Accent part 2

[pen_grunt]

Dude. I just went to dinner with a client group. I had been making small talk all night and was running out of stuff to say, so we hit the inevitable "Where are you from? Where do you live?" topic.

Me: I'm from Minnesota.
Client (who is from the U.S. an who I have been talking to ALL NIGHT): Oh really? You don't sound like you're from Minnesota! You don't have the accent!
Me: [Lolz]

I'm not even kidding. Unprovoked! I even went deeper to try to clarify:

Me: Well, when most people say that they're gauging the accent against the movie Fargo, and most Minnesotans don't have that strong an accent.
Client: No, no. I'm familiar with the subtleties. Minnesotans have certain words that they say differently. I didn't notice any of that.
Me: Huh.

I think I must have a casual way of speaking that I use around friends and people I'm comfortable with (that is more accent-laced/regionally colorful) and a more formal way of speaking that I use around clients that, apparently, contains very little accent.

Or I have strange clients. I mean...this one does spin her own alpaca yarn for fun. I'm not ruling out crazy.

Comments

[i12bmore.livejournal.com]

Registers. Makes perfect sense to me.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

The weird part is not realizing it. I would think I would know when I do it, but for the most part I don't.

[tediousandbrief.livejournal.com]

I heard no accent in that video that you linked me to the other day. You very well could have been from Chicago.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

This is somewhat gratifying. :D

I can definitely see how I say certain very-Minnesotan things in the right context, though. I got into a discussion about all the meanings of "interesting" today with a German.