Everyone has an accent and many people have opinions on them, whether they’re good, bad, stereotypical, and everything between. However, when it comes to the American accent, some non-Americans feel that something is off. To these people, something feels “unreal” when they get into a conversation with an American. In fact, to them, it feels like being in a movie.
There has been a Reddit thread or two with non-Americans that have a hard time wrapping their heads around hearing an American accent in real life when they’ve spent of the majority of their lives hearing it on the radio, television, and in movies.
“I realized something kind of funny after an interaction I had recently,” wrote the original poster. “I’m not American, and most of my exposure to the American accent has been through movies, T.V. shows, and online content. So whenever I hear an American accent in real life, it feels oddly surreal, almost like the person is acting.”
“Logically, I know that’s just how Americans actually speak, but because I’m so used to hearing that accent in fictional settings, it can feel a bit like stepping into a movie scene,” the poster added. “Even their expressions and mannerisms sometimes feel a little cartoonish or exaggerated to me. Not in a bad way, just in a ‘Wow, this is exactly like the movies’ kind of way.”
Other non-Americans flooded the comments to agree:
“The first time I visited New York, I felt like walking through a movie set. It was so surreal.”
“I moved to the U.S. from Australia 10 years ago, and when I first arrived everything felt like I was in G.T.A. (Grand Theft Auto). The radio station didn’t feel real, like a goofy caricature.”
“I just read the main post to my husband, who is from South America and he said this is actually exactly how he felt when he moved to the U.S. as a young teen. He said it felt like he was in a movie. Didn’t speak a lick of English and now people can’t even tell he is an immigrant.”
Even Americans chimed in with their experiences:
“I live in Southeast Asia and when I started talking I heard a group of kids say ‘He sounds like T.V.,’ which still makes me laugh.”
“I was in London staying with friends and answered their phone…they said that (I) sounded like a ‘commercial.’”
There are reasons why many non-Americans feel that the American accent is surreal or something out of fiction. While all countries create their own television shows and films, movies and television programs from the United States are still popular and widely distributed throughout the world.
And while there are several different kinds of American accents (Southern, Boston, New Yorker, etc.), many screen actors are trained to speak in the General American accent, including performers who aren’t American, in order to obtain high-paying roles in Hollywood. For people who never go to America or encounter a U.S. citizen, the General American accent is only known and heard on television or in their ear buds. It’s understandable, then, that hearing an American in person for the first time can feel “fictional” since it was never “real” before.
This also explains the phenomenon of why you hear English-speaking musicians drop their accents when singing. Much like with actors, singers are often encouraged to sound more American in order to appeal to American audiences and record companies.
For example, the band One Direction was told they sounded “too English” by their record label and were coached to sound more American in order to gain global appeal. Again, because of the prominent American music industry’s reach, singers train themselves to sound American, which turns into sounding like radio which in turn makes the General American accent the general singing accent. On top of that, most singing in English requires stretching different vowel sounds and can naturally make it sound American compared to other English-speaking accents.
While the American accent is dominant in global media, it’s real and there are real people involved. It’s best to strike up conversations with those folks to put some preconceived notions to rest, whether it’s regarding a person’s culture or reinforcing that Americans are indeed not just on their television sets.
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