We Ex-Pats truly are everywhere!

So I called up the Planning Inspectorate in Bristol this morning to confirm they'd received an appeal we posted Special Delivery.  And I flub up right off by giving the reference number as starting with "Zee" instead of "Zed."  So my cover is blown right off.  I apologise and correct myself and the nice lady on the other end of the phone says, "That's alright.  I'm American, too.  That one takes time."   [smiley=stunned.gif]

I'm stunned (see smiley!) because she has a lovely British accent.  Well, of course she does - seems she's been here since 1971!   [smiley=wideeyed.gif]

I wanna sound like her some day!

She said she'd visited the US for the first time in 15 years last month and felt very foreign.  Then she added that she felt she didn't fit in when she lived there - which I instantly agreed with (as those who know me would expect!).

Interesting start to the day!

How funny lol.  You would be surprised how much you have lost your American accent already tho.  I had to take care of some business last year when I was visiting there, and mentioned that I had only a short time to complete the transaction before I flew back home to England. Of the two people I was conversing with, one said, "Oh, you are from England", and before I could answer, the other said "Of course she is,,, just listen to her accent!" LOL.  Will be hard to let go of zee tho

That was a nice little unexpected surprise  I wonder how long it takes before you REALLY start to lose your accent?  "zee" and "zed" always catch me up as well, which is a bad thing as "z" is a letter in my name.  Every time I have to phone someone and spell my name, I make a conscious effort beforehand to say it correctly  

I've got pronouncing the "H" right - gotta work on that "zed"!!!

It is nice to know we Americans are everywhere...hehehe.  Maybe I'm a strange one but I really don't want to lose my American accent.  I actually like it.  I LOVE the Scottish accent, but it's not mine and I'm afraid I'll lose the American one. :-/  Oh well, much worse things could happen than to pick up a bit of their accent. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

i dont wanna lose mine either ...  but hubby says i'm starting to lose some of my southern twang    

reckon id better be workin on my ya'll, grits and aint gonna words ... more often, lol.  

On my driving test, I had to read a number plate that had an H in it and I made a point of pronouncing it the British way, just to make sure the examiner understood me.

Erm, there's a difference with H too?    I say it the way I've always said it!

Zee and Zed still gets me stuck though.  :-/

Its kind of like saying "Hache"
Similar to the American pronunciation, but with an extra emphasis on the "hhhh"

errr....  its hard to explain.

"H" can be said either way really... It's not fair though, both 'h' and 'z' are in my name.  Who'd have thought it'd take effort to spell out my own name at 23 years of age?!

About losing your american accents.. don't they say you can't really lose it without wanting/intending to?  Not sure if there's any truth to that, as I also like my native accent and yet have been told that it isn't entirely American anymore  :-/

My thoughts on this are if I lose my accent then I do.  Its not like I won't have one anymore just a different one.  But it will still be mine.  I know that's sort of a vanilla approach but its not something I'll fret over.  Even now I'm getting the "she sounds more like a canadian all the time" from the UK group.  I'm not sure how they know that though.  I mean since Americans have different accents and Canadians do too - just like the UK - they can be regional.  But this I will do.  I will continue to get Chris to say words like tomato like me.  Then we'll both have mixed up accents.  lol

'H', spelled 'aitch' is pronounced by the majority of Brits exactly the same as it is by Americans.  There is no such word as 'haitch', and why a small number of eccentrics pronounce it with a 'h' at the beginning is a bit of a mystery.  

There was some discussion about it, and about Zee/Zed in the Favourite Britis speak thread in Expat Life,
http://www.uk-yankee.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=expat;action=display;num=1067940383;start=60

'H', spelled 'aitch' is pronounced by the majority of Brits exactly the same as it is by Americans.  There is no such word as 'haitch', and why a small number of eccentrics pronounce it with a 'h' at the beginning is a bit of a mystery.

hehe.  I guess my DF is one of those eccentrics, but then again he is from the north and its seems like a different language up there.

well I know they tend to say 'haitch' in Northern Ireland but thats about it