I have always loved foreign accents. Back home if I heard anyone with an accent that wasn’t from the States I’d perk up and immediately become intrigued with that person.
I do also enjoy a good southern drawl but let’s face it, it’s still not the same as the European or South American accent.
What I find interesting now that I’ve lived here in Amsterdam for almost 6 months is that foreign accents have become the norm for me. My ears don’t turn like satellites anymore whenever someone speaks english in an accent. Nor does my heart swoon (kinda sad).
Everyone is now lumped into the “you don’t sound like me” group.
It’s weird because now whenever I hear an American out on the streets of Amsterdam my ears perk up like they did when I was home and heard an accent. Now a feeling of home and familiarity comes over me when I hear that American accent that I’m assuming doesn’t sound beautiful to many. Once the familiarity runs through my body, I’m over the homely feelings and I want to hear my foreign friends speak in that sweet sweet music to my ears foreign accent again.
The interesting thing is that when I talk to all my friends here (only one is American), it’s not as if I’m thinking “Gosh, I love your accent.” That would be my response when I lived back home. Their accent is just the norm for me now. The one thing I’m starting to notice though is how different all the Dutch english accents sound.
I’m slowly starting to peg Dutch people into groups based on their accents because there are quite a lot of different ways the Dutch speak English. However, I can also say that none of the Germans at Knowmads have the same english accent which is probably due to the fact that they all grew up in different parts of Germany.
Which would then be the case if me, a new englander, and a southerner were to all be at Knowmads. Clearly you’d be able to hear the difference in our accents. I wonder though if foreigners can tell the difference between an Ohioan and a Californian. I remember when a Canadian was at Knowmads and she pegged me for an East coast girl immediately. Could I have picked up on the cadence after 9 years (wow that’s a long time, probably)?
It’s still quite fun to listen to all the different foreign accents here in Amsterdam since it’s such an international city. My favorite still is the British and Australian accents (though the British trump the Aussies for me). I could listen to Joseph from Tribe 3 who’s from England speak all day. It’s so adorable and it’s nice to know that we are on the same level when it comes to English. I can’t really explain what this means at the moment, it’s just this sense of knowing.
I think it’s pretty hilarious when foreign friends will ask me, “how do you say___?” I’ll give myself some credit and say I can help them 50% of the time. Many times though Knowmads will come up to me and say things like, “What’s another word for indifferent?” And I’ll be like “hmmmm, let me open up my browser and check for you on thesaurus.com.” (which of course defeats the purpose because they’re trying to avoid that).
This is the way my brain works. If you say a word that you want a synonym for I can’t stop thinking about that word. It’s just like saying don’t think about the giraffe wearing a tutu in the room. That’s right, you pictured it. This is how my mind is with words. I’m clearly not a walking thesaurus. I have an app for that. So you’re welcome American counterparts, I’m living up to our stereotype.
Speaking of American people…
I have been made aware since who knows when by my parents and most recently in the past few years my brother-in-law that I can sound like a valley girl who people can’t take seriously. This is kinda annoying to be told this and to change the way you speak because you sound like a dumb blonde. Apparently in the past I’ve said the word “like” a lot which is a very common word for teenagers who grew up in the late 90s and into today. It’s been part of our culture.
But God help me. Today I was walking around the center of Amsterdam where there are tons of tourists and I heard lots of American girls. I swear every single one of them said the word ‘like’ at least 2x per sentence. I had to walk fast past them to avoid their babble. It made me want to kill myself. Is this how I sound sometimes?
The way these girls talked was so typical American it made me want to gag. I hope to God that I don’t sound like them, it was absolutely horrible.
I know that sometimes I end up saying ‘like’ around here and then I’ll get pooped on for being “so American.” And let’s face it that really sucks because who wants to be known for sounding like some dumb American? Not I sir. Not I.
So if you hear me say ‘like’ too many times or my voice goes up a higher octave than normal, please, I beg you please, just slap me and tell me to speak as if I sound intelligent. All these ‘likes’ just give us Americans a worse rap than we already have. If it’s one thing we have control over it is the words that come out of our mouths.
Today I’m committed to using less ‘likes’ in my vocabulary.
Don’t do it! We love your foreign accents. Please don’t try to sound like us. Not worth it.
kristin goes knowmadic 