Random thought, some folks never lose their accent, but some do quickly

[masraum]

I have met and worked with people from all over the world. I've met folks that have been in the US (or in my area of the US) a relatively short time and others that have been in the US (or my corner of it) for many years (25-40). I find it interesting that some people that I meet seem to either never lose their accent or never really learn the language.

I've met folks that have been in the country 20-40 years that still have very thick accents and may or may not have a really good grasp on the language. I've also met folks that have been around a short time, maybe only 5 years that practically sound like they were born here. In some instances, both moved when they were young and some were older.

I work with a guy that is from NY and has been in Houston for nearly 25 years, but when you here him speak, you instantly know where he's from. I've met folks from all over Asian that have been here, some of them 40 years, that still have very thick accents.

I used to work with a guy that had only been in the US for about 4 years, but seemed like he'd grown up here.

I do think that it's more common when folks move at a younger age, for them to assimilate better, but not all of them.

One of my coworkers says his parents are like that, his mom sounds like she's still where they came from and his dad sounds like he was born here.

I'm guessing it's just one of those things. Like some folks can learn music and some can't and some can learn math and some can't. Just differently wired brains.

[HardDrive]

My wife is from India, but she went to English language schools from about the time she was 10 on. When we met, she had a very British-Indian accent. Its quickly melted away after a few years of living with a midwestern boy.

Chinese people are the worst, but I can't say I blame them. I've tried learning a bit of Mandarin. It's a completely different set of sounds, in an completely different structure. I can't say I would do better being thrust into living in China.

[Arizona_928]

I used to work with an old German lady who took lessons to lose the accent... I only realized it after she squirrel really awkward.

[legion]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

My wife is from India, but she went to English language schools from about the time she was 10 on. When we met, she had a very British-Indian accent. Its quickly melted away after a few years of living with a midwestern boy.

Chinese people are the worst, but I can't say I blame them. I've tried learning a bit of Mandarin. It's a completely different set of sounds, in an completely different structure. I can't say I would do better being thrust into living in China.

I'll echo that. Some of the Indians I work with sound very British. Some, especially those here 10 years or longer, sound like they were born here.

I work with a Chinese guy that I still have trouble understanding after working with him for 5 years and him being in the U.S. for 15 years. I came to the same conclusion about Chinese. It must be the way Mandarin-speakers' brains are organized for that language.

[legion]

Originally Posted by AZ_porschekid

I used to work with an old German lady who took lessons to lose the accent... I only realized it after she squirrel really awkward.

I thought one of my college professors had a slight German accent. It only came out for certain words. It wasn't until I noticed the numbers branded on her wrist that it all clicked in my brain.

[wildthing]

I moved here ten years ago from the Philippines. I've been told many times I am relatively accent free.

I credit Sesame Street.

That and a really good English teacher.

[Bill Douglas]

I hear Kiwis that have been in America for some time. They sound terrible. They still have the Kiwi accent with an American one layered on top. They should concentrate on losing the Kiwi one if they "want to fit in".

[petrolhead611]

I read somewhere, that if you emigrate prior to being 15, you lose all trace of your previous accent. My dad came to England when 16, and still had a faint German accent all his life.

[GH85Carrera]

One of my wife's good friends grew up in Durant, OK. She is a retired college professor and has two different voices for different situations. I have only known her in social situations with my wife and she had a very sweet southern girl accent. She lives in Charleston, SC now and the southern accent has gotten stronger. She has a college professor very professional strong voice when needed. I did not even recognize her when she was talking to a contractor at their house.

One of my former co-workers was from Ireland. When he sober he only had a trace of accent. If he had a few drinks he sounded like a leprechaun on the verge of unintelligible.

[wdfifteen]

Interesting subject. I lived with a Danish woman for 3 years. She learned English as a child in Denmark, moved to Canada for 5 years in her late teens, and then to the US for 30 years. She had a slight Danish/British English accent, not much, but different. The funniest thing was that she could not learn some word usage. Whipped cream was "whipping cream" and a wood burning stove was a "wooden stove." I kept telling her a wooden stove wouldn't last very long if you built a fire in in it. She ended words with a kind of urban accent, like "I waidet for you," instead of "I waited for you." I never figured out where that came from.
I was mentoring a 21 year old Italian engineer here on work/study for a summer. He had great English, but repeatedly ask me to explain the word "tough" to him, and could never get the distinctions between "Wallet," "Purse," and "Billfold."

[techweenie]

When Schwarzenegger was running for governor of CA, he let it slip in an interview that he employed a coach to help him retain his Austrian accent. I'm sure immersion makes it hard to hold on to.

[billybek]

In some cases the accent one speaks with is an indicator of class. Some choose to change it and others try to maintain it.

[Mark Henry]

My mom is a WW2 british war bride, 70 years in Canada and she still has an London accent.

[recycled sixtie]

Originally Posted by billybek

In some cases the accent one speaks with is an indicator of class. Some choose to change it and others try to maintain it.

I agree with you especially in England. When I used to live in northern England my parents got elocution lessons for my sister. This was an attempt to get her to lose her Yorkshire accent at a young age. The next time I phone my sister I must discuss that with her and see if she remembers much about it.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by billybek

In some cases the accent one speaks with is an indicator of class. Some choose to change it and others try to maintain it.

Tru dat. I don't talk in my native Briar unless I'm around Mom-n-them. Then I tone down the proper English so they don't think I'm puttin' on airs.

[Rikao4]

Mom still sounds like Col. Klink..
I don't..
just like the US..
Germany has dialects that place you...
in school it's hoch deutsch...high German..
ST can revert to schwabich ( Bavaria area)...
and is considered local..
myself can go platt deutsch and folks know..
where I'm from..
Berlin = New York..

Rika

[Seahawk]

I have two older sisters, one is a doc the other a lawyer. They both stayed in the South after we moved there from California. My oldest sister had finished college in California and went to medical school in Georgia.

The other sister was in her junior year of college and finished at the College of Charleston then law school at USC in Columbia, SC.

They had zero accents.

They both now sound like two debutantes chatting at the Southern Ladies of Distinction Cotillion and Gun Show.

Strange.

[Otter74]

I am struck by the durability of accents sometimes.

There is a family friend of ours who has spent his entire adult life in Venezuela. Born in the US, moved there as a toddler, educated in boarding schools at college in the US, lived in Ven ever since. Still speaking Spanish with a American accent. Other family friends, more or less exactly the same background, but speak Spanish with normal Venezuelan accents.

French woman I met about a decade ago, woman in her 70s who had moved to the US after the war when she was a teenager, still spoke English in a tremendous French accent (which was rather charming).

I have always spoken English with a neutral (basically, "Missouruh") midwestern accent, like St. Louis. But about 5 years ago I started noticing a slightly nasal upper-midwestern inflection creeping into it. At the same time, my Spanish, which always had an approximately Venezuelan accent, started picking up a slight-but-noticeable gringo quality, which I have found both perplexing and mildly distressing.

[TheMentat]

Originally Posted by legion

I work with a Chinese guy that I still have trouble understanding after working with him for 5 years and him being in the U.S. for 15 years. I came to the same conclusion about Chinese. It must be the way Mandarin-speakers' brains are organized for that language.

I had an interesting chat with a Chinese guy about this... he was actively working on his English pronunciation with a speech therapist. Apparently, they use a completely different "posture" in their mouths when speaking. Works well for the for the vocalizations in Mandarin, not so much for English.

Unless they work on changing that posture, they're not going to sort out the accent.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

They both now sound like two debutantes chatting at the Southern Ladies of Distinction Cotillion and Gun Show.

Strange.

When my wife goes down to visit her friend in Charleston the southern girl accent gets much stronger with both of them. Normal short one syllable words suddenly become two syllable words. It takes a day or two to get back to "normal"