Lost in transit

I still find the Australian accent a nice novelty, but I'm from Kansas City, now living in Seattle. We don't get many Australians in Kansas (though I saw hundreds of them when I travelled through Europe).

Don't let those old folks get you down!

Aren't most of the Australians in Edinburgh working in youth hostels there? They were when I was there.

Though surely your red hair would make up for your accent's lack of kilt-lifting potential.

Allegedly, Americans love the English accent, but when I worked in California in the summer of 1989 I was asked if I was Australian on numerous occasions!
But then a colleague, on saying he was from England, was asked "England? Is that in France?", which just about says it all really.

The only Aussie I ran into while I was in England was a woman in Bath who tried to push me off the sidewalk while screaming "JAYZOS CROIST!" at me. Her giant handbag hit me in the kneecap.

Needless to say, I was apprehensive about going to Oz. But it seems like all the mean women with giant handbags have left the country. And are living in Bath. Shudder.

Hehe, I know so many Australians in England that it's not funny!

Here in France, Australians are far less common - wherever anyone identifies my accent, I'm constantly asked questions about everything from kangaroos to beaches to the Rainbow Warrior ;) I think that in non-English-speaking countries, the novelty is still there ;)

I have an English accent, and Scots still can't understand me, what!

Where is France? Is that near Paris?

Your next step will be to create your very own signature accent, one that will make Australians tell you that your Australian sounds "still very nice".
It is happening to me these days...
Polish family member: "Witold, your Polish sounds pretty good..."
German friend: "You sound totally American."
American friend: "I met a guy who has exactly your accent, so I am like: you must be from Poland, and he's like: this is the first time somebody told me that, and I am like: no way, where are you from?, and he's like: from Brazil."

I still have a very heavy Polish accent when using body language, I think...

(sorry for silly comment...)

Rhi has a lovely accent ... ;)

Being an Oirish Man down under, I get the reverse.

I get asked to talk so they can hear me speak. It a bit surreal when someone you vaguely know walks up to you in the supermarket and says "Say something"

When I do open my mouth I get grins as I mispronounce place names, food items and everything else it appears.

Still its part of the fun.

Just for the record having been schooled on Australia by the likes of TV shows like: Home & Away, Neighbours or A Country Practice, I was shocked to find that it wasn't the same.

yes! absolute truth. although i was mistaken for an american after being in london for 2 weeks!?

in australia, everyone tells me i sound like a pom. in england, everyone says, 5 years? you still haven't lost your accent!

I've just found this and I'm rather taken with it. It's a great idea for a site... and as a slightly displaced Irishman who has travelled a fair bit round Europe and darted into the Middle East, I can sympathise with so much here...

Oooh, I wonder what that old lady meant. I thought Scots and Aussies got along well, historically speaking. Since that's where most old people I know harbour their suspicions, historically. Anyway, she's probably felt like that since she met some smooth-talking Aussie fighter-pilot ne'er do well in 1942 or something, so never mind.

Have you tried bunging on a Scottish accent to try hoodwinking them? Now that you've been there a while, it might sound less Mrs McGregor from those margarine ads and maybe authentic and everything ...

:)

I have to agree with Anne. Been living in the UK for five years and everyone tells me I sound Australian. I go back home and I get the mickey taken out of me for sound like a posh pom!

I am *constantly* being paid out for having an accent that is neither Australian, nor English.

I said to my best friend recently, we'll at least in England I might manage to have an exotic accent.

To which she chirpily replied: "Will anyone notice?"

It all comes of being reared on BBC drama books-on-tape I guess ...

My favourite thing about that Gladiator film was how he was playing a Roman soldier who was from Spain with an Australian accent.

Ha! Oh how familiar that sounds. I worked in the property industry in London for six years, and its amazing how many tenants couldn't understand my Kiwi accent when I rang them about overdue rent.

And how many times did I get called Australian? Oh, Far Far Too Many times. And enough sheep jokes already.

Being an Aussie with a drawling Aussie accent, I lived in Lancashire in England for 2 years. An English friend, when he heard my accent for the first time, asked my fiancee if I was from the south (of England). When I visited Paris a Frenchman asked me what part of the southern American states was I from? I thought that the Poms spoke rather quietly but the Scots in an Oban pub spoke really loudly, just like at home in Oz.

Seoul is crawling with loud drunk ozzies. I've actually found the reverse pants-effect to be true: Ozzies on holiday are easy. Works for me.

(a) I'm curious to hear if anyone finds the American accent confusing. Also, is it easy for you to identify the different regional American accents (i.e., Southern, New England, Mid-West, Long Island, New York, Californian)?

(b) In San Francisco, foreign accents are everywhere. Mostly chinese (and japanese), of course. Occasionally, a French or English accent can be heard. I worked at a coffee house in the West Portal area of the city and it had, by far, more Irish, Scottish, and Australians than any other part of the city. I wonder if there are parts of London or Paris or Sydney that have a relatively large population of transplanted Americans.