itself. So 'To-may-to' is simply the right pronunciation to use when I'm in the context of talking to an American, while 'To-mah-to' is the right pronunciation to use when I'm talking to a Brit. I can tell the difference between a French-Canadian and a European French person, even though I have only basic French training (may or may not be relevant!). I'm not trained in the 'psychology of learning', and I'm probably explaining this very poorly, but all I know is, I quite naturally switch between pronunciations depending on who I'm talking to, and it is totally effortless and sub-conscious. It's not a particularly good thing here in the US, since having a Brit accent is a definite advantage; but I can't stop it.

cindyabs

Having grown up close to Quebec, and going to jr high and high school with kids of that culture, to me, Quebec French sounds more rugged/rumbly than Continental French. Cajuns the same.

kodokan

Technically there are lots of variations on Continental French. French-speaking Switzerland, where I lived for some years, spoke a slow, 'country yokel' kind of French compared to Proper France, and especially Paris. Swiss French is very much the equivalent of the English spoken in Dorset or nearby Zuummmerrrzeet (I used to live in Somerset too, coincidentally).

But yes, Canadian French IS surprisingly different, isn't it? The first time I heard it on a TV show, I though I was listening to a startlingly fluent French-speaking American.

cindyabs

When we lived in Germany, we were right there on the Alsace Lorraine border, so used to pop over on a Saturday to go shopping. First time I went into a bakery there and ordered some goodies in French, one lady commented to the other lady behind the counter that I was a peasant.

Pfft!!!!......... and numerous other rejoinder expressions en francais said me to myself.