After England do you recognise American regional accents even more?

Hi there everyone,

First a snippet of a conversation I had with a friend from SOAS (School of Oriental and African studies) my first week in London:

Nasir: Are you from the midwest?
Samantha: Yeah,  I live in Milwaukee, how did you know?
Nasir: (From Florida) Because of your accent...don't worry it's considered exotic here.

That being said, have any of you who have lived in the UK and then returned back to the United States recognised how ingrained certain regional American accents are? I never paid much attention to, or recognised them before but since returning the midwestern twang--more specifically Wisconsin drawl has really, really become apparent and irritated the hell out of me!

I know people cannot help it and this is not a criticism as my ears are really recognising all the American accent variations at this stage. Lol talk about re-assimilation.

cheers,

Samantha

I've not noticed it myself, but my DF says he can really tell the difference between my home-town area "accent" (small mountain comunity) and the Puget Sound areas of Washington State (Seattle/Tacoma) 100+ miles away and on the other side of the Cascade mountains.  A friend of mine studied regional languages in the States and can tell the difference really well, especially with the use of certain words ("Crick" vs "Creek" and the lot)

I have always been conscious of the regional American accents, because I am from originally from Minnesota, and even when I moved one state away to Wisconsin, I still got teased for my 'out' and 'about's!!

What I have been interested in and mildly impressed with are the British people that have picked up on my American regional accent.  I lived in the DC area for 14 years, and I have had 3 Brits tell me I don't sound like I am from DC, and one asked me if I was from Canada.  They must have refined ears
I can barely distinguish English from Scottish from Irish from Whelsh, and they're different countries!

I was able to "hear" my accent (Eastern NC....southern redneck!) for the first time when we visited my family (for the first time since I've been here...9 months) earlier in the month.  I actually said to my mom, "God!  You sound so SOUTHERN!".  Now I know how I must sound to people over here!   

I never paid attention until I came here. Now I can totally hear different US accents. Funny that.

I've always noticed different regional accents but naturally thought mine was rather bland and non-descript just like my friends and family.

Now *they* all sound funny and SO american to me! Meanwhile, of course, my accent hasn't changed at all! LOL! I'm sure I sound like a real dork to them now.