For example, in England the rules of baseball, basketball and other sports mainly associated with the USA are widely known, or at least there is some sort of knowledge as to how these games are played. I beleive I can estimate that not many Americans will be familiar with the rules of Cricket, Polo, etc.

I come from Japanese and British heritage, live in St. Louis (which is neither the south, west, nor midwest - but a sort of “gateway”), and I have a typical Chicago accent, but say “y’all” and “you take care now” and “that’s ow right” and all sorts of southern peculiarities; it’s considered standard here - mixed in with a pretty enormous speaking vocabulary, occasional british intonations, and a little Philly / New York accent because I lived there for a year or so. I also traveled to central america several times as a very young child, and the early exposure to Spanish language enables me to form a spanish accent with ease.

No one ever guesses the origins of my accent, of course, just as they look at me and say “are you egyptian?” or “you are from Italy, no?” “Ah, a French lady!” (flench rady!)

No one guesses Japanese and British, for there aren’t enough biracial people in the world these days for anyone to guess a combination, other than black&white and asian&black. Possibly “mexicasian,” have heard that one before.

I have a lovely singing voice, and it’s neither British nor American (they differ as well, of course).

I am reasonably attractive…

but the polarity of my voice may be my biggest magnetic force, and certainly a redeeming quality for me. It is melodic, dancing, and unnameable.

In response to those who spoke of “accent-merging” as with the movie stars, Mel Gibson, Hugh Laurie, Colin, Charlize Theron, and many of us hybrids - I think it’s something not often considered - but like biracials tend to be exotic and beautiful, “biracial” voices also tend to be enrapturing. I love Hugh Laurie’s voice. Another example of a merging voice I adore is Barack Obama’s low, native African and American timbre. It’s lovely.

Addressing other points brought up, when speaking in business situations person to person I lose my accent (as a result of speaking properly). In informal situation however I blend some of my words, leave off some endings and other shortcuts.

Its weird though that I have a stronger accent than anyone in my immediate family. Still I don’t think I sound like I have a stereotypical Texas accent, which I imagine occurs somewhere between Dallas, Austin and Houston.

Does anyone know?

On my side, most of my friends are actually surrounded by a higher social class - up in ohio. So, that pretty much explains that.

P.S. jjk - of course I made a grammatical error - but the internet can be informal and often times - not everyone is free of error. So don’t take life so seriously, you’ll never get out alive! Besides, if you spoke to me in person, you’d understand. Rock Out

But it is interesting, as you point out in the case of girlfriend, that slight variations in accents, or even who speaks them, can greatly change how they sound.

It looks like an accent isn’t the only way to give someone the impression you don’t have a great control of the English language.

It’s crazy because I’m actually - NOW - attending the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. And everytime I hear a strong southern accent that usually involves a story going as “….ha…bill I tell u what..” I just explode into a laughing rage of violence and gore. I dont know what it is, but it is hilarious. My gf down there has a southern accent - but her’s makes her hot - not retarded.

If I come back with a southern accent, I’m going to through myself off a bridge.

I spent a summer ringing all over Ireland debt collecting, and everyone, *everyones* accents got thicker as soon as they figured out why I wanted to talk to them. I count a distinct Donegal, Kerry, Cork, Mayo, North Dublin, South Dublin, Sligo among the ones I can pick out straight away and then theres the other ones I wouldn’t recognise off the cuff. This is *Ireland* which has 3.5M people - i.e. is dinky.

There is huge variety and in general any strong accent makes it tough for everyone else. We (the rest of the World) are generally pretty good at US accents because we’ve been listening to them since we were small, but then the most complete breakdown in communication I ever saw was me, a guy from Kilkenny and a guy from the Bronx.

If we’re talking about seductive accents, then that has been firmly established as a personal taste thing. There are a few accents that have been established as ‘allure-killers’ - e.g. North Dublin & urban Sligo - but peoples ideas of a nice accent varies hugely, and will also vary with the speaker. The same accent from a broken-nosed pub brawler and that cute brunette in the floaty dress will have very different impressions. The same ‘category’ will also vary hugely in impression given the speakers own voice, diction and attitude.

Strangely, Chinese accented English is nothing special for me, but I really like the sound of Madarin being spoken. I have no idea what they’re saying, but it sounds nice.