My accent
So people tell me I don’t sound like I’m from Kentucky. I don’t think I do, but my brothers tend to tell me differently. Though many people have said I sound like my brothers, so if I sound like I’m from Kentucky, then they do too. But I tell people my family is from Ohio, so maybe that’s why I usually don’t have the southern twang. Since I’ve been in England, I’ve been asked if I’m from Ireland when people realize I’m not English. Usually these are people from England or somewhere in Europe. I’m not sure why they think I sound Irish. I guess they just realize I’m speaking English, but not in an English accent, and there’s something to do with our “r”s sounding like Irish “r”s. But when an American doesn’t realize I’m American, that’s pretty crazy.
My British politics revision tutor, who is American, came up to our tutorial room after making some copies and said to the three of us, “I just realized something.” And turns to me, “Are you American?” I said yes, and he said it hadn’t really registered before. The two other guys were shocked. They obviously think my accent is quite different. And it’s not like I’ve been completely silent in these tutorials. I don’t talk as much as the other two, but I talk more than I have in some tutorials. And last week, we talked about the fact that I don’t know the prime ministers, and I said, “I know the presidents, just not the prime ministers.” I’m not saying my accent has changed. I’m sure it hasn’t. It just surprised me. Although I guess there have been times when I’m not completely sure if someone is American. I know there is something different about their accent, but with all the accents I hear in Oxford, sometimes it is hard to tell where they’re from.
It will be strange when I get back to the US and have American accents all around. Just like last summer when I went to restaurants and expected our waiter/waitress to have an English accent. The people I know having American accents isn’t strange. It’s when the people around me, whom I don’t know, also sound like me. Then it’s strange. I often don’t think about the fact that it will be an adjustment moving back to the States for good. I just think it will be great and don’t consider the fact that it will be different. I’m looking forward to coming home and not taking overnight flights to a different time zone every one to two months, but I guess I might miss it eventually. And I might miss having lots of different accents, and languages, constantly around me. We’ll see.