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[sonya]

Getting the hang of a wide variety of accents is important for a lingua franca, definitely. I was replying to the person who asked why look for teachers with a North American accent, and sounded as if there were no merit to having one.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Except that more times than not, employers don't ask for a 'North American' accent. They often ask for a specific country. Because many non-native English speaking employers have a hard time hearing differences in accents, they just go based on the passport. There are a lot of non English L1 speakers teaching English in Japan, it's just that most of them have passports from English speaking countries.

North American English accents exist. A natural "USA" accent does not. There was an article or a letter published in the Japan Times in which somebody suggested that the proper English for Japanese people to learn was the North East United States accent. How anybody could argue that some of the accents spoken in the North East of the United States are significantly different than the way people speak somewhere like Toronto, I dunno.

I'm from Canada and just because I have been seen reading French newspapers in the teacher's room on-line, people assumed that my first langauge is French. Eventually they asked me at a drinking party if my first language is English or French (Your foreign ID card- the one they got for me- in Japan says your country of citizenship and place of birth. My citizenship says Canada but the place of birth is in "GBR", so the chance of me being a francophone is probably pretty low).

[sonya]

oh man. it would be classic to hear Engrish with, say, a Bronx or a Philly accent. Japanese people should totally start learning English with a New England accent.

So the French thing goes to show that people in Asia don't care whether English is your L1 or if you're from an Anglophone area?

Despite the passport, a lot of people guess my nationality by my face. I like to travel a lot, and I always come across people who are stunned by how excellent my English is, as if one is born to speak a language like one is born with slanty eyes. (Or isn't, however you wish). I've heard it can be an issue in East Asia, if you're not white. I have a hapa friend.. when she lived in S. Korea employers would suggest she bleach her hair a lighter brown and take to wearing blue or green contacts, for the students' sake. What did looking anglo-saxon white have to do with teaching English? I thought *that* was idiotic, but she said that's what they looked for a lot.

This doesn't have much to do with dindia's question, but, in regards to your post, there are of course natural accents, and there is also what is considered a "standard" American accent. (I wikipediaed it to be double sure; here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_American_English)

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

You should edit that link to remove the close bracket. It goes to a page that says there is no article about it.

When you do get to the article, though you can read this

[sonya]

Ehm, what is the "it" in "it is not it"? The standard American accent is not the standard American accent, or it's not the midwestern accent?

The standard accent is spoken by newscasters because you can't identify where a person is from with it, because it can be/is spoken everywhere. The media spreads and reinforces said accent. I definitely didn't say all New Englanders spoke with a standard accent. There's tons of variation on the East Coast. However, there *are* sizable segments of the population who have the standard accent, or can switch between their regional accent and the standard.

Yeah.. Of all the Canadians I've known (besides the Quebecois).. the only noticeable difference in accent is Canadian Raising, which not everyone has.. I think this is a big reason why Canadian backpackers sew the flag on all their stuff, it's near impossible to tell the difference otherwise (in my opinion, anyway). I always mistake them for Americans..