Keep calm and fake a British accent...or not

Ten.  (Days, that is.)

I'm in the middle of frantically writing a zillion pages of philosophy essays.  But I decided to take an M&M break and write something meaningful.

I read somewhere once that when writing travel stories, you're not supposed to neatly sum up your experiences for the reader.  No "this is what I learned" or "and that's why I loved it."  It kills the drama, or something like that.  Well, whatever.  I'm going to spend my last few days here thinking back over the awesome things I got out of studying abroad and telling you allll my favorite things about Scotland.  That way you'll have something mildly entertaining (or at least mostly non-educational) to read as a neat distraction from studying for finals, and I'll realize how much I appreciate Scotland while I'm still here.  How bout that.

Lesson I Learned #1: American accents aren't as bad as all that.  When I first got here, I was so humiliated by my accent you could barely get me to speak.  I was so ready to pick up a Scottish accent I couldn't stand it.  The first thing I realized was that no one was falling for it.  My attempts at Scots were just pathetic.  But the second thing I realized was that there is still something of a society class system in the UK, and the most immediately telling factor is your accent.  Parents send their children to private schools to get rid of standout accents.  Brits can pinpoint each other's accents in seconds, down to cities, with no trouble.  Stereotypes rage.  And I'm free from all that.  Of course, an American accent comes with all its own judgment, but it's mostly in jest, and my hometown, upbringing and educational background are my own secrets to tell.  Of course, it still shocks me a little to hear my own harsh consonants and slurred vowels.  Also, Americans are loud.  But if I keep my voice to a reasonable volume, round my o's a little more and lose a few "like"s, no one gives me a second glance.

(Also: British people are just as bad at imitating American accents as we are at faking theirs.  Example: at small group the other night, we sang happy birthday to a couple of people; however, since we'd all had too much a little bit of sugar we decided to all sing it in opposite accents.  The Americans all did relatively well, although we all had "posh London accents".  British American went something like this: "Hayyyuuppee burrrrrthdeeeeee tewwww yewwwwww...")

Love,
Melody