I need to finish my self-eval today. shrift, you finished yours, right? I'll take that as inspiration.

The whole accent conversation reminds me of when I was in college and some of my friends tried to tease me about my southernisms but I couldn't even hear the mockery,

This seems to be the case with DH too. The kids and I hear him adopting the accent of the person he is speaking with (and giggle), but they don't seem to notice and I know he doesn't notice that he does it. He does have an amazing ability to understand people with differing accents. Whenever we have someone on the phone that no one else can understand he gets the call, and has no problem understanding them. Amazes me.

He does have an amazing ability to understand people with differing accents. Whenever we have someone on the phone that no one else can understand he gets the call, and has no problem understanding them. Amazes me.

He is the opposite of me.

Maybe someday I'll get my pilot's license. My biggest fear of trying to become a pilot is that I wouldn't be able to understand air traffic control on the radio.

The whole accent conversation reminds me of when I was in college and some of my friends tried to tease me about my southernisms but I couldn't even hear the mockery, it just seemed like they were repeating me for no reason whatsoever. Sometimes my obliviousness is a real blessing. Probably a lot more often than I even know.

Kind of like when I first got to North Carolina. I told somebody that I was from Wisconsin, and the answer was, "So that's why you sound funny."

I'm sure I've told this here before, but when my mother's family moved from Rhode Island to suburban Philadelphia, my uncle got put in special ed. Because of his accent!!

I pick up accents like a sponge and have to be really careful about it. (When I was in London, the friend I was visiting said "People will think you're mocking them if you don't go back to talking like a corn-fed Midwesterner." I asked her how she [also an American] could live and work there without picking up the accent. She was baffled as to how I picked it up so easily.)

My senior year of college, I won a scholarship from a national organization that also included a trip to Washington, DC, with the other scholarship winners, who were from all over the country. When I called home after 2 days, my mom said "You're talking with an accent, but I can't figure out which one." Because (among others) there were girls from Texas, a guy from Maine, a girl from Wisconsin, and a guy from Alabama who tried really hard to tone down his accent but it didn't work, and all of them started bleeding into my speech patterns.

Self-eval done and sent to my boss. Her email listing what we needed to cover didn't include the "needs attention" section so I feel justified in leaving it blank

My sister is really susceptible to picking up the accents of the people she's talking to, but when she actively tries to speak with a given accent it ends up being a mess.

I suck at both replicating accents and understanding then. I dread when I have to call a company for support at work and their call center is overseas because I know I'm going to spend the call wanting to crawl under my desk in embarrassment because I keep having to ask them to repeat themselves.

spend the call wanting to crawl under my desk in embarrassment because I keep having to ask them to repeat themselves

This is me! And the same holds when speaking to my friends and relatives on the phone. If I am looking at them I can grasp what they are saying, but on the phone it is hopeless. IT is super embarrassing. It isn't their accent; I blame my ears.

Yup, I'm like Tep. I still have a drawl from my year and a bit that I spent in college in Tennessee. I bring it out mostly to fuck with people, though. If I move back there, I'll need to cut it out, probably!