I grew up in SoCal (NW Orange County - in between Seal Beach & Los Alamitos), but my mom's family hailed from near Texarkana, TX. I can still recall one of my second cousins asking me, in a very Southern accent: "Gregory Lee - whaay dew yew tokk so fuunny?" It was the first time it occurred to me that I had an accent. I've reconnected with her on social media and talked to her a couple of times. Her accent has flattened out, but I still get a chuckle about that exchange.
stavros|3 years ago
As a non-native speaker, it's funny to me that some people think they don't have an accent. An accent is just the way you talk, if you speak, you have an accent.
What everyone seems to think an accent is, is "this person has a different accent from mine, therefore they have an accent".
It's like seeing a blond person for the first time in your life and saying "it never occurred to me I had a hair color".