Yes everyone has an accent, and according to Wikipedia everyone has a dialect too. Unless you can't speak at all. I speak with an American accent, and depending on your definition of dialect, I speak with an American English dialect. Which is funny because even as I'm typing this "blog" entry I hear myself alternating between a British accent and my own American accent. This is what happens when you hear another accent more than you hear your own. My hall has a new double addition, and 5 visitors, all who's English may very well be better than my own. Of course when you're here to learn Chinese you don't want to spend all of your time speaking English with other foreigners, but then again it's nice to hear jokes that you understand. And despite being surrounded by authentic Chinese speakers and a handful of other languages, it's still fun to hear exotic European accents, and to be slightly unsure which kind of football people are talking about. Or "which kind of football people are going on about." But last night I was hungry, and Steve, a young English brother, kept talking about fish and chips, English breakfast (eggs, bacon, etc..) and Japanese girls with blue hair. The last of which had no effect on my appetite. But there we were, a pack of foreigners, an Englishman, an American, a Korean sister and brother, and a Japanese brother, all dressed for meeting, squeezing through the crowds in the night market at 10:30pm in search of food that we could all agree and decide on. (edit 309) Permalink