Australians sound weird
A character (invariably blonde) is introduced in a movie, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Then they start speaking, they sound weird and it makes me frown for a brief second. Realisation dawns, oh they鈥檙e Australian!
Hang on a second, I鈥檓 an Australian too.
Why does my own accent sound strange on television? Whether it鈥檚 Neighbours, some ABC drama, or a Gimmick in a US tv show, our accent just sounds鈥 out of place. It鈥檚 funny because I鈥檝e noticed the opposite for Americans, who sound completely normal on TV but weird in person. American is the accent for TV talk and singing. I鈥檓 wired to hear American on the TV and Australian in person.
When I hear an Australian, it always causes existential confusion. Do we really sound like that? That (sometimes whiny), laid-back, ocker drawl? Surely I don鈥檛 sound like that, I just sound normal.
To test this, I recorded myself and my girlfriend talking. When I played it back, I closed my eyes and imagined the talking was coming from a tv show. We sounded weird too, We ARE Australian! I was shocked by my grand discovery.
It feels weird hearing people around me and realising that we have an accent. It's worrying to think that we鈥檙e all walking around sounding weird and we just don鈥檛 realise it. An international student once told me we all sound odd, and 鈥渘ot in a good way鈥. On the other hand, some magazines say the Australian accent is the 鈥渟exiest in the world鈥 so I guess some people like it and some people don鈥檛 which is fine. Nothing to do about it but accept that we鈥檙e normal here but not everywhere.