When you travel, can people tell where you are from?

I love avocado on sandwiches, but I admit to learning that out west.

No, we moved around a lot when I was a child. When my family of origin moved to Memphis, some kids said to my sisters, “Hey, y’all talk just like those people on TV.”

I’m almost unmistakeably a North American. It’s probably the clothes, walk and attitude, and of course the language and accent will give me away even when I make one of my weak attempts at Spanish, French, or one of the Scandinavian languages. The fact that I must carry a U.S passport and fly the U.S. ensign at all foreign ports is a dead giveaway on small islands where gossip concerning newcomers is rampant. But when in larger populations in countries or cultures of questionable sympathies, I have no qualms about claiming Canadian citizenship as a security measure. Happily, that is rarely necessary.

Most of the time (when outside of the US), yes, they can tell the country. My partner, a Brit, says it is due to so much US television available around the globe. The region (South)? Not so much, even in the US. The accent was mutated after living in the north for five years.

Once though, a guy in England asked me if I was from Australia.

Not an avocado fan, but I’m attempting to learn.

Apparently I have a slight Southern accent. My cousins in Seattle tease me about it. :D

Years of practice allows me to choose to be from several places. I have the luxury of looking Asian and can pass for Pacific rim if I so choose. In a former life it was very good to be kind of ambiguous as to ones roots.

Most people guess I’m from the northeast if they talk to me long enough. If they are from the northeast it’s very apparent, because I match their accent quickly during the conversation.

At the beach no one would know where I’m from by just looking. I might wear cropped pants, which usually is a middle of the country or southern thing, especially if you wear them with sneakers. Out to dinner I look more urban-ish usually wearing navy or black and black trousers or jeans and 3 in heals.

My hair doesn’t give much away. Women with the reverse mullet often are Midwest or southern.

None of these are absolutes of course.

California tends to have a look that is a give away. The hair and the skin having been in the sun, and even the average build on a lot of people from there. A little more fit than many parts of the country. Colorado has the same body type. It’s not that most people in those states look that way, it’s that if you look that way you are probably from one of those states.

Accents are the biggest give away, and then expressions, and add in some other cue and one can put the puzzle together.

A bubbler is Wisconsin. Words with ou that are said more nasal and a certain way are Midwest. Pop instead of soda usually is Midwest. Might could North Carolina. Fixin’ somewhere south. Cawfee for coffee, that’s me, NY.

Bologna on white with mayo, I can’t imagine a New Yorker eating that. Ketchup on a hot dog? Very few New Yorkers eating that too, but it does happen. Looking for a biscuit for breakfast? Again, not from NY. You think sweet tea is regular tea and plain tea is unsweetened, then you are from the south. Never heard of sweet tea or think sweetened tea is the same as sweet tea, you are from the north.

Wear a chip clip hair barrette to a night out, you are not from the northeast.

I tend to blend with my surroundings for the most part. I tend to want to not stand out too much. If I stand out it’s because I’m wearing something more monochromatic than others and I often can be pegged as Jewish. Oh, if I’m speaking Spanish sometimes people think I am
not from the US.

When I am out of the country people almost always guess I’m American when I speak. The last time someone thought I wasn’t American was on a cruise, because of how my husband and I were dancing. Maybe how we looked also I don’t know.

I don’t think so. I have a fairly nondescript accent. If I visit the UK, people who know I live in Australia say I sound Australian. If they don’t know where I live, I can’t recall people saying where they think I’m from. Some Aussies say I sound like a well-spoken Australian and it’s only an occasional word that gives away my origins. Others say I sound like a pom. If I listen to a recording of my voice, I can hear my English accent but it’s not very strong at all. I also tend to use words that are in common use in Australia.

Hahahaha always. Some people think it’s an English accent but most get it.

I haven’t done enough traveling anywhere outside of California to know if they could tell, but I suspect that people would figure it out pretty quickly when I started moaning about wanting some decent Mexican food (outside of California, Arizona and New Mexico). Otherwise, I pretty much have the TV newscaster accent (which is no accent).

Why aye man, av nee idea what sticks owt aboot uz,, a mean, howay, nowt at arl.

@fluthernutter: “Do people outside of California not like avocado?! It’s delicious!”

It’s a matter of access. When I lived in Isla Vista, I had access to a near-endless supply of perfect avocados. And I would eat them constantly. “I’ll have an avocado sandwich. Yes, I’d like avocado on that as well. Thanks.” Coworkers would bring me bags of them from their yard. But here in New England, we have to wait for this beautiful fruit to be shipped from the west coast. Then we have the pleasure of paying a ridiculous price for bruised avocado and hope that we open it within the 4-hour ripeness window. Also, ordering avocado on a sandwich in Massachusetts is risky. There’s a 95% chance that you’ll end up with completely unripe avocado.

So, yes – there is a chance that ordering avocado on your sandwich (without pause, and with no immediate signs of regret) may have tipped people off that you are from paradise…I mean, California.

@hominid Good point! Next time I will try to appear more torn when ordering some avocado to blend in more. ;)

Oh yes through my phrasing, words and of course my accent that cannot be mistaken as to where i’m from….. people seem to fall in love with my accent too for some reason lol.