Pre-Departure: Angers, France

My Accent Map

The accent quiz was interesting, because my dad's from Massachusetts and my mom's from New Jersey, and I grew up mostly in Arkansas. You can definitely see that on my accent map. Some words I have definitely learned from my parents, while other words, like "blow-off class," I learned from my peers. That particular example is interesting to me because I did not have a word for the concept until maybe junior high when I learned it from my classmates.

I've also adopted certain Southern words since leaving the South - such as "y'all." I began using "y'all" after realizing that it was a good gender-neutral plural-you that might not make people uncomfortable because of potential gendered words like in the phrase "you guys." I certainly don't think I speak with an accent that sounds Southern, but because of the words I have grown up with, the quiz was able to detect where I'm from. I was also surprised by the number of concepts I have no word for now. I've never referred to the night before Halloween as anything other than the night before Halloween.

One idea I've been thinking about in relationship to this quiz was the fact that though I grew up in Arkansas from the time that I was 7, if someone were to refer to me as a Southerner I would be surprised. The images associated with the South simply don't match my experiences in many ways. I don't mean just stereotypes from an external perspective, but also experiences described by those who live there. I recently saw an article on my Facebook feed with a title similar to: "You Know You Grew Up in Arkansas When..." It talked about sweet tea and fishing and swimming outdoors and on and on. I did not relate to just about anything on the list. But this was something a few Facebook friends of mine had a strong connection with.

So the ideas I've been turning over have been about these sets of images we have of other places, but also these sets of images we have of where we're from, and how we fit into that (or don't). The comments on Knausgaard's article are particularly interesting because people clearly were so eager to hear a description of themselves from outside - but only if it matched up with what they wanted to hear. My favorite comments were on Part 1, where several individuals expressed how upset they were with Knausgaard for not saying enough about what our country means in the first few days he arrived and how disappointed they were with the few observations he made - but that they were planning to read Part 2. We're all seeking some kind of image that matches up with the way we perceive ourselves. And I do think that is part of what people seek in studying abroad. Part of it might be about figuring out what fits, and part of it might be about being able to come back home with an altered perspective, in addition to whatever academic, career, and personal goals we set for ourselves.