“Where are you from? I just can’t place your accent.”

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?