The Worldwide Girl: Accents And All

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British: - I like a Russian accent!
American: - Me too! I think it's cool.
Me: - Rrrrreally? A Russian accent is awful! I don't have a true Russian accent, you wouldn't like it so.
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Some years ago I thought I was a fan of the British variant of English. You know, all those British TV shows, British YouTubers, actors, singers... Though those time I couldn't differentiate an British accent from an American or any other one properly. And my tutor started teaching me an American accent. I didn't say anything to her, but of course I was upset. Actually, her lessons about that were great, because I had to imitate American speech, I had to write down fast dictations from the first time, it all really made me become a practiced hand. And how glad I was, when I came to the university and we were taught the British pronunciation! Yey! The significant aspiration, secrets of making the sounds, British noble intonation. Even though we were taught the American grammar and both variants of the vocabulary, we all enjoyed the phonetics.

This summer, you know, I went to the USA, and to my pleasure I talked to different people for whom English is a native language: from the UK, from Ireland, from Australia and New Zealand, the USA, of course. Due to the fact that I automatically analyzed the speech as a [almost] professional linguist, I learnt to tell a British accent from an American for sure. And some weeks ago I heard a song and thought that the singer must have been Australian, so I googled him and I was right! So I can even recognize an Australian accent now, that's success for me. I'm still afraid what our phonetics teacher will tell me when she knows I visited the US, because she's totally against the American fluent colloquial pronunciation, so I hope I'll be cunning enough to hide it.
When in LA the French, the Chinese and I tried to get to the Venice Beach, and the man tried to help us, he was the first to tell at once that I was Russian. He also guessed where my attendants were from, because he said he was German himself, traveled a lot and could recognize many accents.
Last week Tatyana took me to Beat Film Festival where we watched "B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin" (should write in detail about it). The movie was incredible! Though it was totally not my style, I really enjoyed it. But! The film was a documentary, and the main text was told by the Manchester guy Mark Reeder. 92 minutes of a pure British accent made me... I'd say I could bear the British accent anymore. It was quite a shock for myself, because you know, a British accent is everything, it was the high ideal, the perfection to be reached. And PSHHH! I didn't want it anymore. And that was the point I understood I'm more of an American girl. Well, of course, if I meet a British, I won't scream into his or her face "GET OUTTA HERE I CAN'T LISTEN TO YA SPEECH". But namely I'd prefer speaking in an American one now.

I'm absolutely aware that I'll never get rid of my Russian roots, my Russian accent. We've been told that all that accent stuff is on a level of heartbeat. Of course, if a newly born Chinese baby is brought up in Brazil, it will speak Portuguese perfectly. But if you're a 19 years old girl who's been learning English for about 5 years, it seems impossible to lose your native accent. Even if I eventually move to an English-speaking or French-speaking or Italian-speaking country, I'll still have some Russian faint notes. I've already mentioned intonation, so I want you to know that intonation is really important.
In Russia we don't have so different Russian accents. We usually speak about dialects which yes can differ pretty much. If you're good enough, you can tell someone living in Moscow from someone living in Archangel and someone living in the Russian Far East. My Russian teacher at school once said that people in the Russian Far East speak the purest Russian, because this part of our huge country had been populated by people from various Russian regions, so their dialects disappeared and the pure language remained.
So as a conclusion, I can identify, produce and tell many things about a British and an American accents; every now and then I can differ an Australian accent, but I don't know theoretically how Aussies make their signature sounds; I can tell nothing about a New Zealand accent, though I heard people speak it; I'll never lose my Russian accent.

I beg my pardon