Do You Speak American?

Do You Speak American? Sea to Shining Sea
Alrighty folks, I’ve had my dukes up for this one. The objective was to simply identify the origin of each accent. I went into the assignment thinking I had it in a bag. As cocky as I was, I dropped my dukes and immediately took the left hook. I even failed the northern origin of my accents, my origin. As I sit stuffed in the time out corner, I thought. How could I have possibly gotten so many of these accents wrong? Was it my terrible ability to carefully listen? Could it have been some sort of sociological message embedded in the activity? After pondering I realized, it was simply experience in travel.
I know there is media, but have a created a habit of avoiding media for any sort of cultural education because of my cynicism. Without my own experiences of going to these places and experiencing these English dialects myself, they wouldn’t be known, or understood. The origin of the West, North, Midland, Southern, New England, and Mid-Atlantic accents originate. I could not correctly place the speakers. However, this still did not explain why I failed the speakers from my own northern region.
When listening to the other speakers I realized that I ethnocentrically placed everyone in my own region. Perhaps it was some sort of subconscious pride, some disgusting amount of confidence in the diversity of my area. Or perhaps it was my own personal experience of people rarely being able to decipher where I’m from unless I’m in a dramatically “different” region myself.
Do You Speak American? What Lies Ahead?
English is a continually changing language indeed. After being sucker punched by what could ethnocentrically be described as gibberish, I was blown away by how differently people speak from others. I insisted that the woman describing a dress requirement was saying “sacks” and not “socks”. I was embarrassed at my ability to apply obvious things in certain situations.
But here, there is a simple problem: I didn’t have a damn clue on what this person was saying! Do I have a problem? Is there a way that I could somehow be able to understand everyone in the United States? Are my listening skills terrible? I could only feel a raging passion to apply what I’ve recently learned to the real world. A fellow student, Alicia, asked me if my confidence had gotten any better after taking the quiz. Well, let me tell you, Alicia, that there has been an ultimate K.O., but a passion that has ignited more passion to get my young spirit out into the world.