Accents that Identify You

I used to live and work abroad. I lived in London, England for about a year collectively and then in Frankfurt, Germany for about 2 years. It was an amazing, enlightening but sometimes frustrating journey. When I first arrived in England I often had difficulty understanding British expressions and sayings. The trucks were called lorries, the elevator was the lift, the ATM was called a cash point and band-aids were plasters. I often found that even though I was speaking English that people had a hard time understanding me because of my accent. I am originally from the Northeast of the United Stated so I had some speech patterns such as the Boston "R" and instead of "really" I said "wicked". I soon learned to modify my accent. I changed my pronunciation of "tomato", "banana" and "frock". I learned a new British English vocabulary. While my accent will always sound "American" and I will never sounds truly "British" I was now being understood.

Then I moved again to Germany.... I began teaching English at a local language institute in Frankfurt. I realized immediately that I needed to change my fast talking Boston speech to a slow, steady rate. I enunciated my English more clearly and paused more often between phrases so my listeners would be able to understand me. And I began learning German. Right away whenever I opened my mouth to order at a restaurant, to buy a train ticket or inquire where the bank was my German listeners immediately identified me as an American. The question most asked was "Where do you come from in America?" At times in Germany it was favorable to be an American such as after the war, but this time was not one them as the current US president was highly unpopular. Sometimes I just wanted to blend in and to not have people identify me by my accent. It got better though as I taught more English classes. The highlight was when one of my German students one day remarked, "I am so glad to have a real English Teacher from England"!