The twang

I blogged a lot about my accent in my posts in French. I thought doing one post about it in English, or more precisely, about my accent when I speak in English. Because it is a strange one. I can get a proper Italian accent it seems, even though I know very little Italian, but I could never get a proper British accent after spending more than ten years of my life in England. Some people think I am American, except of course Americans. Some people think I'm French, which is strange as I do not have a French accent. I don't have the strong accent many Quebeckers have when they speak English, yet I did not absorb the accent of a native.

I wish I had done so. But instead, I get that thing from nowhere. People thought I was German, Greek, Italian, whatever. Only a few people people hearing me thought I was actually Canadian, fewer thought I was Quebecker (except, well of course when I am in Québec). A kid in the school I used to work in identified me as a Canadian because "you speak like an American but you got that twang that is not American". So I have a twang when I speak English. And this is a twang that is from nowhere. I don't think it is a Canadian twang, whatever that is (the kid got it right but I think it was pure blind luck): I learned English watching American TV, like many people I guess. I tried to mimic that kind of English, taking a bit of stuff from here along the way (mainly vocabulary). The twang I have is a construction, it is artificial. Maybe it is another sign of being an expat...