Foreign Accent
Since my mum is British, I have enough of an English accent that people sometimes notice, but not nearly enough that they go, "Oh, she's obviously from England, all right then." They have to ask. And I once met a particularly annoying individual who was sure I'm Scottish. What?! And where it gets really aggravating is when I think I can get the jump on these "where are you from well is that all where are you really from" people and explain to everyone who asks me where I'm from that my mum is British. And I inevitably try this on people who don't think I have an accent at all and then it gets awkward and I worry that they think I'm pretending to be British for no good reason, like Madonna or Johnny Depp, except that they figure I can't even do the accent. And I have such a terrible ear for accents that I couldn't even tell you if I do, on the whole, have an accent, or if my voice just hates me and comes out Scottish every now and then to make my life a little more annoying.
And of course my accent gets more audible to my ears at least when I'm feeling awkward or trying too hard to be polite (I am totally the Queen! One has never put one's foot in one's mouth!), and, as you may have guessed, it just tends to make things worse.
Doesn't hold a candle to my poor Sociology prof, though, who's Australian and thus apparently incomprehensible. I understand her just fine, but one must admit that the concept of a "coffee wanker" is probably a bit much for a bunch of American and ESL college students. Plus it doesn't even make sense if "translated" literally. I shall leave out its intended meaning as an exercise to whoever might be reading this. Go on, guess.
And of course my accent gets more audible to my ears at least when I'm feeling awkward or trying too hard to be polite (I am totally the Queen! One has never put one's foot in one's mouth!), and, as you may have guessed, it just tends to make things worse.
Doesn't hold a candle to my poor Sociology prof, though, who's Australian and thus apparently incomprehensible. I understand her just fine, but one must admit that the concept of a "coffee wanker" is probably a bit much for a bunch of American and ESL college students. Plus it doesn't even make sense if "translated" literally. I shall leave out its intended meaning as an exercise to whoever might be reading this. Go on, guess.