Americans are very very good at code switching, which is why I think a lot of people think there are only one or two accents.
Is this why I can hear my Finnish friend’s “generic euro” accent when no one else can?
(She travels a lot and has a very, very weak Finnish accent, but a fairly strong “generic European” accent. None of our other European friends can hear it; the only people who can are American and even then it’s inconsistent).
That’s a thing with us Europeans - especially if you don’t want to perfectly adopt a British or American accent. This is when you end up with the “euro accent” - you’re perfectly fluent in English, without the accent of your native language, but since its neither British nor American English, it sounds just the slightest bit different.
Is this why I can hear my Finnish friend’s “generic euro” accent when no one else can?
(She travels a lot and has a very, very weak Finnish accent, but a fairly strong “generic European” accent. None of our other European friends can hear it; the only people who can are American and even then it’s inconsistent).
That’s a thing with us Europeans - especially if you don’t want to perfectly adopt a British or American accent. This is when you end up with the “euro accent” - you’re perfectly fluent in English, without the accent of your native language, but since its neither British nor American English, it sounds just the slightest bit different.