I grew up with a thick Australian accent with a drawl I dislike, and have been consciously trying to change it for a while. The problem is I tried to make it sound more American at first but keep getting drawn to speaking “Britishly”. Now it’s a Frankenstein of all 3 accents and I don’t know what to go with.
Some points for both:
▪︎ American accent sounds “cooler”
▪︎ British accent sounds more “proper and elegant”
- Australian accent sounds more “relaxed” (but I dislike this for myself, personally).
Traveling? Quebec, France, Germany…
Quebec is a special case.
It’s not the accent on your English that is the issue, it’s that you werent trying to speak French.
Hahaha, I tried at the border crossing. The guard gave me no end of shit for mispronouncing Montreal and he made me repeat it back to him 3 times.
Apparently the key is to clear your throat there the “T” is supposed to be
In French you just don’t pronounce the t. I’m a Montrealer and the idea of a border guard dealing with Americans all day giving anyone shit over language is the height of stupidity. I worked with tourists in Old Montreal for a couple of years and the rare “speak French” weirdo was given the eye roll and ridicule they deserve.
I’m always so curious when this is the answer, because I’ve traveled a lot, including to those three places, and no one has ever said they hate the American accent in my presence, even those who hadn’t heard me speak yet.
Why do you think my experiences are so different from yours? Am I just, in all my years of travel, lucky to only run into nice people, and you rude ones? or is everyone simply lying to me, but being truthful to you, for some reason?
“Most of the world” is a pretty ridiculous claim to make for this statement of yours.
I was a touring musician. In general my bandmates and I weren’t always in touristy areas.
Once we were out in the sticks as obvious Americans people were rude in those places. When we were loading out of the van for our first site in Germany on a tour, someone overheard us talking and said “Fuck Americans” in perfect English.
Switzerland, the UK, Italy, all over Asia, people were fine.