Moving to Lynchburg, Virginia for university from Vancouver, Canada was not a huge culture shock for me; I think it was more shocking for the people I met. First of all, I didn’t realize I had an accent until everyone I talked to pointed it out. I can’t really hear the difference, but people think words that have “ou” in them are where they hear the accent the strongest. I can’t tell you how many times my friends would make me say “house” or “out” and then just start laughing.
But it wasn’t much better on the flip side because when I would go home for breaks everyone would tell me that I sounded so American. It’s been five years of all the back and forth so I feel like my accent is pretty neutral now. But who knows! I’m sure the next person I talk to will point something out.
Once people got used to how I was saying things it turned into questioning what I was saying. I think it’s hilarious that there are such different ways of saying things and it’s turned into some pretty funny conversations with my husband when we have no idea what each other are talking about. But after a few months of being confused we’ve figured most of it out and now I use it to my advantage.
The other day we were at our friend’s house and I was talking to my friend upstairs about something and I couldn’t figure out how to explain something to her so I called down to Nick saying “what’s the American version of…” and then she figured it out!
Also, the song Stronger Beer by Tim Hicks became a lot more relevant after moving to the US, you’ll have to give it a listen! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E064kb3UnU
Some of the differences I’ve come across so far are:
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