Something weird happened the other day – I was on the porch checking the post when some passing chap asked for directions. That’s not particularly strange but what happened next was. When I replied, he said “Oh you’re British”. I was gobsmacked.
Almost all Americans think that I am Australian. I tell them that they could hardly be more wrong geographically and that I couldn’t sound much less Australian if I tried. The usual answer is that “you all sound the same’. HUH?
The other thing that really foxes them is when they say: “You’ve got an accent” and I reply “so have you…”. Then they look at me as if I had said something really stupid – as if they had an accent -Strewth!