Accentos

What is it about a different dialect that is so appealing to our American ears? If a guy even has a hint of a sexy British accent, the girls start swooning. Is it the language itself that is so exotic? Or is it the fact that these people with accents are usually foreign and therefore more interesting?

Either way, when I sit down in my Stats lecture that is taught by a British professor, I am way more likely to pay attention than in my boring Physics class where the professor is about American as you can get. The fact is, my British professor makes Stats sound way more fancy. For example, we don’t have data that is crap. No way. We have “rubbish”. And we’re not doing a really great job on the practice problems. We have “good form”. If only I could pull that off! But any American who says “Cheerio mates!” always gets weird looks from the people nearby.

So my friend and I got to talking…what if we did have accents? And none of this “American accent” crap (that’s just a ruse to make us think we’re as cool as people with real accents…don’t want to feel left out now, do we?). No, I’m talking about the sultry sounds from across the Atlantic: Irish, French, Italian…the possibilities are endless!

Personally, I’d go with the Australian accent. Not only do they pronounce our English words with a fluid tone that seems to make everyone around them happier, but they make up their own words as well. “Barbies” for barbeques. “Grog” for beer. “Lollies” for candy. “Arvo” for afternoon. “Sunnies” for sunglasses. And my personal favorite: the “didgeridoo”. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Did-ger-i-doo. I could keep repeating that all day, and never get tired of it! Not to mention it’s a pretty epic instrument:

So while I try to hitchhike my way over to Australia to practice my accent, I encourage the rest of you to find a favorite accent of your own. Mostly because it’s fun and partly because I don’t want to be the only one making a fool out of myself. And if anyone knows where I can get my hands on one of those snazzy instruments, let me know.

G’day mates!