“You’ve got an accent on you!”

Oh Australia! My adventures continue daily here.  Yes, it is true that a wallaby tried to climb into my car in hot pursuit of the delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich I was eating.  I may or may not have danced onstage with LMFAO when they came to Melbourne last week.  I have also successfully driven on the left hand side of the road and gone rock climbing in in the heavens of Tasmania.  These moments, among many others, are what have made my time in Australia adventurous and amazing so far.

All that isn’t really what I wanted to talk about, though.  I wanted to talk about an every day “adventure” (if you will) that I have in this great multicultural nation, which in many respects is very much like the one that I have come from.  Much the way it is in the Great Ol U.S. of A., there are people of all races, from every place imaginable here.  On the surface, I blend in here as well as I do at home.  I go happily about my day, walking down the street looking like just another part of the multicultural melting pot that surrounds me.  No one pays me any mind or stares at me or notices anything different about me.  I appear, on the surface, as any Aussie would.

The facade ends the second I open my mouth.  Suddenly, the cat is out of the bag.  A look of dawning comprehension tends to cross the face of whoever I have just spoken to.  My normalcy disappears, and I instantly, with no chance to hide it, am recognizable as a foreigner.  Yep, my accent is a dead giveaway every damn time! If I’m lucky, I will get only about 6 or 7 consecutive questions and then some comments (“Are you doing exchange? How long are you here for? Why did you decide to come to Melbourne? Where in California are you from? I love California! Are you at Uni Melbourne? Do you like Australia? Your accent is great!”) Mostly, people are friendly, curious, and genuinely interested in what I am doing in their country.  They want to know how I am finding it, and are often quite anxious to help me have a good time.

Then there are the people who make me feel like an alien.  It goes something like this one encounter I had at a bar (with slight variations, but this is the usual version). I was talking with a girl I had just met, and because the bar was pretty loud, it took her a minute or two to look at me curiously and exclaim, “but you have an accent!” as if I had been keeping some juicy secret from her.  At that moment, the look in her eye made me feel like I was some delicious dessert that she was about to devour, or like a cat that had just laid eyes on a large rat.  ”Yes,” I admitted in defeat, can’t get that one by you, can I? You’ve caught me! I do, in fact, have an accent.

Then there was the girl that I met during my orientation tour of Uni Melbourne, who hovered around me the entire time exclaiming about how cute my accent was and imploring me to “tell her about America!” Or the guy in my tutorial (aka discussion), who affectionately greets me every week in a faux-New York accent and says, “Wassup Yank! I love America!” and then proceeds to regale me with tales of  how Detroit is the scariest place he’s ever been.

Sometimes I get the feeling that people here aren’t really listening to what I’m saying.  Don’t get me wrong, I get it – I’m the anomaly.  I’m different.  I pronounce my “r’s” and call them sidewalks and not footpaths, bell peppers and not capsicums, Burger King and not Hungry Jack’s.  It is a weird feeling at times, when I am speaking in a tutorial, and realize that everyone is staring at me with kind of a blank look.  Sometimes I wish I could shut my accent off so that I could talk to new people without the onslaught of a thousand questions, or that curious look, but most of the time it is really fun.  On a superficial level, guys are one thousand times more interested in me than they would be at home, and I have been “shouted” (bought!) a fair few drinks because I am foreign.  People want to talk to me because I come from somewhere different.  I’m like the grown up version of a shiny new toy for them, I guess.  Also, a lot of students have expressed interest in doing exchange in the U.S. and have sought my advice, which I’m always happy to talk about.

At the end of the day, my accent and the attention it draws is a constant reminder of the amazing place I’m currently in.  No one will think anything of the way I speak in another two months, that’s for sure.  So I guess for right now, I’m just basking in all the positive attention and enjoying another life changing day in Australia.

4 Responses to ““You’ve got an accent on you!””

1. Linda D. says:

   May 10, 2010 at 9:45 pm

   you just put a big smile on my face. love this post. xoxoxo LD
2. Isabel Sanders says:

   May 11, 2010 at 3:19 pm

   Danielle,
   I just love you so much. You are adorable. I’m happy that you are living life to it’s fullest.
   I’m hugging you.
   Grandma
3. The African Queen says:

   May 20, 2010 at 9:22 am

   Dani,

   A GREAT article. I love the thoughtful and delightful way you write — you bring your experiences to life in a beautiful way. Can’t wait to see you.

   Anne
4. SD says:

   July 2, 2010 at 5:26 am

   You’re lucky to be out in the world now. When I went abroad it was more like “God you’re too smart to be American” and “Why aren’t you fat then” and “Why are you invading Iraq?” “Did you vote for Bush” etc…

   But things are different now