Yes absolutely, its especially embarrassing when I slip up in front of them and it sounds like I'm making fun of their accent. And its such a strange phenomenon because it's never intended. Just happens all of a sudden. And it's like, "oops, hope you didnt hear me give you my best impression of your voice, I'll just carry on and make sure I'm talking like myself" lol
I did that when hanging out with a group of friends once. This one friend has a very strong accent, but i hesitate to call it at accent because she was of the same country of descent, this way of talking is very uniquely her.
Anyways, the whole night I was physically struggling *not* to copy this girls accent. My brain wanted me to so badly.
I eventually slipped up and gave a perfect replica of her voice, and everyone was a little shook. I felt bad as I didnt want to seem like I was making fun of her, everyone else wanted me to do it again but for whatever reason I just couldn't now
Oh yeah, very much so. I'm sure music has a lot to do with it. Maybe its just how the ears are trained, I was really into choir, and a big part of it is trying to match up with the person next to you. Not just the note but, also the tone and inflection. I also noticed sometimes when I sing, I catch myself accidently sounding like the original singer of the song, so subconsciously I'm doing a slight imitation. I've kind of trained myself to imitate other people's voices in a way. I feel like I only really sound like myself, with music i wrote myself. So it most definitely bleeds over into talking with others somehow.
I had some black friends from Detroit when I was in the military, who spoke kind of a mix of regular English and African American Vernacular English. I’d get *really* embarrassed when I realized I’d start talking like them after a couple of hours because I was afraid it sounded like I was making fun of them, being a white boy from Kentucky.
My husband does this and I used to worry about what the other person might think. I found out it's called the "chameleon effect" and people adopt it, unconsciously, as a way to be more likeable. It's also connected to high empathy. My husband's very social and kind, so that makes sense.
\[edited to add\] When I was trying to figure out why my husband does this, I came across this paper that gets cited a lot:
# [The chameleon effect: The perception–behavior link and social interaction.](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-05479-002?doi=1)
That's fascinating. I do the same thing - whenever I visit friends in Alabama it happens. My kids also tease me when I have been talking to some of my Hispanic friends at church. I pick up whatever accent I'm around.
My husband has ADHD, and an amazing ability to mimic accents. Every single time he’s speaking to somebody with any type of an accent, he begins mimicking without even knowing it. I actually think it’s really cute.
We almost always bring it up in conversation so that it doesn’t come across as offensive, and nobody has ever been offended.
Maybe the hyper-focus of his subconscious, automatically latching on to something (the accent, in this case, or at least the diction) without conscious awareness that you’re fixated on it?
The same type of illness/neurodiversity can affect people in different ways, I’d think!
That makes me feel better. I do this too and I’m always worried that I’ll come off as rude. I don’t even think about it - I’ll just say something in the accent of the other person and I’m like “where did that come from and why” lol
I’ve also heard this described as mirroring. It is sometimes taught to salespeople, for example, to make them more relatable. Much of the time it includes body language, but can extend to verbal communication. Of course it’s always better when it’s instinctual rather than rehearsed.
Neat, this used to happen to me when I worked customer service. Whoever I was talking to, I mirrored their accent back subtly but definitely present, without necessarily intending to. To the point several people asked if I was local to them because they thought I was from their city.
Thank you so much for citing an actual educational paper! These are the kind of scientific papers that people need to be reading and understanding when they do their own research. Thank you so much for a fantastic example and a very interesting read!
I'm so relieved to hear this. I thought there was something wrong with me. I can't help that I do it and I always feel so embarrassed when I realize I've done this. I always thought it meant that I didn't have enough of a base personality that I picked up others habits, accents, and mannerisms because I'm less complete inside and dull.
Interesting! I do this but only around the person I'm talking to and somewhat mild. I don't keep it once im done talking to them. My neutral voice is pretty...neutral. I'm from Texas and have lived in Louisiana a bit and people ask if I'm from California often or just ask where I'm from because I don't sound like I'm from down here. I definitely have the high empathy.
Side note, I AM really good at imitating almost any accent if I'm being goofy (I feel like that's not very PC but I don't do it mocking! More playing pretend) and am really good at properly pronouncing things like menu items at different restaurants that others struggle with.
I definitely do, I'm a vocal chameleon lol. I'll laugh at myself when I notice what dumb accent I picked up unconsciously from watching a movie or show or person lol.
Yep, this is something I’ve done since as far back as being a child, I just instantly start to replicate someone’s accent, and like you, it’s done purely subconsciously… to the point where people have genuinely asked me if I’m from wherever they originate from 😅
I noticed this just the other day with a coworker. One of my other coworkers is from Mexico and has a HEAVY accent, and when one of my coworkers was talking to him he subconsciously used the Mexican guy's accent by accident. I figured it's some way the brain tries to communicate better with others is by speaking the way they do or something.
By the way, I'm from Georgia and I do enunciate more when I'm talking to someone from further north. Or Florida. I've heard we can be difficult to understand. But there are some people who have so much cornbread in their speech that even I have trouble understanding them. I'll just say "yeah" and nod.
Yeah, very awkward and hard to suppress. It's more intense for accents that I've spent a lot of time around in the past. Haven't lived in Wisconsin since I was 8, I'm now 31, but the minute I'm talking with someone from that region it's just *Ope, better stop for a sip from the bubbler, eh?*
I absolutely just heard my Wisconsin uncle in your comment!
It’s such a specific accent; not quite Minnesota or North Dakota (so not the show Fargo) but also not the cornfed Midwest accent. Somewhere in between, and also completely unique.
Aww I miss my uncle ❤️
I lived in Scotland for a year and was so embarrassed when other Americans pointed out my slight new accent. It wasn’t an affectation, I didn’t realize I was doing it. I just naturally tend to copy the people around me.
I did something similar after spending an afternoon with my son-in-law; suddenly I’m saying “ye-“ instead of “yeah,” which is NOT something in my vernacular! I’m not cool anymore and I have no idea what current slang is.
It made me laugh but I always worry it’s going to come across as rude or offensive
I did that with a woman I had been in a workshop with. When we started talking, an Oklahoma accent came out. After a date or two, I slipped into it and she though I was making fun of her.
Also did it accidentally when I was around a group of Indian guys in Costco with my son. Oops.
Omg yes! What is this called?? I started doing this when I was like 10 or so, because I got made fun of for "talking white." 🙄 Ever since then, I involuntarily start speaking exactly like whoever is around me!
When I was a waitress and my cousin from Canada would visit, for around 1-2 weeks after she left I would ask my customers:
Hi. What can I get you, eh?
Never realized that I did it until a couple asked where I was from in Canada.
Yes and this is scientific. If you talk to someone with a different accent eventually they will merge together. I'm southern and my boyfriend is British and our accents have been slowly merging
Dear gods yes. And when I get even the slightest bit tired I slip right into it.
Spent a week in Ireland last year. You would have thought I was from the country for about three weeks after our return. Now it’s just when I’ve been up too late, or have been actually practicing the language
Yes. It’s a curse. I have to be really careful if I spend a lot of time around people with accents or watch shows featuring such people. I WILL imitate it. The year I fixated on Metalocalypse and Folk Metal was an interesting time… 😬🫣😓
Yup. Mannerisms too. Have a friend from the south and I'll just randomly start talking in a southern accent here or there on certain words and don't even catch it until after the fact.
Made me feel bad because one time we were gaming and I started doing it and he was like "I don't sound like that", he was laughing but it made me feel bad he thought I was making fun of him.
Yeah lol. I have a friend from korea and she’s new to English, and when I talk with her, I feel like my grammar skills deteriorate 😭. Like sometimes she’ll be like “oh is that how you properly say that?” And the answer is no…
My internal monologue is always the voice of my supervisor. It has been my entire life.
I used to have a Chinese supervisor (she was amazing) and when I thought to myself in my head it would be in her voice.
Same for when I had a really redneck supervisor 🤷♀️
yes. i’m from michigan (metro detroit) and have the most general american accent but whenever im talking to someone with a different accent i pick up on it almost immediately lmao. sometimes i do wish i had a regional accent though. but here in the detroit area most young people just have a standard/general american accent that could be found anywhere in the US
Yes.
I do this with almost every person if I talk to them for more than 10 minutes. It happens no matter how comlex the accent, and sometimes they get stuck.
Once I have done the accent once by mistake I can replicate it on demand.
Yep. An Irish friend even accused me of making fun of him. It was all involuntary. I think it is part of the human wish to be understood and so we adopt a bit of the other's accent temporarily.
I grew up in a northeastern state, and my region has a particular accent and dialect. I’ve lived half way across the country for 10+ years and have lost a bit of it. But any trip back home to visit family brings my accent right back out. My husband also tells me that when I get angry, I get “(X City)”
Yes. In high school, one of my mom’s friends was British and I was the only friend who would do this and her mother got so offended by it and angry over it. Like ma’am I absolutely love listening to your voice and my brain just makes me say it back to you. Sorry. I work really hard not to do it after that event in high school because I know it can offend, but it requires extra mental gymnastics that I sometimes don’t have. Definitely do it though.
Yes, honestly I'm a west coast Canadian and I have so many friends from the South that I have a full-time southern accent as well. Maybe too much Walking Dead.
I did this and then quickly apologized. I said I wasn't trying to imitate or make fun of them, but that I liked the accent and my brain just kinda took my words there
Yes, ever since I was a kid. Worked well for picking up the accent in French class, but can be annoying in real life. Spend a few days in Texas? Come home to New England with a twang!
I do it intentionally, but very subtly so it doesn't sound like I'm mocking them. I do this, especially working my call center job, because I believe it makes people subconsciously like you more/more comfortable talking to you.
Yes, my cousin married a really cool woman from Mississippi and I started talking with her accent after hanging out with her for a few hours. I was worried she'd think I was mocking her so I kept intentionally stopping myself from doing it
My most intense example of this was when I had my boyfriend watching My Fair Lady for his first time. I love that movie and zone right in on it. After like 30 minutes I went to say something to him just as Eliza had gone off on a tangent in her gutter slangness, and whatever I asked him, came out so strongly like her. We just stared at each other exactly like 😐
I could not believe it came out so strongly. I’m usually aware it’ll happen and I push myself to talk normally. But this was sneaky
Yup. Moved around a lot as a kid, and years later I’ll notice if I’m not careful that I’ll start to mimic accents if I’m around them for any length of time.
I came with a Louisiana accent preinstalled, but it gets much thicker when we are in the South. My husband says he can tell.how "comfortable" I am with people by the thickness of my accent.
It’s so annoying… whenever I’m with my family from Tennessee, I pick up their accent so quickly that I start talking like them without realizing it until sometime later…
I often emulate accents I like and I’ve had people think I’m mocking or making fun of them. It sucks especially because I do it without thinking and it’s actually a compliment coming from me too.
Yes!!! In fact when I meet someone who has an accent, I apologize up front and tell them that this is something that happens to me that is not really within my control and please don't think that I'm making fun of them! I was working in an office when they hired a young lady from Australia and she would laugh and giggle at me all the time. It was embarrassing. I even do it when somebody is doing it on TV.
No, it usually takes me weeks. Once during my college days I had a summer job where for some reason most of the other workers were Texans. It took me almost the whole summer for "y'all" to become a regular part of my vocabulary.
This is a thing that happens a lot. IIRC it is a form of mirroring, as a subconscious means to be more relatable to the person you're speaking to. I am pretty bad about it, so I preemptively explain it whenever I encounter someone with an accent different from the one I'm wearing at the time.
I spent about 2 months in The Philippines.
When I got home, people told me I was talking funny. I realized I had developed a bit of a Philipino accent.
I only just realized recently that I have to work to not do this with my ESL students (I’m a very new teacher lol.) it’s like, in trying to communicate my mouth starts forming words the way they do🤦♀️
Quick question(and I don't mean to insult you by asking this), would you happen to have Autism. If you do, that may explain it because a lot of us with ASD copy people accents on accident
True story. When I worked in Radio back in the 90s, I went to the Gavin Convention in New Orleans one year as the guest of a record company rep and spent 5 days with a Scottish rock band they were pushing. I had an ear for accents, and could mimic voices well enough to fool a lot of people. Needless to say, when I returned to work, I was speaking with such a Scottish accent and using swear words I'd picked up that my father kept me off the air for a week while I learned to speak again without the accent. I do remember telling him, "Och, man, I dinna know what you're ragin' on aboot, but you're daft if you think you can kin stop me from duin' what I bloody well want!" I was completely embarrassed when I heard a recording of myself about 6 months later at the Christmas party...
Someone who was rambunctiously british asked me where the staaawwwbucks was (at the store i work at) and i accidently said "yes the stawbucks is at that entrance"
I was horrified
Are you Irish/of Irish ancestry? I've noticed that we with Irish blood pick up both accents and mannerisms easily. Perhaps for faster assimilation? For safety? (Sometimes using a Canadian accent is safer bc no one hates our neighbors to the North!)
Yes. I feel like it might seem like I am mocking the person I am talking to, but I have to try hard to not do it.
I am glad to hear that I am not the only one. Hopefully most people know this is a thing and I am not trying to mock them!
Everyone makes fun of me for it but it's not like I do it on purpose. I have a natural southern accent, I live in the South but it's not always thick. Depending on the person OR the conversation though sometimes my Southern drawl gets thicker. And then there's all sorts of other random accents. Sometimes when I'm trying to be professional I'm higher pitched and cleaner spoken. Other times when I'm out at a bar you might think I was from the Bronx or something. Again, I sincerely don't mean to and I certainly would hate to offend anyone but I can't help it and everyone always tries to call me out on it like I do it on purpose.
No but I absorb peoples laughs. If I’m with someone I start laughing like them. I do it completely subconsciously and I didn’t even know I was doing it until a few people pointed it out to me.
Wow it's just not me! I know why I do it. I had a lisp and speech therapy for years. So much " listen and repeat". Well I do. Whomever I'm near. Wherever they are from.
All.The.Time! If I even suspect it’s going to be a problem, I try and get ahead of things by saying that I started off in this country with a strong foreign accent, and so I’m susceptible to being an ‘accent sponge’ and I’m not trying to make fun of them. Usually works…
I do this. It's amazing to find so many others that do the same! I thought it was because I traveled alot as a kid (military brat). Now I know I'm a chameleon.
Me too. However, I have a puzzling accent. No matter where I live, people think I have a European accent. Only occasionally have I been around English or European people and that's years apart. I was born in Chicago. About age 6 we moved 200 miles south. People would get me to talk and tease me about my Chicago accent. At 15 I moved back to Chicago. People would tease me abd get me to say certain words. I had a little drawl. Then I lived in Louisiana 6 months and back to Chicago. Then the European accent was commented on. I never waa attempting to be different nor trued to put on any accent. At age 22 I moved to So Cal. European accent questions again.
When I go back to small town Illinois for a visit I come home with some different speech. Also I fall back into "down yonder" and local speak again!!!
i sometimes pick them up from youtubers i watch frequently. canadian, british, irish, australian. it doesn't happen regularly in speech, i'll just randomly say a word in some random accent my brain decides to pick and i'll catch myself and force myself to say it normally.
I dropped our exchange student friend off at the post office. When I parked, all the others in the car yelled at me for mimicking her. They thought I was making fun, but I adopt accents.
When she returned to the car, I apologized, saying I didn't mean to make fun of her.
"Make fun of me?" she said, "you're the only one I understand!"
The backseat girls were stunned and we all laughed.
I grew up in Texas, and my mom and her family are all from/in Kentucky. Both of our accents come out REALLY hard anytime we're around each other. My uncle especially lol.
Yes and I hate it so much. It's the most embarrassing trait I have and I'd surgically remove it if I could. It's so bad that I just try hard not to speak when I'm around others who have an accent different from my own.
Also accidently did this on my 21st birthday. I was introduced to the owner of a local Thai restaurant, thick accent. I wasn't even that intoxicated. I just began mimicking his accent as he talked to me, and once I realized what I was doing, I just wanted to crawl under the table🫠
Yes, known to use a false Cockney accent when I'm in a social setting where I want to appear more intelligent. It was a conscious decision at first, then became a sort of mental muscle memory. Look up speech pathology. It's a rather fascinating topic.
90's when Madonna married that British guy and moved to England, she got criticized for having a British accent. Here is the thing, unless you have lived in other places, you can't judge. I lived in Australia and my American English started to change. I know Aussies that have lived in the USA and their Aus English is now watered down. Once they are with their mates (in the USA) or back in AUS they revert back to their country English. Same with Brits and the Irish I know. It happens. It's easy for those that have never left their home country or regional state to understand because they don't have that exposure. My BFF is from deep Texas but lives in Northern California. I almost fell off my chair when his family came to visit from deep Texas because all of the sudden he started talking country. It happens.
Not an accent, but my internal monolog's voice aquires the appearance/voice of whatever person/character I've thought about the most at that particular time. Let me tell you, when Armin Arlet's voice is giving you life advice on letting go of toxic situations, it's fucking surreal...
It has always bothered me when I hear someone do this. It's very off-putting. I didn't realize it could be by accident. I have a better understanding now. Thank you.
It is common in the office for people who are returning from business trips from different parts of the country to come back with an accent from that part of the country. After a few days, they start talking normal again.
Oh thank goodness - I’m glad I’m not the only one to do this, I thought it was just my natural weirdness😂 I know if I moved to a different country I’d definitely pick up the accent straight away.
Not just accents but speech patterns, too. Whole turns of phrase.
I think it's a form of instinctive personality mirroring. Trying to find common ground, trying to connect.
I had a buddy with a stutter, and it would get worse when he was drunk. One time we went on a group vacation and I was hanging out drinking with him days in a row and I felt like I was catching it
Years ago when I was a home with my kids, my husband knew who I’d last talked to on the phone because I picked up their style of speech. As a matter of fact, I think I still do it, I just have fewer phone conversations these days.
I'm Aussie and because most if not all of the tv I watch are American, I find I sometimes subconsciously pronounce words with an American "R" at the end.
I have a Southern Father, a California Mother, and we moved constantly when I was a child. I tend to mirror and match the accent and speech patterns of people around me subconsciously. Other than a few particular phrases and sounds that are distinctly midwestern, I can pass for not having an accent in a good portion of the country by slipping into the local dialect.
My son and I sometimes make a game of picking an accent from a film or show and speaking as though we were from TexArkana, Minnesota, or Brooklyn etc. We also tend to practice with various regional UK accents.
Yes but I try not to bc I've been told it's rude and insensitive and possibly racist. However, I think it means I have great listening and speaking skills and really enjoy the accent enough to subconsciously mimic it.
When I would spend a lot of time with my granddad as a kid I would start to accidentally whistle when I talked. Go home for a few days if went away. Go back next weekend by Sunday it would be happening again
Yes. I spent an hour talking to a kid from Australia once when I was in Middle School I'd picked up his accent from him.
My friend and I made a cross country roadtrip in '19 and our accents shifted as we went so people would be all "wait you're not from here?"
Some folks, like myself, are just sensitive to regional dialects.
You can always tell when I've been reading too much Shakespeare or Edgar Allen Poe for this very reason.
I don’t but I have a good friend who does. We’re both American living in the UK and I consciously try not to adopt the accent, but my friend picks it up subconsciously and she sounds both British and American at the same time haha.
I came here to study linguistics so I’m hyper aware of how I and other people speak, and I sometimes catch my coworkers using American words and pronunciation sometimes when they’re around me lol. Sometimes it’s for “my benefit” (as if I wouldn’t understand if they spoke normally??) and sometimes they don’t even realize it until I call them out on it. Definitely an interesting linguistic phenomenon.
when I was in high school (1970s) i became very good friends with a British girl (I live in the US). We hung out ALL the time and after spending weekends at her house sometimes I would come home and say some words with a British accent unintentionally. That said, I lived in Nigeria in the 1960s and at that time there were still a lot of British people there (my teachers were British, people in our neighborhood were British) so I was used to the accent.
Yes lol. I started binging the crown pn netflix and began sounding a little british. People pointed it out that I should stop making an attempt at copying the british accent haha.
It happens to me, even when I watch TV and movies! I binged Downtown Abby and my son's friend's dad asked me where I came from originally. I was too embarrassed to admit I just picked up the accent from a TV show.
I can't help but, pick up on not just the accent but, the whole language and inflections... Sort of how I learned to speak Greek and sound just like a Greek person and not someone just speaking the words... I learned more to be respectful to my friends... I also picked up German (Understand more than speak which is fun, Germans like to speak to each other about other people in lines or groups of people) and I had a friend from Australia and couldn't stop from picking it up, and sound Australian on a moments notice... Having that ability is a lot of fun sometimes...
I am a very verbal person and tend to be hyperfocused on how people talk. this happens to me all the time. as a kid I used to do impressions a lot but now I catch myself unconciously adapting my own speech to that of the people I spend a lot of time with.
It's really easy to pick up a southern accent and really hard to get rid of. I'm from Chicago, but moved to Louisiana a few years ago. When I go home to visit people who don't know me refuse to believe I grew up there 😂
My family is Polish, so although I never learned the language, I always speak in the accent when I'm around them.
Funnily enough, when I get mad, I also have the accent, and my siblings like to make fun of me for it.
Yes, been doing it my whole life and I have very mixed feelings about it. Some people get offended, some find it funny, most either don't notice or don't care. New Yorkers with strong accents think it's hilarious and love it when I do it. Also the only accent that doesn't just slip out, that one I have to do intentionally. When I get off the phone with my mom, I sound really Southern, especially if I'm mad, which my husband thinks of hysterical. My theater teachers loved it and my kids do to. I can mimick nearly anyone if I've heard them talk enough. I pretty much have a generic American accent. I grew up in Charlotte, NC which seems more of a stop on the way between New England and everywhere else so I grew up around lots of different accents. Rather than acquiring my own, I sort of collected many. Plus I've studied languages for fun since I learned to read, so I've collected accents from that too but they really only show up if I've been speaking, for example, Spanish all day then I'll get home sounding funny. But that makes sense. People will say "Embrace it! It's a gift! You make people feel comfortable when they talk to you!" But it gets bothersome, annoying, and embarrassing. It screws with your sense of identity too. I just want to talk like myself, not like a parrot. Only problem is it's hard for me to know what myself is supposed to sound like.
Yessum! I'll pick up a slight southern accent from my friend Caleb that I don't see very often in just a few hours of talking. Also, for whatever reason, when me and my other buddies get drunk, we get mistaken for having Australian or Canadian accents. We are all from Montana 😄
So glad we are not alone here! I do this without even realizing it!
When I was a baby my mom had to move to Oklahoma, now being from NY you know that’s a huge accent difference….
Apparently by the time I started talking when in Oklahoma I was an okie with my accent saying y’all and everything and my mom said we would come home and that little okie accent would drop and I was all of a sudden a NY’er
Now I didn’t realize I continued this being that we moved back to NY when I was little and I haven’t a clue what accent I have bc people always ask me where I’m from and it’s never from NY USUALLY they say think it’s Minnesota a place I’ve NEVER BEEN LOL but I picked that up somewhere lol!
But on our honeymoon. The hubs noticed like a day and a half into the trip I already was speaking with brogue! As if I had been in Ireland forever! Lol
Happened another time with friends we took a trip with such thick thick southern accents and then throw some drinks in there and phew that’s hard to understand but apparently a day into the trip I speaking with their Deep South accents! lol
Sorry just had to share! So glad it’s not just me!!!
Yeah, i do it all the time. Its a subconscious mechanism used to relate to people and help you feel acceptance around them when you communicate. Sorta like when you see someone smile at you and you feel the immediate need to smile back.
Yup but that's cause I'm Autistic and learned the easiest way to get someone to treat you right is to mirror their energy. I also didn't know how to communicate in a way that didn't piss people off originally. I spent the better part of my childhood listening to how people talk in movies and such in order to nail down the impressions I wanted to make on people.
That still happens to this day, and is the reason I'm ok at my call center job. I become the best friend of the person on the other line. I have a handful of ways of speech that switch up depending on the cadence, voice, and demeanor of the caller. I couldn't stop this if I tried XD It's such an automatic response and is the reason I always hated mixing friends or family members. I would have to find a middle ground persona that fit how both people expect me to behave.
I now only form close bonds with other Autistic people XD This isn't really an issue for me anymore.
this is an interesting phenomenon known as mirroring. it can be embarrassing but it’s actually a very normal human response that helps counter “othering,” we tend to mirror each others sounds and motions to help bond at a fundamental level. does it make it less embarrassing? no. but it is a very normal human response to new situations! to answer the question, yes, i find myself doing it a lot.
for an anecdote, me and a few friends found one of our best friends doing this, and collectively decided to try to see if we could get him to say something innocuous. like “good looking out” would become “good looks, man” - i don’t know what happened, but he never picked it up, but we sure as hell did lol.
I think it varies ... by the person(s) involved, and the relationship.
Yeah, I noticed once upon a time, years ago, I picked up laugh from someone I quite admired and was around quite a bit. Didn't exactly stick ... but yeah, it did happen. And it also wasn't immediate.
Your results may (and probably will) vary.
i watched the new hunger games movie before i went into work one night. Accidentally talked to the customers in my check lane in a southern accent all night long, until one of my coworkers asked about it
This can happen! I used to pick up a drawl every time I visited my Aunt and Uncle in southern TN as a kid. But only after staying like a week! Not immediately.
This happened to me at the literal worse moment. I had some gentleman from India come into the dispensary that I work at last week. They had ***thick*** accents. I immediately was thinking, "please for the love of all that is holy, please don't mimic their accent." Sure enough as they left I said, "Thank you, I hope you come again," which is something I say to everyone. To add insult to injury I did the head bobble thing.
Needless to say and understandably so, they did **not** believe me that it was an accident.
I’m from Texas and my coworkers are remote in Canada. They came into town last week and I could not help but speak in their exact cadence and accent after the first day.
Humans are birds. We mimic those around us to fit in. Most of the time it’s harmless and if someone puffs up their feathers because they don’t like it you can explain or eff off
Yes absolutely, its especially embarrassing when I slip up in front of them and it sounds like I'm making fun of their accent. And its such a strange phenomenon because it's never intended. Just happens all of a sudden. And it's like, "oops, hope you didnt hear me give you my best impression of your voice, I'll just carry on and make sure I'm talking like myself" lol
I did that when hanging out with a group of friends once. This one friend has a very strong accent, but i hesitate to call it at accent because she was of the same country of descent, this way of talking is very uniquely her. Anyways, the whole night I was physically struggling *not* to copy this girls accent. My brain wanted me to so badly. I eventually slipped up and gave a perfect replica of her voice, and everyone was a little shook. I felt bad as I didnt want to seem like I was making fun of her, everyone else wanted me to do it again but for whatever reason I just couldn't now
Are you musical? My theory is that musical people are prone to doing this and non-musical people are not.
Oh yeah, very much so. I'm sure music has a lot to do with it. Maybe its just how the ears are trained, I was really into choir, and a big part of it is trying to match up with the person next to you. Not just the note but, also the tone and inflection. I also noticed sometimes when I sing, I catch myself accidently sounding like the original singer of the song, so subconsciously I'm doing a slight imitation. I've kind of trained myself to imitate other people's voices in a way. I feel like I only really sound like myself, with music i wrote myself. So it most definitely bleeds over into talking with others somehow.
I had some black friends from Detroit when I was in the military, who spoke kind of a mix of regular English and African American Vernacular English. I’d get *really* embarrassed when I realized I’d start talking like them after a couple of hours because I was afraid it sounded like I was making fun of them, being a white boy from Kentucky.
My husband does this and I used to worry about what the other person might think. I found out it's called the "chameleon effect" and people adopt it, unconsciously, as a way to be more likeable. It's also connected to high empathy. My husband's very social and kind, so that makes sense. \[edited to add\] When I was trying to figure out why my husband does this, I came across this paper that gets cited a lot: # [The chameleon effect: The perception–behavior link and social interaction.](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-05479-002?doi=1)
That's fascinating. I do the same thing - whenever I visit friends in Alabama it happens. My kids also tease me when I have been talking to some of my Hispanic friends at church. I pick up whatever accent I'm around.
I am so happy it’s not just me! I’m always so afraid someone is going to think I’m making fun or being a try-hard. It’s *truly* unintentional!
My husband has ADHD, and an amazing ability to mimic accents. Every single time he’s speaking to somebody with any type of an accent, he begins mimicking without even knowing it. I actually think it’s really cute. We almost always bring it up in conversation so that it doesn’t come across as offensive, and nobody has ever been offended.
I am curious what makes you think it has something to do with ADHD. I also have both, but I don't see the connection.
Maybe the hyper-focus of his subconscious, automatically latching on to something (the accent, in this case, or at least the diction) without conscious awareness that you’re fixated on it? The same type of illness/neurodiversity can affect people in different ways, I’d think!
This is super common with autism, which has a super high comorbidity rate with adhd
That’s me. Yep, it’s a thing.
That makes me feel better. I do this too and I’m always worried that I’ll come off as rude. I don’t even think about it - I’ll just say something in the accent of the other person and I’m like “where did that come from and why” lol
I’ve also heard this described as mirroring. It is sometimes taught to salespeople, for example, to make them more relatable. Much of the time it includes body language, but can extend to verbal communication. Of course it’s always better when it’s instinctual rather than rehearsed.
Neat, this used to happen to me when I worked customer service. Whoever I was talking to, I mirrored their accent back subtly but definitely present, without necessarily intending to. To the point several people asked if I was local to them because they thought I was from their city.
Thank you so much for citing an actual educational paper! These are the kind of scientific papers that people need to be reading and understanding when they do their own research. Thank you so much for a fantastic example and a very interesting read!
I'm so relieved to hear this. I thought there was something wrong with me. I can't help that I do it and I always feel so embarrassed when I realize I've done this. I always thought it meant that I didn't have enough of a base personality that I picked up others habits, accents, and mannerisms because I'm less complete inside and dull.
Interesting! I do this but only around the person I'm talking to and somewhat mild. I don't keep it once im done talking to them. My neutral voice is pretty...neutral. I'm from Texas and have lived in Louisiana a bit and people ask if I'm from California often or just ask where I'm from because I don't sound like I'm from down here. I definitely have the high empathy. Side note, I AM really good at imitating almost any accent if I'm being goofy (I feel like that's not very PC but I don't do it mocking! More playing pretend) and am really good at properly pronouncing things like menu items at different restaurants that others struggle with.
Was hoping someone would share this info. It's all about compassion and survival.
I definitely do, I'm a vocal chameleon lol. I'll laugh at myself when I notice what dumb accent I picked up unconsciously from watching a movie or show or person lol.
Yep, this is something I’ve done since as far back as being a child, I just instantly start to replicate someone’s accent, and like you, it’s done purely subconsciously… to the point where people have genuinely asked me if I’m from wherever they originate from 😅
I noticed this just the other day with a coworker. One of my other coworkers is from Mexico and has a HEAVY accent, and when one of my coworkers was talking to him he subconsciously used the Mexican guy's accent by accident. I figured it's some way the brain tries to communicate better with others is by speaking the way they do or something. By the way, I'm from Georgia and I do enunciate more when I'm talking to someone from further north. Or Florida. I've heard we can be difficult to understand. But there are some people who have so much cornbread in their speech that even I have trouble understanding them. I'll just say "yeah" and nod.
"so much cornbread" is perfect.
Yeah, very awkward and hard to suppress. It's more intense for accents that I've spent a lot of time around in the past. Haven't lived in Wisconsin since I was 8, I'm now 31, but the minute I'm talking with someone from that region it's just *Ope, better stop for a sip from the bubbler, eh?*
I absolutely just heard my Wisconsin uncle in your comment! It’s such a specific accent; not quite Minnesota or North Dakota (so not the show Fargo) but also not the cornfed Midwest accent. Somewhere in between, and also completely unique. Aww I miss my uncle ❤️
YOU GUYS SAY “BUBBLER”! bless you for posting this, I’ve been trying for years find out what region that was from.
I lived in Scotland for a year and was so embarrassed when other Americans pointed out my slight new accent. It wasn’t an affectation, I didn’t realize I was doing it. I just naturally tend to copy the people around me.
I've absorbed my best friend's husband's way of saying ok. It's more like "eh-yo-kay"... it makes me laugh when it slips out in conversation.
I did something similar after spending an afternoon with my son-in-law; suddenly I’m saying “ye-“ instead of “yeah,” which is NOT something in my vernacular! I’m not cool anymore and I have no idea what current slang is. It made me laugh but I always worry it’s going to come across as rude or offensive
I did that with a woman I had been in a workshop with. When we started talking, an Oklahoma accent came out. After a date or two, I slipped into it and she though I was making fun of her. Also did it accidentally when I was around a group of Indian guys in Costco with my son. Oops.
All the time! Like within 3 seconds of talking with anyone with an accent. My wife laughs at me.
Omg yes! What is this called?? I started doing this when I was like 10 or so, because I got made fun of for "talking white." 🙄 Ever since then, I involuntarily start speaking exactly like whoever is around me!
When I was a waitress and my cousin from Canada would visit, for around 1-2 weeks after she left I would ask my customers: Hi. What can I get you, eh? Never realized that I did it until a couple asked where I was from in Canada.
Yes and this is scientific. If you talk to someone with a different accent eventually they will merge together. I'm southern and my boyfriend is British and our accents have been slowly merging
The last audiobook I listened to had an Irish narrator. Three days later I’m still answering “how are you?” with “oh I’m grrrrrand”
Dear gods yes. And when I get even the slightest bit tired I slip right into it. Spent a week in Ireland last year. You would have thought I was from the country for about three weeks after our return. Now it’s just when I’ve been up too late, or have been actually practicing the language
Yes. It’s a curse. I have to be really careful if I spend a lot of time around people with accents or watch shows featuring such people. I WILL imitate it. The year I fixated on Metalocalypse and Folk Metal was an interesting time… 😬🫣😓
Yup. Mannerisms too. Have a friend from the south and I'll just randomly start talking in a southern accent here or there on certain words and don't even catch it until after the fact. Made me feel bad because one time we were gaming and I started doing it and he was like "I don't sound like that", he was laughing but it made me feel bad he thought I was making fun of him.
Yeah lol. I have a friend from korea and she’s new to English, and when I talk with her, I feel like my grammar skills deteriorate 😭. Like sometimes she’ll be like “oh is that how you properly say that?” And the answer is no…
My internal monologue is always the voice of my supervisor. It has been my entire life. I used to have a Chinese supervisor (she was amazing) and when I thought to myself in my head it would be in her voice. Same for when I had a really redneck supervisor 🤷♀️
One summer I fell asleep to ‘the departed’ every single night and to this day, 20 years later, a bawstan aksent pops out when I get really drunk 😂😂
BIG time. It was a problem when I worked at a call center.
Yes, I do this all the time even though I try not too. I didn’t even used to notice that I did it until it was pointed out to me.
I had a roommate who was australian once when I was a kid at camp. It was horrible.
yes. i’m from michigan (metro detroit) and have the most general american accent but whenever im talking to someone with a different accent i pick up on it almost immediately lmao. sometimes i do wish i had a regional accent though. but here in the detroit area most young people just have a standard/general american accent that could be found anywhere in the US
Patiently waiting for a neurobiologist to explain the phenomenon. I suspect some people just have more mirror neurons than others.
Oh, man. When I was working at Walmart and I was dealing with a customer from another country, I had to try so hard to not start using their accent. 😩
I'm from the Midwest. I moved to the South and then spent a few years in the UK. People could not figure out where in the world I was from! LOL
Yep. Went to Mexico. Stayed in an Irish dudes house. Came home with an Irish accent, and Montezuma's revenge.
Yes. I do this with almost every person if I talk to them for more than 10 minutes. It happens no matter how comlex the accent, and sometimes they get stuck. Once I have done the accent once by mistake I can replicate it on demand.
Yep. An Irish friend even accused me of making fun of him. It was all involuntary. I think it is part of the human wish to be understood and so we adopt a bit of the other's accent temporarily.
Yeah I've done that.
me after playing rdr2
Every time I went to visit my cousins I'd come home with a Boston accent.
This in my case is part of borderline personality disorder.. We are like chameleons
No but that’s super awesome, I wish I could imitate other accents
I grew up in a northeastern state, and my region has a particular accent and dialect. I’ve lived half way across the country for 10+ years and have lost a bit of it. But any trip back home to visit family brings my accent right back out. My husband also tells me that when I get angry, I get “(X City)”
No, mate
Yes!
I do this all the time, and not on purpose
Not accent as much as maybe terms
Went to Ireland and after 3 days, locals thought I was somewhat local.
I wouldn't say an accent however you do tend to pick up phrases or words that you never used to use when you hang around a person a lot.
Trailer park boys 🫣
Yes. In high school, one of my mom’s friends was British and I was the only friend who would do this and her mother got so offended by it and angry over it. Like ma’am I absolutely love listening to your voice and my brain just makes me say it back to you. Sorry. I work really hard not to do it after that event in high school because I know it can offend, but it requires extra mental gymnastics that I sometimes don’t have. Definitely do it though.
Yes, honestly I'm a west coast Canadian and I have so many friends from the South that I have a full-time southern accent as well. Maybe too much Walking Dead.
I do this as I’m talking with a person and it’s so embarrassing. Like I’m sorry, dude, I swear I’m not making fun of you
I did this and then quickly apologized. I said I wasn't trying to imitate or make fun of them, but that I liked the accent and my brain just kinda took my words there
Yea. I went to Texas for a week and came back sounding like Yosemite Sam. It was embarrassing.
Yes, ever since I was a kid. Worked well for picking up the accent in French class, but can be annoying in real life. Spend a few days in Texas? Come home to New England with a twang!
I do it intentionally, but very subtly so it doesn't sound like I'm mocking them. I do this, especially working my call center job, because I believe it makes people subconsciously like you more/more comfortable talking to you.
Yes, my cousin married a really cool woman from Mississippi and I started talking with her accent after hanging out with her for a few hours. I was worried she'd think I was mocking her so I kept intentionally stopping myself from doing it
Only when I watch Coal Miner’s Daughter
My most intense example of this was when I had my boyfriend watching My Fair Lady for his first time. I love that movie and zone right in on it. After like 30 minutes I went to say something to him just as Eliza had gone off on a tangent in her gutter slangness, and whatever I asked him, came out so strongly like her. We just stared at each other exactly like 😐 I could not believe it came out so strongly. I’m usually aware it’ll happen and I push myself to talk normally. But this was sneaky
Not to alarm you but this is a common thing for autistics to do
Yes especially when i order chinese food. 10 menut okay 10 menut
Yes, and it takes me awhile to notice. My Mom said she always nlk ew what my teacher's sounded like before she met them🙂
Yup. Moved around a lot as a kid, and years later I’ll notice if I’m not careful that I’ll start to mimic accents if I’m around them for any length of time.
I came with a Louisiana accent preinstalled, but it gets much thicker when we are in the South. My husband says he can tell.how "comfortable" I am with people by the thickness of my accent.
It’s so annoying… whenever I’m with my family from Tennessee, I pick up their accent so quickly that I start talking like them without realizing it until sometime later…
I often emulate accents I like and I’ve had people think I’m mocking or making fun of them. It sucks especially because I do it without thinking and it’s actually a compliment coming from me too.
Yes!!! In fact when I meet someone who has an accent, I apologize up front and tell them that this is something that happens to me that is not really within my control and please don't think that I'm making fun of them! I was working in an office when they hired a young lady from Australia and she would laugh and giggle at me all the time. It was embarrassing. I even do it when somebody is doing it on TV.
No, but I do start to laugh like other people if I spend enough time with them.
No, it usually takes me weeks. Once during my college days I had a summer job where for some reason most of the other workers were Texans. It took me almost the whole summer for "y'all" to become a regular part of my vocabulary.
My husband is from Minnesota. When we visit, I talk more minnesotan than he does. I love it! Oh, yah.
Yes. Can’t control it.
I pick up accents whenever I go.
Lmao after I watch anything British, my inner monologue has an English accent.
No. I live my life, not theirs.
This is a thing that happens a lot. IIRC it is a form of mirroring, as a subconscious means to be more relatable to the person you're speaking to. I am pretty bad about it, so I preemptively explain it whenever I encounter someone with an accent different from the one I'm wearing at the time.
Yes everytime I watch The Walking Dead I get my southern accent goin on and my family absolutely ✨✨✨H A T E S ✨✨✨ it!!!!!!
I spent about 2 months in The Philippines. When I got home, people told me I was talking funny. I realized I had developed a bit of a Philipino accent.
I only just realized recently that I have to work to not do this with my ESL students (I’m a very new teacher lol.) it’s like, in trying to communicate my mouth starts forming words the way they do🤦♀️
Quick question(and I don't mean to insult you by asking this), would you happen to have Autism. If you do, that may explain it because a lot of us with ASD copy people accents on accident
True story. When I worked in Radio back in the 90s, I went to the Gavin Convention in New Orleans one year as the guest of a record company rep and spent 5 days with a Scottish rock band they were pushing. I had an ear for accents, and could mimic voices well enough to fool a lot of people. Needless to say, when I returned to work, I was speaking with such a Scottish accent and using swear words I'd picked up that my father kept me off the air for a week while I learned to speak again without the accent. I do remember telling him, "Och, man, I dinna know what you're ragin' on aboot, but you're daft if you think you can kin stop me from duin' what I bloody well want!" I was completely embarrassed when I heard a recording of myself about 6 months later at the Christmas party...
Someone who was rambunctiously british asked me where the staaawwwbucks was (at the store i work at) and i accidently said "yes the stawbucks is at that entrance" I was horrified
Are you Irish/of Irish ancestry? I've noticed that we with Irish blood pick up both accents and mannerisms easily. Perhaps for faster assimilation? For safety? (Sometimes using a Canadian accent is safer bc no one hates our neighbors to the North!)
Yes. I feel like it might seem like I am mocking the person I am talking to, but I have to try hard to not do it. I am glad to hear that I am not the only one. Hopefully most people know this is a thing and I am not trying to mock them!
Everyone makes fun of me for it but it's not like I do it on purpose. I have a natural southern accent, I live in the South but it's not always thick. Depending on the person OR the conversation though sometimes my Southern drawl gets thicker. And then there's all sorts of other random accents. Sometimes when I'm trying to be professional I'm higher pitched and cleaner spoken. Other times when I'm out at a bar you might think I was from the Bronx or something. Again, I sincerely don't mean to and I certainly would hate to offend anyone but I can't help it and everyone always tries to call me out on it like I do it on purpose.
Always. I am white and I have a Nigerian friend and I pickup on her expressions. I try to mute them. But I am an assimilator
I spent a week in North Dakota with a friend and started talking like the locals before I went back to Georgia.
Dae read this too quickly while stoned and read coworker as "cowboy"?
I watch the dark knight and now I talk as if I'm bane
I do that all the time. I cause problems without intending to.
No but I absorb peoples laughs. If I’m with someone I start laughing like them. I do it completely subconsciously and I didn’t even know I was doing it until a few people pointed it out to me.
Wow it's just not me! I know why I do it. I had a lisp and speech therapy for years. So much " listen and repeat". Well I do. Whomever I'm near. Wherever they are from.
All.The.Time! If I even suspect it’s going to be a problem, I try and get ahead of things by saying that I started off in this country with a strong foreign accent, and so I’m susceptible to being an ‘accent sponge’ and I’m not trying to make fun of them. Usually works…
I do this. It's amazing to find so many others that do the same! I thought it was because I traveled alot as a kid (military brat). Now I know I'm a chameleon.
Me too. However, I have a puzzling accent. No matter where I live, people think I have a European accent. Only occasionally have I been around English or European people and that's years apart. I was born in Chicago. About age 6 we moved 200 miles south. People would get me to talk and tease me about my Chicago accent. At 15 I moved back to Chicago. People would tease me abd get me to say certain words. I had a little drawl. Then I lived in Louisiana 6 months and back to Chicago. Then the European accent was commented on. I never waa attempting to be different nor trued to put on any accent. At age 22 I moved to So Cal. European accent questions again. When I go back to small town Illinois for a visit I come home with some different speech. Also I fall back into "down yonder" and local speak again!!!
i sometimes pick them up from youtubers i watch frequently. canadian, british, irish, australian. it doesn't happen regularly in speech, i'll just randomly say a word in some random accent my brain decides to pick and i'll catch myself and force myself to say it normally.
I dropped our exchange student friend off at the post office. When I parked, all the others in the car yelled at me for mimicking her. They thought I was making fun, but I adopt accents. When she returned to the car, I apologized, saying I didn't mean to make fun of her. "Make fun of me?" she said, "you're the only one I understand!" The backseat girls were stunned and we all laughed.
I grew up in Texas, and my mom and her family are all from/in Kentucky. Both of our accents come out REALLY hard anytime we're around each other. My uncle especially lol.
Yes and I hate it so much. It's the most embarrassing trait I have and I'd surgically remove it if I could. It's so bad that I just try hard not to speak when I'm around others who have an accent different from my own.
Also accidently did this on my 21st birthday. I was introduced to the owner of a local Thai restaurant, thick accent. I wasn't even that intoxicated. I just began mimicking his accent as he talked to me, and once I realized what I was doing, I just wanted to crawl under the table🫠
I do this but it’s one of my ADHD traits.
I lived in the upper peninsula for a year of college and came home with an accent. It happens lol
Yes, known to use a false Cockney accent when I'm in a social setting where I want to appear more intelligent. It was a conscious decision at first, then became a sort of mental muscle memory. Look up speech pathology. It's a rather fascinating topic.
90's when Madonna married that British guy and moved to England, she got criticized for having a British accent. Here is the thing, unless you have lived in other places, you can't judge. I lived in Australia and my American English started to change. I know Aussies that have lived in the USA and their Aus English is now watered down. Once they are with their mates (in the USA) or back in AUS they revert back to their country English. Same with Brits and the Irish I know. It happens. It's easy for those that have never left their home country or regional state to understand because they don't have that exposure. My BFF is from deep Texas but lives in Northern California. I almost fell off my chair when his family came to visit from deep Texas because all of the sudden he started talking country. It happens.
Yes. It's great for language learning!
Not an accent, but my internal monolog's voice aquires the appearance/voice of whatever person/character I've thought about the most at that particular time. Let me tell you, when Armin Arlet's voice is giving you life advice on letting go of toxic situations, it's fucking surreal...
It has always bothered me when I hear someone do this. It's very off-putting. I didn't realize it could be by accident. I have a better understanding now. Thank you.
It is common in the office for people who are returning from business trips from different parts of the country to come back with an accent from that part of the country. After a few days, they start talking normal again.
My kids always think I’m faking it, but I’m not!
Oh thank goodness - I’m glad I’m not the only one to do this, I thought it was just my natural weirdness😂 I know if I moved to a different country I’d definitely pick up the accent straight away.
No, because I'm not an asshole
Not just accents but speech patterns, too. Whole turns of phrase. I think it's a form of instinctive personality mirroring. Trying to find common ground, trying to connect.
I had a buddy with a stutter, and it would get worse when he was drunk. One time we went on a group vacation and I was hanging out drinking with him days in a row and I felt like I was catching it
Years ago when I was a home with my kids, my husband knew who I’d last talked to on the phone because I picked up their style of speech. As a matter of fact, I think I still do it, I just have fewer phone conversations these days.
I'm Aussie and because most if not all of the tv I watch are American, I find I sometimes subconsciously pronounce words with an American "R" at the end.
I have a Southern Father, a California Mother, and we moved constantly when I was a child. I tend to mirror and match the accent and speech patterns of people around me subconsciously. Other than a few particular phrases and sounds that are distinctly midwestern, I can pass for not having an accent in a good portion of the country by slipping into the local dialect. My son and I sometimes make a game of picking an accent from a film or show and speaking as though we were from TexArkana, Minnesota, or Brooklyn etc. We also tend to practice with various regional UK accents.
...the 'tism
Yes but I try not to bc I've been told it's rude and insensitive and possibly racist. However, I think it means I have great listening and speaking skills and really enjoy the accent enough to subconsciously mimic it.
When I would spend a lot of time with my granddad as a kid I would start to accidentally whistle when I talked. Go home for a few days if went away. Go back next weekend by Sunday it would be happening again
Yes. I spent an hour talking to a kid from Australia once when I was in Middle School I'd picked up his accent from him. My friend and I made a cross country roadtrip in '19 and our accents shifted as we went so people would be all "wait you're not from here?"
Some folks, like myself, are just sensitive to regional dialects. You can always tell when I've been reading too much Shakespeare or Edgar Allen Poe for this very reason.
are you, by any chance, a libra?
I read and watch British media exclusively and I think in British phrases and sometimes they slip out. Got lots of criticism.
I do every time
Always.
r/INTP
I don’t but I have a good friend who does. We’re both American living in the UK and I consciously try not to adopt the accent, but my friend picks it up subconsciously and she sounds both British and American at the same time haha. I came here to study linguistics so I’m hyper aware of how I and other people speak, and I sometimes catch my coworkers using American words and pronunciation sometimes when they’re around me lol. Sometimes it’s for “my benefit” (as if I wouldn’t understand if they spoke normally??) and sometimes they don’t even realize it until I call them out on it. Definitely an interesting linguistic phenomenon.
when I was in high school (1970s) i became very good friends with a British girl (I live in the US). We hung out ALL the time and after spending weekends at her house sometimes I would come home and say some words with a British accent unintentionally. That said, I lived in Nigeria in the 1960s and at that time there were still a lot of British people there (my teachers were British, people in our neighborhood were British) so I was used to the accent.
Yes lol. I started binging the crown pn netflix and began sounding a little british. People pointed it out that I should stop making an attempt at copying the british accent haha.
I do the same. Apparently, I'm a natural mimic. Runs in the family, my uncle's the same way.
I’ve always done this, but don’t mean to. My kid gets upset at me for it… but I swear I don’t realize I’m doing it!
Hillary was the best at this
This sounds like the ‘tism
Only New Zealanders for some reason; although I am Australian but my grandmother was a Kiwi
It happens to me, even when I watch TV and movies! I binged Downtown Abby and my son's friend's dad asked me where I came from originally. I was too embarrassed to admit I just picked up the accent from a TV show.
I can't help but, pick up on not just the accent but, the whole language and inflections... Sort of how I learned to speak Greek and sound just like a Greek person and not someone just speaking the words... I learned more to be respectful to my friends... I also picked up German (Understand more than speak which is fun, Germans like to speak to each other about other people in lines or groups of people) and I had a friend from Australia and couldn't stop from picking it up, and sound Australian on a moments notice... Having that ability is a lot of fun sometimes...
My mom would pick up a Portuguese accent whenever she was talking to her MIL. It was hilarious.
I am a very verbal person and tend to be hyperfocused on how people talk. this happens to me all the time. as a kid I used to do impressions a lot but now I catch myself unconciously adapting my own speech to that of the people I spend a lot of time with.
It's really easy to pick up a southern accent and really hard to get rid of. I'm from Chicago, but moved to Louisiana a few years ago. When I go home to visit people who don't know me refuse to believe I grew up there 😂
Social mirroring is more common than anyone really realizes and it doesn’t just apply to neurodivergent people, everyone does it to some extent.
I do this and consciously try not to cuz I feel so weird when it happens
Yes. I think it stems from insecurity. Try and be more comfortable in your skin and speak how you speak.
I do this too.
Common neurodivergent behavior, FWIW.
Yes. Having English friends and Indian friends are the worst.
My family is Polish, so although I never learned the language, I always speak in the accent when I'm around them. Funnily enough, when I get mad, I also have the accent, and my siblings like to make fun of me for it.
Yes, been doing it my whole life and I have very mixed feelings about it. Some people get offended, some find it funny, most either don't notice or don't care. New Yorkers with strong accents think it's hilarious and love it when I do it. Also the only accent that doesn't just slip out, that one I have to do intentionally. When I get off the phone with my mom, I sound really Southern, especially if I'm mad, which my husband thinks of hysterical. My theater teachers loved it and my kids do to. I can mimick nearly anyone if I've heard them talk enough. I pretty much have a generic American accent. I grew up in Charlotte, NC which seems more of a stop on the way between New England and everywhere else so I grew up around lots of different accents. Rather than acquiring my own, I sort of collected many. Plus I've studied languages for fun since I learned to read, so I've collected accents from that too but they really only show up if I've been speaking, for example, Spanish all day then I'll get home sounding funny. But that makes sense. People will say "Embrace it! It's a gift! You make people feel comfortable when they talk to you!" But it gets bothersome, annoying, and embarrassing. It screws with your sense of identity too. I just want to talk like myself, not like a parrot. Only problem is it's hard for me to know what myself is supposed to sound like.
Yes. All the time.
Yep, sometimes it's embarrassing because I feel like people think I'm fake because of it... but I love it, I just roll with it accents are the best 😂
Yep. Researchers call it "speech accommodation."
Not regularly, but I remember not being able to avoid putting on a Boston accent after leaving a screening of *The Departed*.
Welcome, autistic friend. This is a form of mirroring.
Yes. Totally normal. We make others comfortable by seeming familiar to them. Helps us to make connections with others more easily.
Yessum! I'll pick up a slight southern accent from my friend Caleb that I don't see very often in just a few hours of talking. Also, for whatever reason, when me and my other buddies get drunk, we get mistaken for having Australian or Canadian accents. We are all from Montana 😄
So glad we are not alone here! I do this without even realizing it! When I was a baby my mom had to move to Oklahoma, now being from NY you know that’s a huge accent difference…. Apparently by the time I started talking when in Oklahoma I was an okie with my accent saying y’all and everything and my mom said we would come home and that little okie accent would drop and I was all of a sudden a NY’er Now I didn’t realize I continued this being that we moved back to NY when I was little and I haven’t a clue what accent I have bc people always ask me where I’m from and it’s never from NY USUALLY they say think it’s Minnesota a place I’ve NEVER BEEN LOL but I picked that up somewhere lol! But on our honeymoon. The hubs noticed like a day and a half into the trip I already was speaking with brogue! As if I had been in Ireland forever! Lol Happened another time with friends we took a trip with such thick thick southern accents and then throw some drinks in there and phew that’s hard to understand but apparently a day into the trip I speaking with their Deep South accents! lol Sorry just had to share! So glad it’s not just me!!!
Yep. I came back from a trip to Philadelphia talking like my friend. Didn't really notice it until my mom pointed it out. LOL
Yeah, i do it all the time. Its a subconscious mechanism used to relate to people and help you feel acceptance around them when you communicate. Sorta like when you see someone smile at you and you feel the immediate need to smile back.
Yup but that's cause I'm Autistic and learned the easiest way to get someone to treat you right is to mirror their energy. I also didn't know how to communicate in a way that didn't piss people off originally. I spent the better part of my childhood listening to how people talk in movies and such in order to nail down the impressions I wanted to make on people. That still happens to this day, and is the reason I'm ok at my call center job. I become the best friend of the person on the other line. I have a handful of ways of speech that switch up depending on the cadence, voice, and demeanor of the caller. I couldn't stop this if I tried XD It's such an automatic response and is the reason I always hated mixing friends or family members. I would have to find a middle ground persona that fit how both people expect me to behave. I now only form close bonds with other Autistic people XD This isn't really an issue for me anymore.
I had one Midwestern roommate in college and still find myself slipping into it sometimes.
For those that do this, was there trauma or bullying in your childhood?
Not immediately, but when I lived in Mississippi I picked up a southern accent. I thankfully lost it when I moved away.
yeah when i copy them
this is an interesting phenomenon known as mirroring. it can be embarrassing but it’s actually a very normal human response that helps counter “othering,” we tend to mirror each others sounds and motions to help bond at a fundamental level. does it make it less embarrassing? no. but it is a very normal human response to new situations! to answer the question, yes, i find myself doing it a lot. for an anecdote, me and a few friends found one of our best friends doing this, and collectively decided to try to see if we could get him to say something innocuous. like “good looking out” would become “good looks, man” - i don’t know what happened, but he never picked it up, but we sure as hell did lol.
I think it varies ... by the person(s) involved, and the relationship. Yeah, I noticed once upon a time, years ago, I picked up laugh from someone I quite admired and was around quite a bit. Didn't exactly stick ... but yeah, it did happen. And it also wasn't immediate. Your results may (and probably will) vary.
Any time I’ve been in London 🙈😂😂😂
Chameleon effect and/or code switching is pretty common. I think it's okay as long as it's not insulting the other party.
It’s called echolalia. It’s a symptom of neurodivergence, and yeah, a lot of us do it. 🤷♀️
I was in Massachusetts working for about a year. When I would fly back to Virginia my kids would joke and say I sounded like a yankee.
Yup. I was in London 3 hours and started talking and intoning like the locals. Had to force myself to “talk American.”
i watched the new hunger games movie before i went into work one night. Accidentally talked to the customers in my check lane in a southern accent all night long, until one of my coworkers asked about it
I was on night shift and troubleshooting a machine with tech support in Atlanta. I was talking southern by the time we were through.
This can happen! I used to pick up a drawl every time I visited my Aunt and Uncle in southern TN as a kid. But only after staying like a week! Not immediately.
This happened to me at the literal worse moment. I had some gentleman from India come into the dispensary that I work at last week. They had ***thick*** accents. I immediately was thinking, "please for the love of all that is holy, please don't mimic their accent." Sure enough as they left I said, "Thank you, I hope you come again," which is something I say to everyone. To add insult to injury I did the head bobble thing. Needless to say and understandably so, they did **not** believe me that it was an accident.
Masking! It's a common unconscious strategy with Autism, just to name an example. Very cool for us outsiders who can't do that.
Britney Spears does
I am a US citizen born and raised and visited London for 8 days with my drama class. We all spoke with British accents upon our return.
I’m from Texas and my coworkers are remote in Canada. They came into town last week and I could not help but speak in their exact cadence and accent after the first day.
I have two main accents, Buffalo, NY and Baltimore MD, depending on who I'm with/talking to, I switch back and forth...
Humans are birds. We mimic those around us to fit in. Most of the time it’s harmless and if someone puffs up their feathers because they don’t like it you can explain or eff off
Welcome to ND quirks lol
I find myself doing this with weird laughs
No. Never.