Anyone else mimic accents while speaking?

[psichick]

Interesting to read all this. I will pick up accents within a few days of being there (vacations can start to get weird, haha). I have to consciously watch myself. I don't speak any language fluently, however I know the basics of about 6 languages.

What's funny though, is if I purposely try to imitate a word or accent, I can't do it. A co-worker that I worked closely with was from Texas. I would try to mimic words, couldn't do it. But when his accent would get thicker (usually after talking to family), I would start to mimic him correctly (assuming we were talking a lot).

[R. Crusoe]

Accent is a funny thing. A lot of people got really hung-up about it. I guess people have certain preconceived idea as to how others should sound like based on their race and ethnicity. It could be social programming, I suppose. From personal experience, some people would actually freak out a bit when they hear a person from a supposedly non-English speaking world speak perfect English with an accent. The more sinister and ignorant ones would immediately think that that person is “faking it” or that “he/she is pretending to be one of us”, or something to that effect, which is totally discriminative and really pathetic IMO. That kind of people are usually very narrow minded with a closed view of the world and severely limited contact with foreigners out their own countries.

In the world where globalization is a hard fact and things like interracial marriage, international school in non-English speaking country, foreign education, etc. are exceedingly common, it is a bit difficult to believe some of us are still quite ignorant in that regard. Frankly, I find it very strange and backward.