Topic: Ever put on an accent and have it stick?

[Lumi Kløvstad]

One of the characters in a game script my sister is writing comes across as very Irish, so I've started to read his lines out loud in a bit of an Irish accent. Unfortunately, it seems to have stuck and I'm now talking normally with what was supposed to be just a short term put on accent. This is very much not the first time that this has happened to me. Scottish and Russian accents, when I use them for any reason whatsoever, also have a propensity to stick around for couple of hours before finally fading off. Also French accents.

I'm sure I'm not the only person this happens to.

This does carry a bonus effect of making conversations livelier as few of my social pals ever know which voice to expect anymore, especially since my accents can swap between each other with dime-like suddenness. I might talk in an Irish accent, leave the room for a while, and come back Russian, without ever meaning to.

The only accent that doesn't return easily is my own.

Share stories if you've been through something like this, but otherwise I just thought this makes a cool point of irrelevant interest.

[Dracula9]

I once got stuck doing some weird half-French-half-German accent an entire day at work a few years back.

[zangetsu468]

I've put on many an accent, but never for personal gain, novelty/ comedy purposes only.

[JR]

Eh, in a weird way, this reminds me of when I read comics. When I'm reading someone's dialogue, I have a voice for them in my mind that I think they should sound like. So reading something like X-Men is kind of crazy for me, when you have all kinds of mutants from different parts of the world, trying to read their dialogue and imagining their accents gets pretty distracting. Irish and Scottish are the toughest for me, for some reason. So Moira MacTaggart and Banshee dialogue really distract me from what I'm actually reading, since I'm focusing too much on what they "should" sound like to me, and less on what they're actually saying. And forget about Carol Danvers...I just imagine a plain Midwestern accent for her, since I can't even begin to put a Boston accent in my head. Haha, I'm pretty sure this all sounds really stupid.

I once got stuck doing some weird half-French-half-German accent an entire day at work a few years back.

Heh, any time I try to joke around and say something with a French accent, it usually ends up sounding German.

Also, going a bit off-topic again (sorry), have you ever joked around in an effeminate voice and had someone say, "Wow, you do that a little too well"? I always thought that was a dumb thing to say. If I was doing, say, a Russian accent instead, would they suspect I was actually Russian? Pfft.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

If I was doing, say, a Russian accent instead, would they suspect I was actually Russian? Pfft.

This has happened to me a couple of times when I put on a Scottish accent in public around people who don't know me. Apparently I'm a dead ringer for someone from Glasgow.

[EDIT] The red hair and beard probably helped in that respect. *shrugs*

[Dracula9]

I remember I had to put on a Manchester dialect anytime a specific customer came in, due to me being stuck on the dialect one time he came in and made up an entire UK backstory for myself (for shits and giggles) for him on the spot.

Hard work, that. But fun.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I remember I had to put on a Manchester dialect anytime a specific customer came in, due to me being stuck on the dialect one time he came in and made up an entire UK backstory for myself (for shits and giggles) for him on the spot.

Hard work, that. But fun.

I've never gone that far with an accent, but I have done it on forums and social media. Not this forum, but definitely on the Anti-Chapel, way back when I'd first joined.

Hell, there's a topic for me to write tomorrow right there!

[KaZudra]

Liverpudlian, Dave Lister.

[BLOOD MONKEY]

I'm from North Carolina, I live in Alabama, and I have a Wisconsin/Minnesota accent. I see and talk to my relatives who live there quite a bit, and the accent just rubs off on me. At least I don't have a southern accent. Ew.

[Dracula9]

Fuck you too, yellabelly.

[Mooning Freddy]

Staying in London must have at least some effect on my accent. I suppose I'm slightly starting to talk in an odd mixture of American and British English. 

[Shiroi Koumori]

When I stayed in Japan, my English died.

[zangetsu468]

When I stayed in Japan, my English died.

Did you find you were also thinking and/ or dreaming in Japanese?

[Shiroi Koumori]

Did you find you were also thinking and/ or dreaming in Japanese?

I can still do that until now.
I guess if a language sticks with you, it really gets stuck.

[zangetsu468]

I can still do that until now.
I guess if a language sticks with you, it really gets stuck.

That's really cool. The reason I ask is that is that I had a friend who went to live in Japan, became fluent and echoed the same response as you.

When I first came to Australia I could barely speak a word of English. I was turning 4 years old at the time, my default language was French. After reaching 6-7 years old I did dream in French on occasion, but 95% of the time it was in English. I think I stopped thinking in French the majority of the time after around 8-10 years old. It's interesting, the French thoughts and dreams only arise when attached to certain people in my life. 

Maybe if you learn a language when you're out of childhood, you're also learning to actively think in that language because you hadn't had to previously do it. I think when you're a child under the age of 7 your brain development is rampant and you just pick up things like there's no tomorrow without having to think too much about it.