I have seen so many inspiring stories in my life but nothing is like this. You should really watch this!

NOW, LET’S BE THANKFUL!

I am very happy today

Can you say this sentence out loud? OK! Now, what kind of accent did you use? American? British? Australian? or Canadian?

Well, there are so many different accents when it comes to speaking English, I think. A few weeks ago, there was an orientation for the Master’s program in which I am teaching. There were around 50 students from 16 different countries. They, of course, have all different accents, such as Chinese, Indian, Australian, Korean or American, when they speak English. Interesting thing is students have different accents not based on where they are from but where they learn English. For example, there was a student who is Chinese but she learned English in Australia and she has Australian accent. Thus, when she says “I am very happy today,” it sounds like “I am happy to die.” Back in Korea, I had a coworker who learned English in UK. Whenever she says, “I can” or “I can’t,” it sounds very weird to me because I initially learn how to speak English in Canada.

So, what kind of accents do you have?

Having said that, I have heard a few words you want to know. Brits, Yanks and Aussies. People here in America use Brits or Aussies. As you can imagine, Brits are people from UK and Aussies are people from Australia. Well, then people in UK use “Yanks” to describe people from America. Why? There is a story about this word. There is an wikipedia page about the word. But, to sum it up, it was a word used for referring to someone from New England area. And, as the country went through the Civil War, the word became to use to refer to those from the northern U.S. And, later, people outside of the U.S. started to use this one to refer to American people. The baseball team name, New York Yankees, originated from this word.

So, remember! If you are here in America, they would use the words like “He is a brit or aussie.” It is very short and hard to catch the words correctly if you do not pay attention enough. The first time I heard my friend saying, “He is a brit.,” I thought she was saying, “He is a brick.” which does not make sense at all.

Now, are you happy today or are you happy to die? What is your accent?