I’m an Aussie who travels a lot. Unfortunately when I do, I tend to unconsciously adopt people’s accents. I have been mistaken for a Pom or Yank more times than I can count. My brother calls me pretentious but I just can’t help it.
It gets worse when people think I’m mocking their accent. I used to talk to my French ex like zis. I’ve tried regaining my accent by repeating “G’day mate how’s it going?” over and over again, but it just sounds contrived.
The upshot is, I can convincingly pretend I’m a tourist when those pesky people in the city try to coerce me into buying some dodgy credit card. When a telemarketer calls, je ne parles pas l’anglais.
If you have this problem, how do you counter it without sounding like a bogan?
I think you're just seeking an identity of your own and you just can't find it, you're being dragged around by your nose through life, and one day you'll be extremely successful, but you won't know how you got there. And I'll be there, right next to you, making fun of you for everything you did along the way. Although I can tell you for damn sure that you absolutely did not lose your Aussie accent in Shanghai. You lost a LOT of things in Shanghai, but your accent was not one of those things.
ReplyDeleteYOU SOUND BRITISH! NOW YOU SOUND AMERICAN! AHAHA!
ReplyDeleteGood thing is - I don't care what accent I'm speaking, but hey, as long as everyone knows what you are trying to say it's no problem, isn't it?
ReplyDelete