I was talking with a coworker today and a couple times he couldn’t understand me.

Me: … I’d be part of QA.
Him: Huh?
Me: QA
Him: ???
Me (carefully): Q. A.
Him: Oh, I thought you’d say “key way”

Yeah. Not notable, except that at dinner tonight, I pronounced a word strangely, so I related that story to Kiara.

Me: … I’d be part of QA.
Her: Huh?
Me: QA
Her: ???
Me (carefully): Q. A.
Her: Oh, I thought you’d say “key way”

Oh, great.

Then she tells me that I sound really strange on my appearance on First Crack. While listening to it, she kept thinking, “geez, where is this guy from?”

Funny thing is, not an hour before I that was recorded, I was consciously trying to get my accent under control. I’d just been listening to LugRadio and found, while talking to myself, that I had adopted their accent. (Accents, really, but who’s counting?)

The real reason I’ve lived in Minnesota my whole life? I couldn’t stand to listen to myself if I lived anywhere else. I’m too damn linguistically impressionable. It doesn’t take long before I begin to adopt the accent and speech mannerisms of whoever I’m talking with. Honestly, I don’t mind this much, but it tends to annoy the people around me.

Update: for clarification, I do not sound like the LugRadio guys in my conversation on First Crack. I’d at least got that much under control.