Before going anywhere with this, let me reiterate one more time: I am not American. I have never been, and the way things are going, never will be. But that does not stop the accent from dominating my everyday speech, considering I have lived there for over a third of my life and had to adopt their phrases and syntax in order to not be ridiculed.
And now I live in England, and once again, I find myself being ridiculed for my choice of words. Even more tellingly, a life time spent hoping from one English speaking country to another (with a dash of Little Havana, i.e. Miami) thrown in and my accent tends to wander as much as my own life has meandered. I would not exactly call it a talent, since there are so many other, better talents I can lay claim to, but I do have the ability to switch accents mid-sentence and most of the time, without even thinking about it.
And when I say I am being ridiculed, I do mean in a good humoured sort of way. My friends seem to be entranced by the fact that it is confusing to listen to me. I can start out with a fine, ol’ American sounding accent and suddenly dip into a posh version of English only to perhaps pronounce one word out of the whole lot with a Canadian/Scottish/Irish/Southern sounding sort of voice. Trust me, I am really not trying. It just happens and seems to confuse the best of friends most of the time.
This is why I think my friends are glad that I drink; and I do drink often. Because not only am I a riot and a half when sober; when drunk, any inhibitions (i.e. the very few that I actually have) seem to fly out the door, along with the accent. I am suddenly, for all intents and purposes, one very pissed Brit with a smattering of catchphrases that are either very Yankee doodle dandy or else Briticisms that went out with the last century (I have said ‘smashing’ without a hint of sarcasm while drunk).
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