Where do People Think You are From?.....

[britty 1]

Just interested to know whether anyone else new to the US has had a variety of assumptions about where they are from? Im from London and its clearly obvious I am from my accent, however, Ive been asked if I am Australian, Welsh?, South African, and today, wait for it....Norwegian !! Now dont get me wrong, I realise that not everyone is familiar with an english accent, but I have always been able to tell the difference between Americans, Aussies, South Africans etc so I can never understand why it doesnt work both ways?

[Autumnchik 6]

My Canadian fiance has been told he sounds like he has an English accent or Scottish accent! True, he does not have the typical Canadian accent that his friends and family do and he did spend some time backpacking around Australia and England, but still ...???

[brtlmj 0]

Austria, Denmark, Canada. Apparently my accent is not Polish at all...

Bartek

[Boiler 45,553]

Australia as well.

Probably call my lack of accent Received English

[wong_watkins 1]

Some people think I'm Japanese. And when I tell them that I'm from Hong Kong, China, they'd ask "Isn't Hong Kong in Japan?"..or.."Aren't Japanese and Chinese the same?"..or.." What's the difference between Chinese and Japanese?"

[Widge 0]

At work I get numerous questions everyday about my accent probably a 70/30 split English to Australian what I find more amusing are the further comments that show some peoples zero geographic understanding eg assuming London IS England, having no comprehension that England Wales and Scotland are separate countries, etc.etc.. But I do confess that on a bad day of repeated questioning on being asked 'How did you get here?' I can be known to kill the conversation dead by my reply 'By plane!'

[alix 20]

In my case English is not my first language, still people can't tell exactly where I'm from. I try to speak English as well as I can, but I still have a slight accent. Until I say that I'm brazilian I can tell that people twisting their heads trying to figure out where I'm from!!

Edited February 4, 2007 by alix

[PaulineA 1]

Just interested to know whether anyone else new to the US has had a variety of assumptions about where they are from? Im from London and its clearly obvious I am from my accent, however, Ive been asked if I am Australian, Welsh?, South African, and today, wait for it....Norwegian !! Now dont get me wrong, I realise that not everyone is familiar with an english accent, but I have always been able to tell the difference between Americans, Aussies, South Africans etc so I can never understand why it doesnt work both ways?

HI,

I am from Scotland and have been told I speak English really well. I find it funny since English is my spoken language. Like another poster I found most people around here think London is the whole of England,lol.

[Mary Lou 681]

When Gary went to the dentist a few weeks ago the dentist thought he was dutch?!?!?!?

[GabachaYucateca 0]

Depending on where you live in the States, folks from other English speaking countries, I bet that someday you'll be asked if "they speak American in your country."

(banging head against wall)

[Donna A 4]

im the us citizen and everyone asks are u from the south. nope born and raised in the north. i guess i must have picked up my dads w. virginia accent along the way.

they think my husband is hispanic and not arab.

[Reba 2]

I've been told I sound Yankee, and I said "um, no Yankee stops at the border" reply was "so what do you call you people from Canada then?" "ummm....Canadian works!"

One person asked me where'd I learned to speak English so well. I replied "my Dad is from England" ...aaahhhh, ok! That makes sense!

One person asked me where I was from, I said Canada, he said "where's that?" d'uh....North.

I've had some doozies I tell ya!

...oh the most recent was "you don't sound Canadian. You don't sound like you're from here, but you don't sound Canadian!"

Edited February 4, 2007 by Reba

[Nancy2015 2]

Some people think I'm Japanese. And when I tell them that I'm from Hong Kong, China, they'd ask "Isn't Hong Kong in Japan?"..or.."Aren't Japanese and Chinese the same?"..or.." What's the difference between Chinese and Japanese?"

Well, when I was a little girl, I thought that England and America were the same thing. But I have learned a lot since then

I live in a very diverse area, and people here don't care where I'm from. Most of them just ask if I'm from Europe, although some were able to tell that I'm from Russia

[Aymerlu 3]

A woman yesterday asked my husband if he's from France

[vvill 0]

People tend to say England, tho I'm from Australia. I was born in London tho so I don't have a very distinctive Australian accent, at least not like The Croc Hunter...RIP