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How do I fix my accent?

I’m having a bit of an embarrassing situation. whenever I talk to someone, I copy their accent… without doing it on purpose.
Sometimes I’d find myself thinking in their accent, especially after watching a movie in another language.

and the most annoying thing.. when people ask me where I’m from, and my accent is completely different from the place I’m from!!

does anyone have this problem?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Posted by Emily at 9:49 pm on December 11th, 2007. Comments
Categories: General Forum.

  • followingsunshine
    Sorry meant to say "accent" lols
  • followingsunshine
    Ya, that happens to me too. I have to stop myself when I realize I do it. People tell me that i have an accept but they don't know what it is!
  • @Tess: LOL I totally get that! My dad does that all the time, like "Milkki" instead of "maito" and "cheesi" and "mushroomeja" It's even worse now that he's been living in China for a few years! ha ha!

    I've also found that I pick up on stuff like that too! When I was studying in China, I picked up on how things are actually said versus how they are written. (*grammar stuff* like how in proper chinese, you pronounce the third tone with the down-up thing, but in spoken chinese, they don't really. A teacher of mine called it a "low tone"). It's also very easy for me to understand accents that other people don't, seeing as my parents have accents in English. All I need is a minute to get used to it, and I can understand. However, if it's a language I'm not 100% with (like my German!) it takes me a little bit longer to pick up on it, but I usually do.
  • Julie
    I subconsciously mimic, too. For the most part, I've lost/neutralized my normal speaking accent. I used to often be told that I had an English accent. Then, because I was self-conscious about it, I learned to mumble. Bad habit! When I speak out and make an effort to enunciate, the accent comes back out. Every once in a blue moon, I'll shock myself and say a word that comes out with a Texas twang. I can hear it as soon as it leaves my mouth and it always scares me a little. As much I enjoy the twangy, drawling sounds of my boyfriend's voice and other close friends, I don't want to inherit a twang! That would seriously cramp my TCK style. ;)
  • I do it all the time!!!! Particularly British accents, Indian accents and some African or Caribbean ones. Also French (Even though I don't actually speak it) and Spanish and Germanic (speak one a fair amount, working on the other one). Living in Australia, people tend to often think I am putting it on, so it is often better when they assume I am South African or Zimmer. I start speaking other languages really quickly as well, and will reflexively come out with words in another language if I am surrounded in it (or the slang), even if I only speak 10 words of that language.
  • mairabay
    hey, I thought it was just me who did that!!!
    I tend to catch accents very quick too!!!
    and yeah, I conjugate words of one language with another language´s grammar...its crazy, but I only do that with my family, or other people that I know speak more languages
    but when Im surrounded by different languages at the same time (like wathcing tv in french then writing in english while talking on the internet in portuguese) my brain goes completely crazy and I have to be really careful not to mix things otherwise people will go like " whaaaat?"
    I feel bad, though, that I catch on accents so fast, because i really dont know what my accent is.... the only accent I dont catch is the one from my "home" town (which I dont like)...I tried to do it when I had just arrived from the UK but I realized I didnt want to sound like those people; so for me, not catching their accent was/is a question of identity
    but even when I catch accents from other places, I still feel like I have no identity...i was thinking about this the other day...
    Im like a chameleon, i dont choose to catch an accent, I just do... maybe thats the answer... but I still find I would like to have an identity... ok Im totally rambling...
  • Julie
    I tend to pick up accents well and eventually will start to talk like the people I am around at least on a few words...the bad part is now I am at a place where people are learning English and I sometimes find myself speaking in broken English...very bad.
  • charm
    Lol I don't really alter too much, just between British and American or mix. But lately I've been taking on a bit of my roommate's regional accent. She talks on the phone way too much lol so I hear her voice constantly. What I've noticed upstate New Yorkers have is really strong pronounced O's and A's.
  • kristine
    People tell me I overpronounce my t's. Like, when I say "talking", they say i say it like T(uh)alking. LOL. Iunno if that made sense.

    Anyways, when I talk to fellow filipinos, my english has that filipino accent to it. Unless the flip im talking to actually talks plain english with no accent. I feel awkward talking in english around my parents. LOL.

    Around arabs, I get that tone in my voice, especially when im talking to male arabs. I lower my voice unintentionally. it's quite funny actually lol.
  • IngridGiles
    I absorb/copy accents all the time, in Spanish more than in English. (Perhaps it's a survival skill left over from childhood.) I also tend to use words from a language other than the one I'm speaking, without meaning to. The worst example of that ever was when I was speaking to a Mexican-American coworker when I lived in Minnesota. He told me that a particular man did not work there anymore. "Quiteo?" I asked. (English to quit, with Spanish conjugation, meaning, "Did he quit?") The reply was worse. My coworker told me, "Lo quitearon." (Same English word to quit, with Spanish conjugation meaning that he didn't quit of his own will, it was done to him.) At least we understood each other!
  • Americans always tell me I have a British accent and Brits always tell me I have an American accent. I can tell them all that they're wrong (since obviously they can't both be right!), but they never believe me. I also tend to pronounce certain words differently, just because that's how I learned to pronounce them, wherever I was living when I happened to learn that word. My accent also changes very easily in either direction - if I talk to Americans I sound more American, if I talk to an English person it's more British. I also get the sudden words/phrases that pop out in an extreme accent of some sort, as well as random French words mixed in when I'm not paying enough attention to what's coming out of my mouth.

    To be honest though, I've learned that a person's accent is almost more defined by the listener than the speaker. In my case, how can an accent be both American and British? It just doesn't make any sense.
  • kristine
    gosh, i tend to do that quite a lot lol. embarassing at first, but ive come to accept the embarassing-ness of it LOL! uhh, indian accent REALLY makes me do that. now that's bad. lol. some people think im like copying em.. im not! LOL. omg speaking of indian, my sister's indian friend is here.. shoot lol.
    anyways, people tend to tell me i have an accent.. i can even pick up newfie accent (newfoundland, canada) LOL. gosh. it's bad.
  • warona
    i am the worst. i copy people's accents without noticing, i come out of movies sounding like the heroine/hero (imagine me after seeing trainspotting!), if i am in a meeting with mostly americans or mostly english people, i slant to their accents and as soon as i realise this, i slant all the way back (too far) and usually can't remember what my accent is so end up sounding like i come from eldorado park or something (a coloured neighborhood in jo'burg). its bad. i have been critisized for this many, many times.

    i am done with it all now. i don't care. i just speak how i speak and to hell with caring! sometimes i say a word and shock myself. i am all about parl-ing frenglish, choma-r-ing setswana, khuluma-r-ing zulu and siswati. to add insult to injury i aslo do the 'french/setswana/siswati in an american/english accent' thing all the time!(or setswana in a french accent, french in a siswati accent etc.)

    luckily my fiancé is just the same. in fact, he is worse. we giggle all the time to each other as we make up these silly languages. i am so glad i am marrying him!

    hahahhahahahahaha!
  • I guess I've lived in the US for too long (17 years now? minus one year in Finland)) and people are astonished that I DON'T have an accent, though I'm from Finland. I DID move here when I was two years old.

    However, both of my parents have accents in English (my mom not so much anymore, but my dad's is pretty bad) so when I have foreign professors, I have no problem understanding them. My other classmates make fun of my Korean professor's grammar mistakes, and I don't even remember them. I mean, I hear them at the time, but afterwards, I can't remember the mistakes. Understanding accents is a peace of cake to me, whereas my other American classmates can barely understand them. (makes me feel I have a "one up" on them sometimes, heh heh)
  • Cynthia
    Oh all the time. It's more embarrassing that I might offend someone than the fact that I just switch for no apparent reason. Sometimes when I'm more careful I feel like the other person might think I am mocking their accent. So I try to be as "American" as possible - which is something I unfortunately cannot get rid of at this point LOL

    After I watch a movie or listen to someone talk in a different accent I automatically think and almost talk like them..it's strange..but quite fun at the same time XD
  • Isa
    Oh Brice, i go further than pronouncing borrowed English lang words i put in French words in my Anglais. For example, i was eating dinner tonight with my brother and my 2 Rodrigais cousins.

    Me to my brother: "OK, Nic, so Victoria and I are partag-ing this dish..." (y'know partager(sp?) - to share).

    My brother to our Papa: "But.. i didn't want to derange you!." - (deranger - to disturb).

    I was quite ashamed of that partag-ing bit actually. I cringed and then said "I mean we are going to partage this dish..."

    Do you do this or is it just me?
  • Brice
    I think all TCKs have a highly sensible accent antenna. Seriously, we're like sponges.

    This happens to me often when I'm surrounded long enough by a group of people who speak a certain way.
    And then, sometimes... my old accent would pop out of nowhere.

    It reminds me of what Russel Peters said, for example you're speaking in a North American accent but when
    you pronounce a word like "Pakistan" .... all of the sudden, you're using an Indian accent.

    It happens to me for French words that have been borrowed in the English language, I tend to pronounce them in the French way.

    A good tip to acquire any accent is to listen to the radio and repeat what the speaker is saying. I remember doing this for Japanese, English, and after a few weeks of practice, I've really improved my accent and sounded native.

    Hey Dan, isn't that what you're doing with Singlish by listening to those podcasts? haha
  • Uncle Dan
    I've been in that situation myself, but I find that once you're surrounded with so many cultures you just stick to what's comfortable. It's only when I first meet a person with a particularly intersting accent that I mimic them.

    Personally, I find that conscious effort can fix your accent... but it depends on how you want to do it. What accent do you *want* to have? That can be a hard decision for some people. Or does it even matter? Because our accent changes... it's part of what's normal to change.
  • charm
    Sort of. I have it to an extent but not too bad. I usually just go from 3 different accents and mix them up lol. It depends on who I talk to. The other day I found myself saying some words with a regional New York state accent lol. That was the first time with that accent so it surprised me lol.

    I don't mind the whole confusing accent thing, just makes us more interesting lol. Although I do get the bad side of mimicking, that people might think you're mocking them.
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