I grew up in a bilingual, bi-cultural family. We spoke mainly English at home with my mother and father, although my brothers and I did seem to mix in a lot of Spanish, too. (The language of choice pretty much depends on the subject. Soccer, for example, is something discussed in Spanish, of course!)
When I travel to the U.S. and people hear where I hail from, I often get the comment: “Why you hardly have an accent!” Wow… I didn’t think I had one at all! Then recently a friend told me that when she first met me she thought I was German, and then she decided the slight accent she detected when I spoke Spanish was English! Well, no one had ever told me that! Usually people here think I’m from the southern part of the continent – Argentina or Chile, but never had I been called a “gringa” before.
In case you don’t know, I am a trained conference interpreter. Part of my training actually involved developing a “neutral” accent, both in English and Spanish. I actually thought I had gotten it down. But I’ve never been quite sure. That is until today, when my daughter sent me this quiz. At last, at last! I now have proof that the training did pay off, at least in English.
These are my results below… want to kill a few minutes and discover what your (American) accent is? Take the quiz!
| Which American accent do you have? Neutral You’re not Northern, Southern, or Western, you`re just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don`t really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.
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| Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests. |
I am a self-learner. I taught myself to sew and to quilt. And I taught myself how to draw. I am learning how to dye my own fabrics and am dabbling with mixed media. I am a quilt designer and teacher, and design and publish my own line of quilt patterns. With this blog I would like to share the bits and pieces of my life.
8 Comments
That was fun! I’m a Canadian but I could live in the northern part of the States and pass as an American in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, and New York. Strange I don’t think I sound like them.
I had someone in Pennsylvania tell me one time I couldn’t be a Canadian because I don’t say “eh” at the end of every sentence. LOL
I actually hadn’t realized there were so many different accents in the U.S. And yes, normally I would be able to spot a Canadian, eh? 🙂
This was interesting, I am a neutral. I also grew up in a bilingual family and speak spanish fluently. Thanks for the little quiz.
Bobbie
Wonder if more bilinguals have a similar experience?
Apparently I’m from the Northeast – odd as I’m actually English!
Hmmm… do you think, then, that people in the Northeast come closest to an English accent?
I should rate as neutral because I grew up in central Illinois but it said I’m western. Huh.
That was fun. I am born in London, but at the age of 6 came to Australia, but I am apparantly Northeastern USA accent! The state CT
Funny really, as I’m sure many Americans would have some trouble understanding our Aussie accent.