do you ever find yourself adopting the accents of the people you're talking to?

[decypher]

Originally Posted by jenai

Most Asians are taught English by mainly British teachers in ESL colleges.
The best English-speaking Asians live in the UK, though.

Of course, no matter where they go, a few South Asians from Indian, Pakistan and Bagladesh seldom keep their English lessons up to date, partially because in their cultures, English is the colonial language. Their Anglo-Indian relatives moved to England after partition circa 1947.

Depends on how you look at it. Lots of people keep up on their English skills because it's facilitative of their work. Just look at all the outsourced call centers that have gone to India.

[impure]

Originally Posted by galaxie

Yup.
The more time I spend in the south the more I pick up the accent. Well, it's not so much an "accent" as it is just different pronunciation of a few words. Like dollar - "dahl-ler" instead of "doll-ler", etc. Just simple words. After spending 6 weeks in Florida/Tennessee this summer I definitely picked up more of the accent - when I got back to Vancouver I had customers at work asking if I was originally from the States, lol. Oh well!

i totaly get that.
i caught myself saying "ya'll" OH NOES!

[Ms.Tarantula]

Originally Posted by Gusto

especially if i'm drunk.

agreed!

I catch myself doing it when I drink with a few friends I have from England.. its funny how my friend Tyler barely has an accent when hes sober but as soon as hes tipsy you'd swear he got off the plane from Birmingham the same freaking day.

[cinist]

i spent a week in spain hanging out with a couple of english guys and ever since that time i keep saying, "id'nt". I didnt even notice I was saying it until some friends made fun of me a week or so ago, and after that it took me a few days to remember why and where it started. I sound like such a hick when i say it, it's bad.

[Alex]

I generally speak using a variety of different voices or accents, depending who I'm with, but I do it intentionally to mock the other person. Russian accent is my favourite to mock.

[galaxie]

Originally Posted by impure

i totaly get that.
i caught myself saying "ya'll" OH NOES!

lol. I haven't said "ya'll" yet! Yet... =\

[jenai]

Originally Posted by cinist

i spent a week in spain hanging out with a couple of english guys and ever since that time i keep saying, "id'nt". I didnt even notice I was saying it until some friends made fun of me a week or so ago, and after that it took me a few days to remember why and where it started. I sound like such a hick when i say it, it's bad.

i dunno. nobody speaks in complete Oxford accents in Canada except in West Vancouver and certain posh neighbourhoods in TO.

Yet when our resident psycho killer beyatch Kelly Ellard was giving testimony in the Virk case, she sometimes lapsed into Oxford accent when recounting details from which she was emotionally detached.

When I am out and about in the city (Vancouver), one of my "hobbies" is to guess where a certain group of Japanese women are from. Sometimes I even go up to them to ask in Japanese, "Where are you from?" just to see if I am right.

So far, the girls who frequent Granville establishments like Blenz or work at the Japanese restaurant on the street (Yamazaki ?) are not from Tokyo but from near Kobe and Nara, which are older parts of Japan. I don't think Tokyo people have the time to vacation or do ESL vacations.

It's also rare to have visitors from the Inland area and south Japan because they tend to prefer Europe or Hawaii.

Getting back to accents, in Japan, the accents, called -beni ie Tokyo-beni, are due to intermixing of Korean and Chinese and even European languages in a given area. E.g. Kagoshima beni has adopted European and English words. As well, various adverbs, verbs and suffixes are distinct to a region, city or district. Part of this was to done to code-talk so villagers would discuss matters openly in front of their overlords who spoke the same language as their masters i.e. a Shogun born in the southern region would speak in southern dialect at home but speak in court language in Kyoto.

After modernization, dialect does not determine where the average Japanese will end up as it did 300+ years ago. Though, Tokyo gossips will still pretend Kagoshima beni is crappy and the people are rude, ignoring the fact that it's easy to distinguish a Tokyo rube in Nagasaki from a native when he opens his mouth.

Overall though, it's all music to my ears, and I take special joy in eavesdropping on it all when travelling to and from the city.

ha my boyfriend always mimics my ukrainian / russian accent! must be the nature!

ps he's really good at it too!

[azazel]

my chinese accent is good im told

[azazel]

[stephen_c]

sex is better w/ a foreigner when u mimic his/her accent.

miso horny! me luv u lung time!




.

[impure]

Originally Posted by galaxie

lol. I haven't said "ya'll" yet! Yet... =\

give it time!

[Alex]

Originally Posted by alla

ha my boyfriend always mimics my ukrainian / russian accent! must be the nature!

ps he's really good at it too!

I'm pretty good at a russian accent I'm told. Really it's easy... not even as much about your tone of voice, but how you word your sentences. Also I have this confused look I put on my face that makes it clutch

[azazel]

[pstylez]

Certain personality types tend to take on other people's accents or way of speaking than other types. Usually more artistic, or open-minded people tend to do this. Social chamelions I like to call them. When I grew up in LA I could easily go back and forth from gangster talk, to hippie talk to surfer talk without really realizing it, of course I would only speak that way in the presence of the respective groups. I sometimes find myself taking on certain attributes or accents of specific people when I hang around them. Overall I believe it's a sign of intelligence.

[azazel]

LAWL, this guy has talent

[azazel]

[galaxie]

My boyfriend talks like Borat ALL THE TIME. He is really good at voices - he can pretty much copy and accent/funny voice. I bought him the Borat book for Christmas and he basically read the whole thing aloud with the accent!