Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Freakstar]

Wtf? Are these women crazy? Or could someone really wake up with a foreign accent one morning?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBLtIG72eek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6y0voUoeGE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_accent_syndrome

And why do all the cases involve women? Does this only happen to women?

[ReeseDog]

hmmm...seems legit, but damn, that's weird.

[Rae]

[Pooty]

I read about this syndrome before the advent of the internet, so I think it's possible.

[adeline]

I think what is actually going on is that they have brain damage to their language centers which changes the way they pronounce vowels, I think it is only coincidence that they appear to have an accent, but if you compared accents you would find they weren't real, they were just a collection of sound changes

[itaewonguy]

or...
Our brains are all preprogrammed to speak in every accent in the world with whatever native tongue we have but only gets used depending on where you grow up...
So the accident that these people had triggered a nerve in the storage area of accents and rocked one out randomly...

You hear the strong British guy? Who woke up one day speaking English with an Italian accent??

(Twilight zone theme)

[meangradin]

My favorite is the friend who goes to the UK for three months and returns home with a thick brittish accent.

Is that the same thing?

[sojourner1]

[meangradin]

Actually, I was kind of joking. I knew people who toured around the UK for a short period of time and came back to Canada with rather strange "accents." Clearly, they were trying to sound a certain way.

From first hand experience, it takes a long time and a lot of effort to change your accent. I was born in Scotland, spent 10 years in New Zealand, then 16 years in Canada.

[PeteJB]

I understand the foreign accent syndrome part, but speaking a foreign language at random - is bullshit. What these people experience is what they 'think' to be a foreign language. Truth be told, we all have the ability to create words and sentences which are complete gibberish, but can easily be passed off as "a foreign language". And we all have the ability to learn accents. Just take voice actors, who have a myriad of accents at their disposal. Many of us have adaptive accents too depending on who we are around. If we are with our parents, we use our mother tongue accent. Perhaps, if we are with business colleagues, we use a clearer and more refined accent. Or if we are speaking with foreigners, we end up sounding foreign ourselves.

[Chris_Dixon]

Hmmm my own experiences with this show it can change easily. I came back fom Korea after one year and my friends think i have a slight american accent. Im raging about that hehe...

My mother still as a strong english accent after living in NZ for 25 years, My father has completely lost his and has a NZ accent...

I did find it strange that all Koreans i have met have a American accent, but i guess thats due to them learning it like that....

[adeline]

I have a very adaptive accent, I think it is a real thing, just like some people don't have consistent handwriting. It also runs in my family. My grandmother was pure scottish and when she moved to the states after wwII she lost her accent within a year, and that's a stiff accent. I grew up in California and lived in Canada for many years now I have a strong Torontonian accent. It doesn't sound Canadian to most people because they think of "eh" and "out and about" which is more boonie Canadian, but my family and friends think its really noticeable. Sure some people are pretentious and put on an accent but I think some people just base their speech on what they have heard recently rather than internal sound definitions.

[RACETRAITOR]

I don't think it actually gives you a foreign accent, but messes up how you speak, and it can be interpreted to sound like a foreign accent.

[OiGirl]

It reminds me of a Deaf American Sign Language professor who, when he spoke, had a thick "Scottish" accent. He was American and of course had never heard Scottish speakers...it's just the way his sounds came out.

[ReeseDog]