As strange as it may seem, I hate my accent and want to speak like an American because I think it sounds cooler and more like how I want to sound.
I’ve more or less perfected my version of an American accent on my own, I think.
But whenever I’m with other people who know me, I revert back to my old accent instinctively because that’s how they know me to sound like. I’m unsure about how I can subtly transition without them noticing a sudden change, such as through gradual exposure to my accent changing more each time they hear it. That way I could argue that I don’t know how it happened and it was a slow progression if they eventually realise it’s different, rather than something forced that I started doing one day.
The biggest thing I think is changing the pronunciation of certain words with “a”, such as going from “fahst” to “faast” for the word ‘fast’, or “mahsk” to “maask” for ‘mask’. Because it’s really one or the other, there’s no in-between. I feel like for most other sounds, a gradual transition into more American sounds can be possible, but that one’s like, how can I make the plunge and will people notice it straight away and think it’s weird?
OP sounds young. Kids are weird, but this is harmless and they’re clearly embarrassed about it.
I think they just wanna fit in, which is a totally relatable feeling. But I promise, this is not the way you want to fit in.
No, it’s not how to fit in. I don’t think calling them bizarre is going to help the situation though. They’re not bizarre, they’re just looking for approval the wrong way.
I think it’s probably more to stand out in a cool way, but it’s still not going to happen like this. The problem with “cool” is that it’s nebulous and there’s no formula for it. I would not be able to be cool while obviously faking an accent, but someone who’s really cool might still be able to pull it off. Hell, I have a genuine American accent in another country (a pretty light one) and I can’t embrace it enough for it to be cool.
What’s really hard to learn is that OP’s not going to be cool until OP is cool with themselves, and that’s difficult to do when surrounded by people who don’t think you’re cool. That’s why most people get cooler when they leave high school, and that’s also why people tend to get nicer.
Please accept one Reddit silver I have leftover from when I still used Reddit. Very good insights here.