The Brits are invading

I was in TJ Max yesterday and I had to ask so as to find 'women's skirts' for a pres. I thought  the sales assistant had an accent so I asked. She said she was from England so asked what part? she said Brighton. I think she is the first English I have met in this city of 75,000 since I've been here.

I have met a few Scots here. One was at the dog pound and the other I served a subpoena to.

When I was on 'me' holidays in England I saw an American at the Laundromat we were using but I was afraid to ask her anything because I know people can get irritated.

O I met another American in Harrods and she was really rude because I was asking something about dogs because we were going to buy one while we were there in England. Anyhow she came unglued because we didn't know very much about dogs. She must have been a dog lover. Maybe she thought we should have a degree in dog care before we should think of owning one.

Yesterday I got asked if I was from the East coast,US. I didn't mind explaining my English background.

I get mistaken for British over there, though everyone here says I have a really strong American accent LOL

My husband used to get asked if he was Russian or what part of the South he was from.  Here, people constantly ask him if he is from the States.

When we ran into British people in the States, it was usually when we were travelling.  When we went to Vegas, it seemed like every other tourist (or more) was British.  It might have been the time of year we went, but we were a bit shocked.  We ran into them all the time on Amtrak.

Some times when people ask my background after hearing me speak and I tell them I watch a lot of BBC.

I had this theory or observation that females from Britain are more inclined to hold onto their British accent than their male counterparts. Just a theory!

I see and hear British people everywhere here!

My DH plays on a soccer team full of people from the UK and last week I met my son's Cub Scout leader, who is from Cornwall. None of the British people I meet are tourists; all of them are here for work.

I had this theory or observation that females from Britain are more inclined to hold onto their British accent than their male counterparts. 

In my experience, all British people in the US (regardless of gender) have retained their accents. Well, maybe my Scottish friend has softened his accent a bit to be understood, but it's definitely still going strong! And my husband will never sound American (he can't even do a proper American accent after 12+ years).

In my experience, all British people in the US (regardless of gender) have retained their accents.

My aunt moved over to the US in the 1970s with a few friends. She's spent the whole time since then living with a fellow Brit and neither of them have really lost their accents, although they both sound sort of mid-Atlantic now. Two of their friends are Welsh and Brummie (married to each other) and have both retained their accents, but another friend ended up living in a tiny little southern town and went on to marry an American - she has basically lost her accent completely now... I talked to her for about an hour before I realised she was actually English and not American!

My mother lost her English accent the moment she stepped off the plane in New York, she said.  But that's more than 50 years ago...I suspect that a linguist might be able to spot in which country she was born and raised, but the rest of us can't!  She's been in the US since she was 19, so that may explain why she lost the accent, although she always said she wanted to be American and fit in, so she's done so.

Another lady in our town never lost her accent that I could tell.  I always found it fascinating to listen to her when I was a child, partially because I couldn't believe she and my mother could possibly be from the same country!

Then there was the Scottish lady whose kids I used to babysit for - in those days, she'd only been in the US for a few years and I was a teenager, so it was always best for her to write things down for me, I had a difficult time understanding her.  My mother tells me she died recently, but she never lost her Scottish accent...

The lady at Fed Ex yesterday was from Aberdeen! It was early in the morning so I was in a hurry, but after I told her my bf is from Glasgow, she merrily chirped on about going to Edinburgh in uni and having all night drinking parties! lol I never got to why she is here in random Alpharetta, GA. However, she did let me send my (long distance) fax for free.

We used to run into British people all the time when we went camping (of all places).  I remember loving the way this one older man said "Do you drink the water here?"  It could have been because we usually went camping in historic, touristy type areas...but I remember my parents talking about all the foreigners we would run into.

DH lived with me in the States for 8 years and now that we are living back in England everybody tells him he sounds American, which he hates... but to be honest he did lose a lot of his accent.  However when we were in the States everybody went on and on about his thick British accent.  Funny! 

There are tons of British people in Atlanta - I run into them ALL the time. It is funny, I think I (the USC) have more British friends here than my husband (the UKC). And when we were in London I had all American friends, which was not by choice but by chance!