What do Americans think about foreigners who speak with American accent in the USA even though they came to the US during adulthood?

37 comments

1. Literally don’t think about it…why would we have any thoughts on this? Beyond like “oh hey cool.”

2. I think it’s very impressive for an adult language learner to achieve such mastery. Good job!

3. Nothing whatsoever.

4. How would I even know they were a foreigner?

5. How would I *possibly* know someone came to the US as an adult? Why would I care? If I did know this and they spoke an unaccented regional accent (There is no “American” accent , we have hundreds), u/tubesweaterguru nails the only reasonable thought: “cool.”

6. Impressive, I guess?

7. Nothing at all. There are a lot of accents in America and people generally don’t pay much attention to them at all.

8. It’s great. Pretty rare. They have good language skills or something.

9. Can’t say I, or anyone I’ve ever known, gives a shit.

10. No thoughts at all other than “impressive they have no accent.” I speak Spanish but it is with an American/Mexico City area accent so Spanish speakers wonder where the hell I picked it up.

    I see foreign American accents the same. I can usually detect an accent but the story of where it comes from is always interesting.

11. Uh… Not much?

    At most I might hear they grew up somewhere else, think “wouldn’t have guessed from the accent” and then move on with life.

12. I don’t think anything about it. My reaction is probably the same as a local Arizonian hearing my Southern accent. Something along the lines of “Huh, they talk different”.

13. Thats very rare. Even the most highly educated college professors have noticeable accents.

14. I don’t think about it. However they speak is fine with me.

15. Literally no thoughts. It’s not a thing to be thought about.

16. I really don’t care about people’s accents.

17. I have no thoughts either way. Accent, no accent. It’s America, baby!

18. No one cares.

19. I don’t care and I’m not going to ask about it. Frankly, I might not even notice.

20. Nothing. Wouldn’t care. Wouldn’t think about it. Wouldn’t even know they were a foreigner.

    Despite what you read online, most Americans don’t try to make a fuss about who is a foreigner and who is American. Hell, we all assume you are American, even with a foreign accent, unless you tell us otherwise.

    Because the USA is so racially a culturally diverse, an American can look like anyone, any color, and ethnicity, in any type of clothing.

21. I think it reflects quite positively on their intelligence and work ethic.

22. I think it’s nearly unheard of

23. They must have an exceptionally good ear. This is partly hard work and intelligence, but also the luck of genetics, sort of like a musician with perfect pitch, not just relative pitch.

24. I don’t really think about it unless they speak a certain dialect that stands out. For example, I have a coworker – born and raised in Verona, Italy.

    He speaks with a very pronounced southern AAVE accent because he moved to Atlanta, went to school, married a black woman, and raised kids who all speak like that.

    Now picture a 50+ year old guy speaking urban slang. It stands out.

25. Good for them? Literally don’t care. 🤷🏼‍♀️

26. Which American “accent”?

27. We chase them out of town with pitchforks

28. One thing to remember is that there is no look a person can have that will cause Americans as a whole to stop and say, “You’re not from around here, are you?” (Individual Americans, yes, but not Americans in general.)

    So, when a foreigner speaks with perfect American English… no one notices. Because there isn’t the disconnect between us seeing the person and think, “That person is not American” and “That person speaks like an American.”

29. How would I know? Why would I care?

30. Odd question. If they speak with an American accent, we probably wouldn’t even notice it. Or we might think they were just from a different part of the country.

31. Why would I be bothered that someone’s brain functions correctly?! Why would I be upset if someone has assimilated well? It’s just a normal part of language acquisition. Tbh, it’s almost offensive to presume we’d have an issue with something like this, because it’s suggesting that we’re bigots.

32. How would I know they are foreign?

33. If they speak in a neutral American accent and it sounds normal, we probably don’t even notice as a group.

    If there are a couple of words that aren’t pronounced with a neutral accent and their natural accent shows through, i’m likely to notice but I probably won’t say anything.

34. I knew someone from a different country who was in the US for the summer. From the time I met him he had spoken with the same accent, not super think, but definitely not and American accent. One day a few people asked him to try to mimic an American accent and he got surprised and maybe a little offended because he had been using his American accent, he then switched to his regular accent and there was a pretty clear difference (then he did a southern accent which was hilariously bad). Point being you will either sound like you have some sort of accent (whether thick or not) or not, people shouldn’t really care either way, but it can be harder to understand a thick accent.

35. I wouldn’t think anything if I had no idea they came to the US as an adult. If I knew that, I’d think dude, that’s so cool. Unless they’re Canadian in which case I’d say, dude you just sound like you’re from Minnesota lol.

36. As someone who’s technically a foreigner with a very American accent since I’ve been here since childhood, I haven’t had anyone say anything negative about it. The majority don’t know I wasn’t born here. I sometimes get asked what my ethnicity is just out of curiosity but that’s it.

37. I wouldn’t care. People seem to think that Americans don’t like foreigners and that’s just not true