Posts RSS
Those that know me well will know my obsession with Audrey Hepburn very well. Lately this obsession has had a rather strange effect on my accent. Whilst travelling abroad I become more English than the Queen herself – think Eliza Dolittle post Henry Higgins training.
- Magnificent movie starring my idol
Take, for example, a trip I made to Brisbane earlier this year. I was in a taxi with Canadians, an American, an Australian, a South African and a Kiwi. We were trying to reach our hotel and it seemed the taxi driver had no idea where to go. Suggestions were flowing from the international passengers which only seemed to further confuse the taxi driver who had an Indian accent himself. I decided it was time to step up and in the strongest British accent I could possibly muster intercepted with:
“Excuse me Mr Taxi Driver, Sir, but it seems we appear to have taken a wrong turn.”
Who speaks like that? In this century?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVmU3iANbgk?rel=0]
I have discovered that being around multiple foreign accents only intensifies the Britishness. During conference calls with my international colleagues I have thrown in words like ‘crud‘ and ‘bollocks‘. Words that even my Dad stopped using in the nineties. The latest gem to be used in a conference call was describing something as appearing:
“a bit Poo.”
Because Poo is a completely professional and descriptive word to use in this instance, isn’t it?
I’ve always had a problem with my cockney gangster roots coming out once a few drinks have loosened my tongue. (Disclaimer: I do not come from a family of cockney gangsters, altough my accent after a couple of vodkas would certainly make you think so .) Being surrounded by the international accents of travel bloggers in town for the World Travel Market this week I went all East London on em, innit – think a cross of Ali G with Eliza pre elocution training.
When not travelling or surrounded by international accents I have the fairly respectable accent of a convent grammar school educated girl from Berkshire. (Disclaimer: I was educated in a grammar covent school in Berkshire but please don’t judge me.) Except my boyfriend is Australian and I work for an Australian company and last week I accidentally called the duvet a doona. So basically I’m screwed.
Does travelling affect your accent too or am I just a bit weird?
ahahahaha I remember that night very well! thanks for the laugh
to be honest I chuckled as I wrote it
Yep, I can totally relate to this Jayne – I’m TERRIBLE for ‘stealing’ other peoples accents and words if I spend time with them. I usually (for some reason) sound like a 5 year old from Kensington but throughout Asia, people kept mistaking me for an Aussie – so funny =)
haha so nice to have someone relate to my strange habits
TOO FUNNY with the taxi driver! Back at university (which had heavy concentrations of Boston Irish and New York Italians), we always said you went into your true accent when you got drunk. For me, it was full out pahking the cahhhh in Hahvid Yahd.
Until this year. After many champagnes and tequilas at a hen party, there is video of me rolling around in the limo and talking like pure London (despite the fact that most of my English friends and boyfriend are northern). WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!
(PS — a year ago, I wouldn’t have used the words “university” or “hen party”!)
You’re becoming Anglofied!!! We shall make you into a cockney geezer soon enough :p
that’s great! i’m especially influenced by the english accent (since i usually end up traveling with mainly Brits) (i’m american with a valley girl accent normally) and also by people who’s first language isn’t english…then i start speaking with broken english.
living in england for 4 months was an effort too to maintain my accent.
i agree that alcohol also influences my accent too!
I totally do the same thing of mimicking someones broken english even though it is my first language! Hard to resist isn’t it!!
This is so true. My accent is so weird after a few drinks. My mum is a Geordie so when I was a kid I spoke like I was from Newcastle. I grew up in Manchester, moved to Wales when I was 8, then moved to Liverpool and then spent 18 months in oz. I range from ridiculously posh to a scouse chav to an Ozzie!
Oh, and I still say ‘bollocks’. Is that allowed?
haha I think ‘bollocks’ is a great word personally. I would hate to have to hazard a guess about where you are from based on your accent though – it looks like that would be a hard job
I can’t recall the last time someone correctly guessed where I’m from!
Mind you I have adopted certain British words (including bollocks).
My all time favourite British word is undoubtedly the glorious ‘strumpet’… it’s worth losing an accent for.
‘Strumpet’? Now there’s another word for me to revive
*Lady Mary accent* – Darling: LOLZ to this! (Great post!) xx
O yes and that too. Mine never was as good as yours though. I’m much better playing the serving staff
xx
I love this post, had me in stitches! I take on the accent of the people I’m with far too easily, it’s like I’m mocking them but it’s completely unintentional. One of the reasons I haven’t dared move anywhere with strong accents. As kids we used to spend every summer in Wales where we would spend time with a load of people from…Birmingham, used to come home sounding proper Brummie!
Glad I could make you laugh Kate! I am the same for mimicking accents, just can’t help it can you?!!
Hilarious – and so recognizable! Whenever I go back to Holland, my friends/family tell me to stop putting on an accent and people I don’t know yet always ask me where i’m from because my Dutch sounds foreign. I can’t help it – when speaking English I’ve been training different facial muscles and it takes a while before I can relax them again while switching to another language.
Up here in the UK, I’m the same as Kate – I unintentionally copy other people’s accents. Even when I’m speaking English with my French colleague…
I will never forget that night when you said “Excuse me Mr Taxi Driver”! This Kiwi here loves you to pieces! xx
hahahahahahaha it makes me laugh to think of it. Sometimes the words just come out. Thanks for dropping by lady xxx
Just found your blog (via Don’t Call Me Gringa) and exxcited to reading more!…My accent definitely changes depending on who I’m with or surrounded by. I’m a dialect chameleon, and I’m actually not sure I ever revert to my original (US Midwest) accent anymore after being away so long (okay, I still say okey dokey and uff da, but I’m mostly joking
. It has come in very handy for me for learning foreign languages. But like you said, then I would start imitating the broken English of my English students, or my Cuban boyfriend, and suddenly they were learning English from someone speaking pidgin. I almost feel like I subconsciously do it to make it as easy as possible for the other person to understand me. Kind of patronizing when I put it that way. :
Pingback: A Roman Holiday in Rome 40 countries before I'm 30
Pingback: A Roman Holiday | 40before30