Wait, what happened to my American English?
Last year, when I visited my organization’s offices in Vienna, Austria, I was very surprised to learn that several of the colleagues I met there were fellow Americans. This was because their accents were all over the map. One guy had a vaguely Irish accent. One guy sounded straight-up German. All of them had been living in Vienna for at least ten years at this point. And I was like, damn, is this what happens when you’ve been abroad for too long? You just up and lose your native accent? Or is this a Madonna situation where no one’s certain if you’re faking it or not?
Well, folks, after four years in Switzerland, it has become clear that I have Madonna’d. Not only is my accent evolving, I’ve noticed that the way I talk and put words together is changing as well.
As a child growing up in Georgia, I had a southern accent, but it was very light. I remember noticing that my seventh-grade algebra teacher pronounced like as lack and thinking, boy, does she have a strong accent. My southern accent still comes out sometimes when triggered by certain words, but for the most part, I developed a neutral American accent, mostly from watching a lot of TV and also years of working in DC.
