Accents… lost in pronunciation
I’m originally from the Indian subcontinent, born and raised in the Middle East and now live in Toronto. I studied under the British Curriculum and speak 4 languages fluently. I have a WEIRD accent. People always wonder where I’m from and are usually surprised when they hear me speak for the first time. They usually expect a subcontinental accent because of how I look. Most ppl say I have a North Americanized British accent or a refined English accent. Having lived in Canada for 2 years now I’ve reverted to the local vocabulary from my usual British vocab so that ppl better understand what I say. Also i pick up other people’s vocab and accents very quickly so I’ll speak with a slightly different accent with different people. I feel like I’m all over the place. I always get asked abt my accent and i never know what to say?!
I was wondering if anybody else has ever had similar experiences
August 7th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
WOOT you live in Toronto too? YAY!
ergh i had a reli reli weird accent but it didnt last long it was like a combination of japanese, australian, Canadian, Chinese, British and Spanish. Now it’s more Canadian Inclined…but still rather weird because it’s not your typical accent that ppl can hear and noe where you are from immediately.
Thanks to International school!
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August 7th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Ooooh, although I don’t have an accent whatsoever, I pronounce certain words that people like to make fun of.
Started out with a Filipino accent, although it’s a little less defined. Then I moved to the UAE, picked up the arabic accent, which I then eventually lost after moving to Alberta, Canada.
And I picked up the “a-boot” instead of “about”.. Certain people like to make fun of me for it. Not that I mind being made fun of that. I mean, I used to laugh upon hearing it, until I picked it up, haha.
My friends from the middle east tell me, when they hear me now, that I don’t have my arabic accent anymore. My Canadian friends tell me that I have an accent, but I don’t. Which doesn’t really make sense to me. One said I overpronounce my T’s…
Other Filipinos get confused when I talk in English right after I talk in Tagalog. A friend’s mom once said that when I speak in Tagalog, I sound authentically Filipino. When I speak in English, it’s as if all traces of my being Filipino is lost. Almost like another person’s talking, they say
Guess that’s what it’s like to be TCK, yeah?
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August 8th, 2008 at 12:15 am
I used to have an accent all over the place until I caught onto the American accent and couldn’t let it go. People tell me I have a strong American accent (probably mid-western) LOL
When I first went to the US a lot of people find my accent hard to understand and I get corrected a lot. And then I became so aware of everything that I say that I eventually subconsciously adopted an American accent. And here we are today. lol
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August 8th, 2008 at 12:37 am
I pick-up accents like I pick-up mud on the soles of my shoes.
Because of this it’s very disturbing to me when I live in an non-English speaking country for a long time and my ‘accent’ morphs into something really strange like it is now.
A month in the US would fix it though. The UK would kind of fix it but not really because I’d end-up with some weird transatlantic accent.
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August 8th, 2008 at 9:23 am
lol…
Yesterday I was outsourced to a new client. Anyway, we ended up having a conversation about the places & spaces we’ve been and he said to me (like many have) “Are you aware that when you speak about a certain place your accent changes to that country/region?”. I said yes. Than I showed him all these different ways to say the same thing depending on region and he nearly had a heart attack laughing.
That is what I like about the US - people get a kick out of it. In Australia people get REALLY hostile when they find out I was born there but don’t speak the way they wish me to. As far as you - hey, you’re unique. Enjoy it!
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August 12th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
As far as I know I only have an American accent but I do pronounce certain words differently. At times it sounds like I have an English accent and in truth I do use English slang.
Just the other day my father thought I was speaking German because of the way I pronounced Kim Chi of all things!O.o
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August 17th, 2008 at 12:24 am
I don’t actually know what my English dialect is…I fly under the radar with most western Canadians…they think I’m from here, but every once in a while someone says, “you’re an American!” and I automatically think “yikes”…is it that apparent? Some western Canadians, my Canadian/TCK husband included, think I sound like I’m from the northwest U.S.
It’s all sorta weird and amusing. I started out sounding like an Alabama cracker (because most people from the Florida Panhandle, where I was born, came from Alabama.) My relatives in Montana evidently howled like hyenas when they heard me open my mouth the first time…
After that, I developed a perfect German dialect (for the Eiffel region, that is) and then a midwestern when we moved to Kansas…
Dad’s from Pennsylvania and Mom’s from Montana, so there was a strong eastern/western U.S. mix. Huge difference in idioms, pronunciation….
Most of my years, in total, though, have been in the western U.S. and Canada and *I* think I have a *western* North American dialect. How’s that?
Think fusion, baby, fusion… lol
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