The thread about folks losing their local accents brought a related phenomenon to mind: Speaking a foreign tongue well enough to be mistaken for someone from a different region.
One day in Rio, many years ago, two different shopkeepers asked me if I was German. Later on, someone explained to me that my Portuguese has a “southern” accent, as if I were a native of the part of Brazil with a strong European influence. Now, I figure I speak the language pretty darned well for a 'merkin, but I have no idea what my accent sounds like.
I’m quite satisfied that they place my accent within their country, but I have always thought it strange to sound like someone from another state.
Have any of you had a similar experience? What does your own foreign accent sound like to the natives?
I seem to have picked up German well.
I have almost had fights in German bars when I said I was American as nobody believed me.
I was, however, often told I had a slight Dutch accent.
I think my ace in the hole was learning German the hard way…I lived in a part of Berlin where almost nobody spoke English and I was forced to learn to speak as they did. I can do a great Berlin accent.
For fun I used to speak German with an American southern drawl…it was like fingernails on a blackboard to German ears.
I did meet Americans living in Germany who (unlike me) majored in German in college, lived there for years and still had a horrible American accent despite speaking the language perfectly. I was always amazed that they were never able to get rid of the American accent, and some didn’t even realize they had it…even though everyone always asked, “what part of the States are you from?”
I have mentioned this story on the board before, but as an ESL teacher, one student of mine - a born Berliner. and a construction worker - came to my class and spoke English beautifully…with a French accent! Seem his girlfriend, French, spoke no German and had taught him English for several years until he decided to learn it in school. Here was this burly guy saying, “I vant to go to zee Cinema.”
One of my French professors once told me I spoke the language with a Quebec accent.
An old flatmate of mine went off to teach English in Prague and gradually picked up a bit of Czech. When she spoke it, she was always mistaken for a Russian.
I’m very much a chameleon, when it comes to accents. I tend to unconsciously mimic the accents of the people I’m speaking with.
In Japanese, though, I have a distinct Kansai accent - even when speaking standard dialect. Osaka-kansai dialect comes to me much more naturally and if I’m not in a formal setting, I’ll tend to use Kansai expressions over Kanto idioms.
When I went to buy football equipment for my brother in NYC, the salesperson said: “I didn’t know they played football in Ireland.” I heard similar comments afterwards, too. So apparently my German accent somehow sounds Irish.
When I travelled in Scotland, the lads I met at the pubs mocked “Scotty” of the original Star Trek series by claiming he had an Irish accent. “Listen to him,” exclaimed one fellow, “He’s Irish! He’s not a Scot. Listen to him!!”
I took German in school starting in the fifth grade until I was a senior in high school. I’ve been told I speak German with an Austrian accent but I have no clue what that is. My German teacher in high school was Austrian and he was the only person I spoke the language with except for other students so I got the accent from him.
I’ve been learning German for two years. An exchange student told me that I have no American accent when speaking German–a shock to me. I’m not exactly sure how this happened, since my German teacher has an awful American accent.
My Spanish teacher taught us the Castillian accent (as opposed to the Latin American). When I used it around L.A., it was perceived as very snooty and I had to adjust accordingly.
One of my Chemistry professors was talking to us before a class and mentioned that he could speak a number of languages. We called his bluff and asked for a demonstration, so he started faux conversations: one between two German speaking people (one of them with a French accent the other with an Italian accent), and another between something like a German speaking Italian, a Frenchman speaking German, and an Italian speaking French (I was laughing too hard at the time to remember correctly). Truly one of the more amazing things I have ever seen.
Decades ago when Mrs. Gelding and I lived in Germany the locals thought I was French because I spoke German with a French accent. How an Iowa kid who was taught German from a woman from LaCrosse, Wisconsin developed a French accent is beyond my understanding. There was a French garrison in town so I suppose the locals knew what French accented German sounded like.
In France Mrs. Gelding was taken as Belgian because of her accent. Her high school French teacher was Belgian.
My boss was a graduate of the armed forces language school. Despite being from North Texas, he spoke good German with a Hamburg accent. When he spoke English there was no question about where he came from.
I once spent Fasching (Mardi Gras) near Koblenz, in a small town overrun with American Military personnel. The locals asked where I was from as I continued to speak German even after I was drunk. Apparently even German-speaking military personnel no longer speak German when they’ve been drinking.
In Slovenia, I was often told I sounded like I had moved from the country to the city; I used the words I knew, which were a combination of archaic dialect I had learned in this country, current dialect in the area my family emigrated from, and the formal language taught in the city’s schools. Nobody ever believed I was American because my accent was good.
I used to speak Russian with a North Caucasian accent, thanks to the intensive, ummmm, tutelage of my ex-boyfriend. It’s since worn off, though (the North Caucasian accent, not the Russian. Most Russian speakers these days think I emigrated from the Soviet Union when I was a kid; the intonation is a little off or something, but they usually can’t quite place it.)
I speak Mandarin with a Beijing accent dispite the fact that I learned it in Kunming (south western area of china). My teacher was from Beijing origionally, so it stuck. I’ve tried to get rid of parts of the accent which I find kind of annoying (rolling r’s is a big one) so people get really confused now. To add to the confusion I learned a lot of the language when traveling in ChongChing and Guanzho - I use slang from both those areas without thinking…
Of course - being a white kid ment that it was pretty obvious I wasn’t from either place.
When I speak with friends from São Paulo, they think I am from Rio de Janeiro, since my Portuguese was learned from that region. Unfortunately, I cannot fool the natives of Rio – hence the question “O senhor é alemão?” (“Are you German?”)
Anybody else able to assume the accent of their teacher enough to convince out-of-towners?
I did not learn Italian from taking classes. I lived in northern Italy for several years and learned from talking with my landlord, from people in the market, my childrens teachers, the neighbors, etc…even thouh I spoeak proper Italian and not dialect I still have the accent of the Friuli region. When I went into the south in Napoli, Amalfi, or Sicilia I found myself asking people to speak slowly and having to speak slowly to be understood so I know I have the accent of a northern Italian.
I lived there long enough my American friends said that I had “gone native” I dressed Italian and had the mannerisms of an Italian. Many of my Italian friends didn’t know at first that I was American and on the street most Italians didn’t know that I was American unless it came up specifically in conversation. IT’s helpfuul that I have an Italian first and last name and that even though I am light complected, so are many northern Italians. I fit in very well.
