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

[azazel]

I was talking to this guy from South Africa yesterday and I had to catch myself because I started trying to mimic him for no reason

[crackdragon]

actually yes from time to time. Had some friends of friends over to the house for a party one time and they were irish. I did the same and and thankfully caught myself, although I doubt they would have cared.

[impure]

i get that sometimes at work.
it's not intentional but it happens, do you think they find it offensive?

[DefJef]

yes, but only with newfies

[azazel]

also do thug accent when talking to dealer/blacks.

[azazel]

Originally Posted by impure

i get that sometimes at work.
it's not intentional but it happens, do you think they find it offensive?

maybe they imitate us as well

[stephen_c]

Originally Posted by azazel

also do thug accent when talking to dealer/blacks.

don't generalize. black ppl i kno don't have "thug accent"s.

[impure]

Originally Posted by azazel

maybe they imitate us as well

they do, how do you think they drop their accent eventually?

have you encountered a chinese person who has been taught english in school in china? aparently they have a brit accent.

[cubed]

When I spend a lot of time with my family in New York I tend to slip a bit.

[azazel]

Originally Posted by impure

they do, how do you think they drop their accent eventually?

have you encountered a chinese person who has been taught english in school in china? aparently they have a brit accent.

no, they just sound fobbed out

[azazel]

i sorta have a hybrid though.

i sometimes turn regular statements into *questions* with an irish lilt. and then in the same sentence i might have a southern drawl. layered with canadian.

people always ask me where i'm from, since i don't sound like anyone around me. meh

[scue]

I adopt phrases and the tone in which the person talks pretty quickly

[azazel]

Originally Posted by impure

i get that sometimes at work.
it's not intentional but it happens, do you think they find it offensive?

what kind of foreigners do you work around?

[decypher]

Of course we mimic each other. We are all influenced through experience. Either you mimic someones speech off the bat because you have some subconscious affinity for them or you start to mimic them over time because of exposure. We are all, partially, products of our environment.

[impure]

nature vs. nurture, sort of.

[GSG9]

yes i do. my friend dmitris accent rubbed off on m, and when i talk to english people i use their words without even knowing it...

lol i called andy c "mate" it was funny

[laska]

After watching an episode of Jenny Jones I start talking all "miss thang-y"
I can't help it

[jenai]

Originally Posted by azazel

no, they just sound fobbed out

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.

[-evil-duerr-]

Originally Posted by GSG9

yes i do. my friend dmitris accent rubbed off on m, and when i talk to english people i use their words without even knowing it...

lol i called andy c "mate" it was funny

your not a real clubber/raver until you rip off things you think are cool about british people.

we all do it. its shameful, like masturbation.. masturbating with horrible impersonations of human traffic.

[wishbone]

i once heard that adopting accents easily was a sign of low intelligence.

although google can't uphold this, so who knows where i heard it or its validity.

[ebbomega]

Originally Posted by wishbone

i once heard that adopting accents easily was a sign of low intelligence.

although google can't uphold this, so who knows where i heard it or its validity.

Quite the opposite from what I understand.

Most children raised in mutli-ethnic or multi-lingual households were shown to be both
a) better at adopting further languages
and
b) more skilled at cognitive functions

I'm too drunk to google any of these claims but this is what I was taught in second-year psychology.

[azazel]

lawl

[wishbone]

Originally Posted by ebbomega

Quite the opposite from what I understand.

Most children raised in mutli-ethnic or multi-lingual households were shown to be both
a) better at adopting further languages
and
b) more skilled at cognitive functions

I'm too drunk to google any of these claims but this is what I was taught in second-year psychology.

maybe it has something to do with a child's mind is much more easily molded at that age, and one can be compared to being a child if they mimic at a later age? i have no reason to believe you're incorrect when it comes to children

[galaxie]

Originally Posted by cubed

When I spend a lot of time with my family in New York I tend to slip a bit.

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!

[Gusto]

i used to have an english accent when i was a kid, so i slip back into one occasionally when i'm around my parents or other people from there. especially if i'm drunk.