Is Canada the only other country you've heard of?

[Rapscallion]

Can we calm down the regional generalisations, please? We've got over 1250 member accounts logging in on a regular basis, so an excess is bound to cause offence.

Rapscallion

[mariamousie1]

Sorry, I didn't understand the post. I'm in Canada.

[PepperElf]

ain't speaking no English

my evil side wants to say, "Well ma'am neither are you."

[wagegoth]

well, that actually depends on who you ask... I am still a member of the Church, and still believe in the teachings... however I have gone mostly inactive... haven't yet apostatized yet, though I'm sure there are quite a few people in my Ward who think that I have. (kudos to anyone who actually understood this post)

Not LDS, never have been, but I understood what you meant. Lot of LDS friends as a kid. So, are you technically a jack Mormon?

[smileyeagle1021]

Not LDS, never have been, but I understood what you meant. Lot of LDS friends as a kid. So, are you technically a jack Mormon?

for the time being, yup

[Imogene]

Had a call at one of my previous jobs where I'd just answered the call and the person on the other end immediately spat out, "Please tell me I'm calling an American."
"Well, I'm in Texas, so, yes..."

[hq_]

This sounds oh-so-familiar.

I'm a semi-native english speaker (bilingual, finnish-english) and because I don't need to speak english on a daily basis, I've lost some/most of my natural oxford english accent I grew up with. This is where it gets interesting: I pick up different accents very, very quickly, sometimes within a few hours, and it only takes a couple of weeks to switch my accent completely, instinctively. To a degree that I sound native virtually anywhere in the english speaking world. Now, in most parts of the US, UK or even Australia that isn't a problem, but I absolutely hate it when I spend too much time in LA area and pick up a "valley girl" accent, complete with a weird way of using the word "like..." as a filler.

My kids are pretty much the same. It's fun, too, my oldest son had a kindergarten teached from Texas when he was 3-5 years old and now, after several years, he still has a distinct, thick texan accent.

You should hear my family speak after my scottish friends have been visiting us for a few days...

[morgana]

Apparently I have the standard, Midwestern (American) "newscaster" accent, but like several others here I can pick up accents in a very short time. I've had a person from Atlanta ask me where in Georgia I was from . . .

Cousins? Well, my father was the youngest of nine children. None of his siblings had fewer than three children, and the record is eight. And that's just Dad's side. My first reaction to this thread was "ONLY 30 cousins?"

[Gilgamesh]

Another Finnish speaker here.

I pick up accents pretty well, to the extent of using two different UK accents, and in addition there's the American accent I "got" from my Hawaiian friend. Several Americans have assumed I'm British (I take that as a compliment). If someone has a strong accent, it starts to affect my speech as well - annoys the hell out of me...

I guess this happens because I don't really have my own accent, I've just chosen the British one. After all, different Finnish dialects aren't contagious at all, although five minutes listening to someone from the area I'm originally from makes me revert to that way of speaking (something like Texan or Northern English in Finnish, for some kind of reference).

[XCashier]

Wow, I thought I had a large family with 11 cousins! Some of you folks need to rent a convention hall for a full family reunion!

"I'm so glad I'm speakin' to someone who speaks English cause everytime I call they ain't speaking no English

"And you are?"

I'm also usually very good with standard accents, but some backcountry English accents can cause me to turn on close captioning if I'm watching TV. There's even a joke about that at the beginning of The Graham Norton Show on BBCAmerica.

I turn on the captions when I watch a British show. Though admittedly that's more due to my slightly wonky hearing than the actors' accents.

[Chromatix]

I've been told that when speaking Finnish (well, reading it aloud - I can't actually speak it yet), my accent could pass for regional. I suppose that's a compliment! But then, I could already speak small parts of a couple of other languages, so I was used to the requirement of a different accent.

[Gilgamesh]

That's pretty impressive, Chromatix. Actually any foreigner - ie not brought up in Finland (Estonians don't count, though, that's close enough) - with local accent gets my (mental) applause. I know Brits and an American who've lived here for few decades and speak close to perfect Finnish - except for their accents.

And you might have noticed that Finns might give you compliments for knowing even a few words, but that particular will be deserved - throwing idle compliments around is not exactly a national past-time .

Yes, that was completely OT...

[Chromatix]

I do have the advantage of speaking regional, but good-quality English in the first place. So you can tell I'm from Northern England, but not specifically which part. (Which is a good thing - I grew up in Liverpool, but nobody guesses that!) I'm also trained as a singer (but very rusty now), so I habitually pay at least some attention to how I sound.

Unfortunately, while my accent might be good, my vocabulary and grammar, and general conversational ability, are utter pants.

[Gilgamesh]

Well, that's just one of those things you have to practise, and living in the country does wonders...

I guess learning Japanese was a similar experience for me: pronunciation was easy as it's basically same as Finnish, but everything else was really difficult in the beginning. After a year living in Japan (and two years of studying the language in Finland) I was capable of not only holding a conversation but also dealing with most of the official stuff necessary - unless it included written stuff.

Of course, now I've gone back sooo many steps it's almost embarrassing.

[QASlave]

I have 81 first cousins (both sides), 6 siblings, 17 nieces and nephews and 1 great niece.

When we were planning our wedding, my wife's ENTIRE extended family fit in my dining room. She almost crapped when my guest list was over 300 people and that didn't include friends yet.

I should have eloped. I'd be about 20k richer now.