One of the most interesting things about being a British expat is seeing the varied responses that my accent generates. Sometimes people are friendly, sometimes they are indifferent and occasionally they are plain rude! The best responses of course are the funny ones, often by people who can’t place my accent. Once in Texas I was told by a friendly local “You are the first Australian I’ve ever met!” Naturally I couldn’t disappoint this gentleman so I responded with a friendly “g’day mate.” While in the south I was asked if I was Australian three times, always in small towns so it’s probably hard for people who haven’t met many foreigners before to place an accent. I didn’t think I was either tanned or self-confident enough to ever pass for an Aussie. The other common response to my accent is an attempt to mimic it; even my wife does this although I must confess that I do the same to her!
I’m sure that most British expats in the US will have come across the situation before where someone identifies them as British and the conversation goes one of three ways; 1) You are asked where you are from and of course if it isn’t London they ask where it is in relation to London because they haven’t heard of it. 2) Their great grandfather’s postman came from England and they just love it and hope to visit one day. 3) They adore British accents and think they are so adorable and they heard that Catherine is pregnant again right? I don’t mind any of these because I’m pretty shy and they are actually a pretty good icebreaker in a conversation. Sometimes if you are lucky your new American best friend will go for the full house and say all three followed by a British cultural reference, usually the Beatles or Doctor Who. The first time I ever visited a store in the US with Kat the cashier asked me to keep talking because she loved my accent. Luckily that doesn’t happen very often or shopping would take forever!
I like it most when my accent can fly under the radar, Boston is good for this because as a big city most people there have met plenty of Brits and therefore my accent escapes notice. There are occasions though when I stay silent; one day a slightly crazy woman started a conversation with Kat and I in a bookstore and I knew that her hearing my accent and remarking on it would only prolong the awkward discourse so I let Kat do all the talking! I am not exaggerating about the awkwardness; I have tried to suppress the memory but I believe she said something like “When I saw you two I knew you were either brother and sister or husband and wife!” I don’t know what small hillside town she came from but that comment is not OK! I do have a slightly mischievous side to my character as anyone who knows me will testify and I must admit that I occasionally throw such clichéd staples of Britspeak such as “jolly good” and “bloody hell’ into the conversation just to see people do a double take.
Sometimes the accent can be a pain in the ass. The first job interview that I had in the US was over the phone and the interviewer was not expecting an accent and struggled to follow what I said. Needless to say it didn’t go well! The worst experience I have had so far was a Delta flight attendant saying rudely “I don’t speak that language” to me on a flight! If I hadn’t been so surprised I would have delivered a suitably sarcastic British comeback. It also gets really frustrating having to repeat myself continually because people can’t follow my accent, there have been times where I have just let Kat handle the talking. Despite these issues it can be fun having an accent and standing out a little bit and I’m learning to speak more slowly when I meet people for the first time so I don’t have these problems. It’s nice when they reciprocate because sometimes I can find US accents hard to follow at first too. Do you have any interesting anecdotes about accents? I’d love to know if you do 🙂
Old England to New England 
We don’t have accents, they do!
I’m not surprised about the Delta flight. The last time I was in the US., though the international flight I took was perfectly fine, the domestic flight seemed to be run by the most hopeless and unprofessional crew they could find.
Yeah they are pretty bad, it was weird because the ones on our first flight were really good!
P.S. you know you have a Wiltshire accent Matt!
I know, but my years living in the south east means I have a slight twang to some . Doing my best to get rid of that!
When travelling I sometimes have to adopt an American accent because people have learnt from American teachers and watched American films.
At least I’ve dropped the West Country burr from my speech ‘orite my love, where that to?’
Yeah its funny when everyone expects an American accent, like in Mexico.
There’s nothing wrong with a west country burr though! “Where’s that to” definitely confuses Americans :p
I could not help but laugh at “either brother and sister or husband and wife”. Where on earth!
I am Zambian and one word Americans had a problem with is the way I pronounce “water”. In Zambian English, it’s “wotah” with a silent R and American waiters/assistants would say they did not carry any “wotah”. At first I would persist and even point at the fridge, e.g when at a food court, and say they had it. I then realized that they were not being rude but just did not understand me and so I started adopting an American accent just to say water. When I did this, they would go “oh, that is what you want? Of course we have “water”. I found this funny.
Haha, my wife always mocks the way I say water and I have to change how I say it so people understand sometimes so I totally sympathise!
I grew up near Boston and I enjoy reading about your experiences in my old stomping grounds. I nominated you for a Liebster Award, apologies if you’ve already been nominated. You can check it out on my blog
I love reading about your perspective! i live in England for two years and although I never had problems being understood I would get people trying to imitate me! It was always a laugh. I am from Texas and hearing people try to sound Texan in England was one of my favorites along with being asked if everyone carries guns and drive on dirt roads.
Thanks for reading! In the UK we are as guilty for stereotyping as Americans are so I’m not surprised you got asked about guns! I do a pretty good southern accent 😛
I studied in London with a Texan guy, Cody. He looked and talked in a way that I also was pretty sure that he carries a gun at home on a daily basis :))
Fun and interesting reading! I’m Swedish, but I’ve lived in Canada for ten years. Quite often, people detect an accent, but of course they can never place it. I’m probably the only Swede in this city. Next door to us lives a little old lady [86]. She came here from England in 1957, and she speaks with a perfectly British accent! It’s quite lovely to listen to her 🙂
Thanks for stopping by my blog! I bet being the only Swede around makes you a novelty 🙂
I come from Ukraine with Russian as my native language. Cab drivers in London would always struck a conversation about my accent (as they usually do) and then I would have to explaine where Ukraine is. That was usually the main discussion for most of the rides.
When I first came to study in UK, one of my professors was from Manchester. I think enough said. Took me about a year to work out what marketing strategies he talked about, but he became one of my favorite teachers anyways, because of his brilliant sense of humor 🙂
And when we visited Edinburgh it was funny how people quickly switched from their local accent to a more or less understandable english as soon as they heard our accents and realised we were foreigners. Very considerate 🙂
That’s a really interesting view, sometimes I wish people in America would speak a little more slowly when they encounter me as I find the accents hard to follow!