Accent: A characteristic pronunciation, especially:
a. One determined by the regional or social background of the speaker.
b. One determined by the phonetic habits of the speaker's native language carried over to his or her
use of another language. (thefreedictionary.com)
I like to refer to it as “what makes me exotic”. It definitely sets me apart from my peers as soon as I say a word. I often try to claim that I am local when I meet new people, but no one ever believes me.
It has its pros and cons. Let’s start with the pros:
According to my listeners, it is rather seductive. No matter what I say (even curse words) it sounds pretty awesome to them.
It makes you special and makes people want to find out more about you. I more than often get “I hear an accent, where are you from?” and that’s when I give out my whole bio to a perfect stranger.
It gets you out of trouble. I got pulled over a couple of times and got away without a ticket most likely because I sound like I am not from here. AKA do not know what I am doing. There is one instance where I didn’t get away and had go to court. Indeed, I had no registration, no insurance and a faulty headlight all at the same time… I had to get myself together real quick!
Cons:
You can never blend in. As soon as you start speaking everybody knows you are not from the U.S. It is kind of annoying on days you really want to be low- key.
A few people may give you attitude just because they are jealous and wish they had one too.
A very few people may not directly say it but they will definitely think you are dumb just because you speak differently that they do and that is rather sad :(
Overall having an accent is quite awesome, it makes you special, gets you extra love and attention. Who doesn’t love attention? You should totally embrace it even though you can't hear it for yourself.
*insert shoulder shrug*
Live Live Fully,
France Mkb