<p>To anyone with a noticeable or uncommon accent out there, how do you deal with people commenting on it?</p>
<p>I'm from the Bahamas and I'm starting to grow weary of people obsessing over my accent.</p>
<p>I get all the usual:
"OMG! where are you from!"
"I LOVE your accent!"
"Are you Jamaican?" <--- ****es me off the most
"Say something!!!!!!1!11!!1"</p>
<p>Ugh.
While there are some people who get off the subject after a quick "thanks and Bahamas" from me, there are others who go on and on.
Also there is me having to constantly repeat myself even when I try to speak very slowly and carefully.</p>
<p>Kinda sorta a rant, but I also want some feedback on how to avoid these kinds of reactions when every word I say just adds fuel to the fire...</p>
<p>Haahah I feel you , this is not as big a difference but when I first when to college in DC I had a pretty thick NY accent and people always sayin ish like yoooo I love your accent blah blah blah I mean I don’t mind but sometimes it gets annoying</p>
<p>but as someone whos had majority Caribbean friends all throughout high school … I feel you on the “Are you Jamaican” part lol lol</p>
<p>Pfft. Dude, you are doing it wrong. You are missing out on great entertainment value. What you should do is tell those people you are from a very unrelated part of the world. You are from the Bahamas? Tell them you are from Estonia (Northeastern Europe) and come up with some crazy story.</p>
<p>I’m from West Virginia, but the majority of extended family lives in Indiana. They think I sound like the hillbilly from hell, whereas when I travel to rural parts of WV, people say “You’re not from here, are you?” because I’ve spent all my life in the urban parts of the state and my so-called accent is not that pronounced to them. Once, years ago, I was living in central Ohio and the guy I was dating took me out to dinner with his parents. He warned me that his mom hated WVians, since a lot of them had moved into their community and taken factory jobs. His mom turned to me and the first thing she said was “Well, you certainly don’t <em>sound</em> like someone from West Virginia” like she was so pleased and relieved that her son wasn’t with one of <em>those</em> people. I liked the guy so I let it go, but now I wish I would have called her out and said something like “And just how are people from West Virginia supposed to sound?”</p>
<p>I’m always asked to say something in arabic, even though I don’t have an accent. I barely know any arabic though. It used to be my only language, but I’m a self-hating lebanese Maronite catholic.</p>
<p>@Eginox, oh I’ve taken advantage of this. I’ve told people that in the bahamas that we don’t wear clothes, we don’t go to school and we get from place to place by riding dolphins. And would you believe those idiots believed me!</p>
<p>Tell them you’re like the chick from Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and that you can grow to be 10 feet tall if you want. Never mind that she’s Jamaican.</p>
<p>At the beginning of my senior year having more broad classes ( well electives with all grades) students I’ve never seen vice versa would ask me if I am from here( United States). I can’t even notice an accent but I simply reply yes. You seem to have a different situation, perhaps you can just indicate where you are from and that you don’t really like talking about it ( accent).</p>
<p>When I moved to New England (having lived in several places in the Midwest and South), people would stop me in the grocery store to ask where I was from. It wasn’t as though anyone wanted to try to get to know me; they were just curious. I wanted to tell them I was from America, actually.</p>
<p>I have, on occasion, asked others where they were from–but it was because I was interested in talking to them, they were perhaps from Europe (where I have also lived) and I was trying to make conversation, not indirectly make fun of their accents.</p>
<p>Oh another thing I forgot to mention (rant about) is when some people try to imitate me. They’ll say things like “Ya Mon!” (which is not bahamian by the way) or “She from di island” is a stupid mock jamaican accent. And I just find that plain insulting most of the times.</p>
<p>Its gotten to the point where I don’t even like talking in class because everyone will just turn an stare at me…</p>
<p>how ironic. i went to the bahamas last summer and people were the same way about my “accent” (im from the south) it has also happened when i went to london and even to new york…it’s kind of awkward when people tell you to talk because they like it but you have nothing to say.</p>
<p>I’m British too and I’m a bit wary of the whole accent thing. I’m from the north and so don’t sound stereotypically English. However I cant tell the difference between most American accents (apart from the north and Texas lol) so I wonder if I’ll just sound British.</p>
<p>I don’t see the big thing about accents. If I hear someone with a different accent, I don’t have the urge to ask them where theyre from randomly in the street :S.</p>
<p>Im from Canada, and when I visited Yale, people were disappointed that I didnt have an accent. They were like “Awe crap, I wanted to hear you say ‘oot and aboot’ but you actually say ‘out and about’ like normal people”</p>
<p>I met a Canadian that said deck-le instead of dee-cal (for decal). It was very strange.</p>
<p>I am from a very small town and I’m always interested in people with accents. I don’t think I’ve ever asked anyone to say anything (although I’m always tempted to ask someone with an English accent to say “Harry Potter”), but I often ask where people are from.</p>
<p>I’m from NJ and I’m living in Canada right now, so they all make fun of me for my accent. </p>
<p>Canadians do have accents, although they are adamant that they do not. It’s a certain type of Canadian that have the really thick ‘oot and aboot’ accent, but you guys definitely do have accents. </p>
<p>Chiming in to agree with the OP – it gets <em>so</em> tiring when people ask about my accent. Hot girls do it all the time, but they’re not usually interested in having a conversation, just in droning on and on about their study abroad in Paris.</p>
<p>(Though they never say they studied abroad in Paris, they always say “I lived in Paris for awhile”.)</p>
<p>You have my sympathies.</p>
<p>One trick is to tell an obvious lie and see if they are racist enough to call you on it. Say ‘China’ or something. It makes the Americans uncomfortable, and you can see the discomfort in their eyes, because they don’t want to say ‘***, you don’t look like you’re from China’.</p>