As strange as it may seem, I hate my accent and want to speak like an American because I think it sounds cooler and more like how I want to sound.
I’ve more or less perfected my version of an American accent on my own, I think.
But whenever I’m with other people who know me, I revert back to my old accent instinctively because that’s how they know me to sound like. I’m unsure about how I can subtly transition without them noticing a sudden change, such as through gradual exposure to my accent changing more each time they hear it. That way I could argue that I don’t know how it happened and it was a slow progression if they eventually realise it’s different, rather than something forced that I started doing one day.
The biggest thing I think is changing the pronunciation of certain words with “a”, such as going from “fahst” to “faast” for the word ‘fast’, or “mahsk” to “maask” for ‘mask’. Because it’s really one or the other, there’s no in-between. I feel like for most other sounds, a gradual transition into more American sounds can be possible, but that one’s like, how can I make the plunge and will people notice it straight away and think it’s weird?
They might notice, but does it really matter if they do? It’s nice of you to think of how your actions impact other people but in this case it seems like you’re focusing too much on that aspect of it. If you want to speak with an American accent then you should do it.
I really don’t think anyone will make more than a passing comment about it. You can say “I’m working on speaking more clearly” or something like that. If people don’t accept that answer then that is their problem to deal with.
I have a friend who moved to America for a short time then when they returned, they had an American accent. But people didn’t believe it and mocked them saying “that’s not your real accent”. I’m kind of worried the same will happen for me…
What’s a “real” accent? Plenty of people have multiple accents that they code-switch between depending on who they’re talking to.
An Englishman from Newcastle might talk to his childhood friends in Geordie, talk to his colleagues in RP, and meet some family from Leeds and talk to them in a Yorkshire accent.
Accents aren’t this big static monolith.
I think you should just own it. Say, “hey folks, I got a new voice! Deal!”
If they try to mock you, turn it around in them. “Damn, you’re really hung up on this huh? That’s a shame, you should really work on that.”
My last name is Gross, and people sometimes ask me if I got teased growing up. And the answer is no. There’s not much you can do with my name. There’s nothing to embarrass me with. You wanna call me gross? Go ahead. That’s my name. What now?
Just reply “Nah but it’s fun”
Say you have some family across the pond, and you slip in and out of your “Mid-Atlantic accent” when you’ve recently spent more time with them
Mine became Americanised after living in the US a short time (less than a year) and having American friends in general, no one has said it’s not my real accent, but friends have made fun (in good humour) of my accent and vocabulary after returning to the UK, it’s a funny one. I don’t really pronounce the ‘t’ in water, toilet is often bathroom for me now, and yeah, it’s a bit unique.
I moved from India to America 5 years ago and I’ve picked up an American accent now. When I was in India, I frequently saw Indians correcting the pronunciation of other people when they tried speaking Indian languages.
So if that’s acceptable, why is it not okay for someone to try and correct their pronunciation of English? (Ofc there are multiple native English speaking countries, but you get my point)
Put it another way, I don’t speak hindi and I assume there might be accents in Hindi. So if I was taught Hindi by someone who had a particular accent, I would probably adopt the same accent. Does that mean that I’m faking this accent? Or is it just a matter of what we’re taught ?