I had a yard customer with the most delightful British accent…regretfully, I didn’t last there very long; apparently she wasn’t pleased with my quality of work…:o 
Once, on a bus, there was a woman, about 30, speaking with a really lilting Irish brogue; I complimented her on it before I alighted from the bus. 
Post here about someone you’ve known with a memorable accent.
My French teacher is from Lyon, France. She has a most noticeable accent, yet she doesn’t think it’s as noticeable as it is. She often drops her 's’s in the plural because they are silent in her native French, and the other day, she tried to say “developing” but it kept coming out as dev-uh-LOP-ing, i.e. it rhymed with “hopping.” We couldn’t find out what she was trying to say until she wrote it on the board.
My friend from Harrogate, N. Yorkshire has the coolest accent. I could listen to her talk all day. She tried once to learn to fake an american accent, and the results were quite funny. She sounded like a brit raised in texas with a bad cold. I also LOVE Bajan accents (Barbados). It’s like Jamaican, but slightly different and more anunciated. There was a bartender at the resort we stayed at with the most lovely Bajan accent. I stayed by the counter for a long time every night just to hear him talk…
I’m actually very fond of (Subcontinental) Indian accents. Usually very pleasing and smooth.
The coolest one I’ve heard wasn’t exactly foreign…but I once spoke to an older gentleman from northern New Hampshire whose accent was a cross between Quebecois French and Down East Yankee. (I recently read something else about this odd accent - was it here on the boards someplace?)
The second would have to be that of the guy I dated from P.E.I. THAT was pretty damn cool - after I finally figured out what he was saying 
I could listen to Ringo talk all day. He has the best accent ever, from Texas.
I had an aunt from a little hollow in North Georgia. Couldn’t understand a damn word she said, but boy, was it mellifluous. And I’m an Alabamian!
That reminds me. I was in England, at a wedding, and another guy and I were standing outside having a smoke. We were making small talk about the weather or something equally Vitally Important. It was freezing, so he asked his daughter (a very young girl) why she was hanging around with us.
“Because I like to listen to him talk!”
I was charmed.
Back in the days of working in a cube farm there was a guy from South Africa who’s accent was kinda cool. A couple years later I was installing a cable modem for a customer and she had the same accent. I asked her if she was from S.A. and she was delighted I recognized where she came since she just moved here and her son was going to the local university and etc etc for about 20 minutes. Nifty accent though.
~~My dad’s cousin’s wife is British and she speaks with a very
pleasant accent…
…easy to listen to…
My academic advisor is Russian, from Krasnodar, and she’s got one of the coolest accents I’ve ever heard. She sounds like an informant in a spy movie.
I was visiting a friend of mine in the hospital the other day and the doctor came in and started asking him questions. I could’ve listened to him talk all day. At one point, my friend blurted out “South Africa?” and the doctor confirmed that he was from South Africa. He had such a lovely accent.
My boyfriend grew up in Siberia till he was 13… Maybe it’s just that he’s my boyfriend, but I love it.
~C~
I melt when I hear a woman with an Australian accent. Weird, perhaps, I dunno. Irish is a good second.
FWIW, I find the South African accent hideous. It’s probably because it somewhat resembles a stereotypical Dutch accent in English, which I find horrific as well.
I’m just waiting for a few Ausies to come in and back me up on the SA thing. They usually hate that accent too.
Another vote for the South African accent. To my ear, it sounds quite similar to our accent (Australian) but slightly different. I also love Scottish and British accents. Mmmmmmm.
Oops, should confirm that it’s a positive vote for the South African accent (from an Australian). Sorry Coldfire. We had a SA exchange student and we took turns prodding him (sometimes literally) to make him talk. He had the cutest little accent - but I’m usually quite partial to accents anyway.
Aussie. Hate the SA accent. Went to a school where 50% of the students were SA or had SA parents, so that might have some bearing.
I stop by a convenience store occasionally and the clerk is Jamaican or something similar. I have no idea what he says but I love to listen to him. I ask him questions and say ‘Huh?’ a lot, just to keep him talking. I guess I eventually give him the right amount of money but I’m never really sure.
Fran, I could listen to your accent forever. I’ll second that Ringo has a delightful accent, especially after a few drinks. I get to hear that type accent a lot around here, but I still enjoy listening to it.
Jim
Thanks Fran and Jim. I’ve known a few I enjoyed
I used to go out drinking with a couple of Irish gals, and their accents were both enjoyable and infectious. After four or five hours of being all lubed up with’em, their brogue would creep into my language a teeny bit.
Cajun has that effect, also, although it’s really not one of my favorites. If I spend an evening drinking with some cajun fellows, it starts to affect my speech. That one’s a funny one, though. The next morning, when I’m by myself, I can no longer do it. The cadence will be off.
Another favorite is the way some Indians speak English; quite well (their first tongue for many), but they accent different syllables. That one’s funny also in that some I hear and understand quite easily and I love the alternate rhythm, while others are not as enjoyable. I had a Physics prof in college whose accent I learned to mimic.
But my favorite was a woman I dated for a few months. She was the product of a father with the aristocratic London accent and a cajun mother. It would be hard to describe beyond saying it combined the Southelysianna fluidity with the clip of the Brit stiff upper lip. When we’d go places, I’d notice people trying to figure out where she might have come from.
Another one for the “Not Exactly A Foreign Accent”
I once had couple of dates with a woman who spoke like an English Duchess who had grown up on a Montana/Wyoming Indian Reservation. She had the res speech rythym, (“Hey, Victor.”) but with great diction. Stunning combination. And a beutiful woman to boot.
Unfortunately, she thought I was too good for her. 