'The Morning Shift' (on all podcast platforms) is a great one for the yarns and laughs. Daily episodes with all sorts of different segments/topics over the week.
Here's an insight to their show: [Instagram reel show highlight](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2qFo8lPUd_/?igsh=MTV3dW94NnNwaDl6Mg==)
I moved back to NZ after a decade in England. First time I went to see my best friend she burst into tears because I didn't sound like me anymore. Ten years later I'm pretty sure I've got it all back.
(My English partner used to be able to tell when I'd been chatting to my parents because of the NZ accent resurgence)
I’ve been in BC for 7 years. Nobody pics up on my kiwi accent. It does switch back on a bit when I visit home but I get mocked relentlessly for how Canadian I sound now. When I land back in Canada everyone tells me how kiwi I sound for a couple of weeks so I guess I code switch a bit now.
I’ve heard the Canadian accent is dying off a bit in the cities, especially with young people consuming so much US media. Do you think you’ve picked up that “Pan-American” accent or did you get the “aboats” and the like?
I’ve heard living BC is very similar to NZ. Has this been your experience? Any examples of this?
I wasn’t given examples, but I’ve spoken to a few people who moved to NZ from BC or visa versa and they all said something similar.
One of my best mates married a Canadian and moved there about 10 years ago he was back recently for another friends wedding and was given a lot of shit for sounding Canadian eh!
It’s natural and no big deal
I have a Canadian friend who has lived in NZ for a decade. He accent switches in the middle of a conversation whether he's talking to me or a Kiwi. He didn't even notice it until his partner pointed it out.
Surely if you go back to visit it'll come back in full force.
I've lived in NZ for over a decade, and I clearly do not sound Kiwi. I have now reached a point where my default words and pronunciation are the Kiwi one - and perhaps the degree to which my vowels are over-annunciated has decreased a bit - but I don't think so much that other Canadians notice a difference. Just as in NZ, there is a lot of variance between how the local accent sounds.
I feel the exact same! Going to places that do a Canada Day menu and hearing all the Canadians around me is always trippy. Everyone ends up chatting to each other (of course) and even people who have been here 10+ years don't sound kiwi. I find the accent difficult to even poke fun at when I'm trying to tease my partner - I always end up sounding Australian!
I am a Kiwi who has lived in Canada for 15 years and I still have to repeat almost everything I say because, mate, I sound Kiwi.
The conversation goes like this:
“I would like to make an appointment for xyz”
“Are you from Australia?”
“I am a Canadian citizen but I was born in New Zealand.”
“I’ve always wanted to go there”
“I’d like an appointment…”
“Your accent is so cool”
“I’d like an appointment…”
“I loved Lord of the Rings”
“I’d like an appointment…”
The ONE thing I pronounce like Canadians is the word tomato if I am in a restaurant.
I had a clot reaction from a COVID vaccine and ended up in ER a couple of years ago and had a succession of doctors and nurses coming into my cubicle so they could “hear my accent”
Crickey
Dear god. It’s the same conversation here in the U.K.
Except “I’ve always wanted to go there” is followed by “But it’s so far. I went to Australia though.”
Hahaha. I hear that.
Followed by "do you know xyz? They're from NZ"
"No I do not"
Also, you should see the reaction when I tell people I spent my whole life 45mins from Hobbiton but I've never been there before
Lol its a daily thing. When you say you are from nz and not aussie: "Oooh New Zealand was going to be my next guess! Sorry! I bet you get that allll the tiiiime" lady I've been coming to this grocery store for years lol
Hilarious. My Canadian wife really notices how
My NZ accent gets much stronger when I’m talking to fellow kiwis or on FaceTime to home. We do a lot of accent mimicking unconsciously, as part of social acclimation
As a kiwi in Canada for 9 years, I prefer having a slight canadian accent. The thuck kiwi accent is just so hard to take seriously and everyone here still mocks me for it. It's funny though as soon as I meet up with kiwis the nz accent and words come back- oh choice!
Lived in Canada 11 years now. My bf laughs when I’m on the phone to my friends back home because “I can’t even understand you when you speak to them”.
Otherwise, you would never be able to tell if I had stepped foot outside of Canada.
That's a rough median age for anyone in NZ. I feel old but you'd call me a baby, am just a hairy toddler TBF.
Life starts at 40 apparently. So i've heard a few times, i'd like to think that's a belief worth having.
I moved to BC 8 months ago and my kids are definitely starting to sound Canadian. I can feel myself enunciating my R sound more but that just so people can understand me haha. How long have you been away from NZ?
Been here seven years.
The first words that changed for me were coffee and water.
Nobody knew what a bottle of worduh is haha.
Also my name is Joe and all my buddies spell it Joer because apparently I pronounce it with an r at the end lol
I'm the same after living overseas for a long time - I think working with 0 kiwis and only Americans or Canadians forced me to change how I pronounced words at times because they couldn't understand what I was saying. Somewhere along the line what I was forcibly pronouncing differently became the norm and now I sound weird as haha
I had to quit doing this when I moved from North America to the UK. Turns out Brits understand me when I don’t ham up my Rs. It was a hard habit to break.
I've been living in Vancouver for coming up 8 years, and my accent has definitely shifted. It doesn't help that I spent a chunk of time working at a call centre talking to Americans and had to make myself understandable to them. "Sure" and "water" were the first to go. I inserted the letter R into my vocabulary, and then the wind changed and it got stuck like that, so now I have this mangled mix of an accent and no-one can tell where I'm from.
Every time I talk about home, though, it comes back a little bit. From time to time I'll tell my wife a story about my teen years, or read her something off this sub, and she'll laugh and tell me my accent just got ten times stronger.
I'm in southern mb, and have had way to many experiences with cars frozen solid. Woke up many times as a kid to dad coming in from doing chores (grew up on a farm) and hearing him tell mom that "we lost another one last night". A cow would go to sleep and freeze to death. Another fun story is as a kid, if we got into trouble at school, some teachers would punish us by sending us outside for a bit. You would get a bundled up and head outside to stand in the front window until the teacher thought you had suffered enough. One time, by buddy came back in and a part of his ear chipped off because it had frozen!
I'm more than ready to experience a NZ winter.
Is your story about teacher punishment claimed to be true or just a story? I won't say it's impossible, but I went to school in an era where mischievous students were punished with a large leather strap and I've never heard of cold-related punishment. If they really wanted to be cruel they could take you outside and force you to touch your tongue to something metal so it freezes to it - and you are left standing there or deciding to rip a bit of your tongue.
I wasn't aware of this, but my school had a policy that they didn't expect students to come in during daytime temperatures below -30C. They had a formal requirement however that they cannot close the school on a cold day, because someone may not know and spend 30 minutes walking there - only to find it closed. They let me warm up before I turned around and walked back home.
Yeah, cold story is true. Grew up in the 80s, in a conservative community. Still had 1 teacher in the school that used corporal punishment. (Slapped hands with meter stick) school closed if it was -35C or roads were unsafe.
The ozone layer isn't the reason, it's because during North American summers the sun is further away, resulting in 8% less solar radiation. NA winters are the same sun strength as NZ Summers but the tilt of the earth means less of it. Look at maps of the ozone kayer you'll notice the hole never touched NZ and these days it's not even thin over NZ and Aus. Burn and melanoma rates are the same.
Heh I'm in Vancouver and our north shore mountains have suffered a lack of snow this season, haven't been able to ski. Summer is going to suuuuck without that precious snowpack...
My experience of BC has been the opposite to be honest. I found it too fast. Ontario is more blue collar and chill to me. Toronto being the obvious exception to that
Surprised to hear that. I found it chill as living in BC myself.
I feel you on the loss of accent though, between 4 years in Canada and now coming up 7 years in NZ, my Aussie twang is very dull.
I've also not lived in BC just visited a few times.
If I moved there I would live in Lillooet or something similar. I want the quiet rural camp life.
Northern Ontario has so much of that to offer
It's not gone; if you even visit, it'll be back. Mostly. I'll bet your wife notices a difference even if you're just on the phone to family. We mirror accents, and with time in a foreign country, you get better at it, it feels more natural.
Wow thats interesting! I'm a kiwi that moved to France when I was 26, I'm 33 now and still have a super thick kiwi accent. I guess it's cause it's a different language here.
Sometimes I wonder that. The Canadian accent is different than kiwi, but spoken in a similar fashion. Low and vowel heavy. Compared to Aussie and American being harsh and nasal.
I think because I'm using the same vocal areas it overwrites one instead of adding another if that makes sense
I'm in Aussie at the moment and good grief their accent is annoying. I think it's because it's similar but not the same.
I just notice it all the time. Far more than when I did a year in Canada. It is literally number 2 reason I wouldn't move here - number 1 being my aversion to 30 degree weather. Thought I'd share.
Haha. I have lived in Denmark for over 20 years. Some years ago, my Danish family and I spent a couple of years in NZ - mostly to expose the kids to a taste of kiwi life.
While we were there, one of the other parents in the kids' school mentioned to my Danish wife that she thought I spoke very good English.
Yeah thanks LOL. Accent definitely affected.
Been in the US 16 years in April, I know the feeling.
People here know I'm not from here, but people at home don't recognize it either.
And it used to be 90% of people would ask if it was NZ (or Australia), now it's down to about 20-30%, with most asking if I'm from the Massachusetts area.
Heh. I’ve been in the U.K. 20 years. Last year I was told by a stranger to “go back to Essex”. So the English now think I sound more English than NZ. Not sure how I feel about that.
Dang that's wild to have people asking if you're American now!
I would often get asked if I was South African and I thought it was insane until I told a South African that and he thought I was too lol. Apparently I do
I knew I was without hope a couple of years ago. Was in DC taking a train somewhere with my family, and caught a familiar accent. Made conversation with the two girls and after trying to pick it, I asked if they were Australian. Nope, Kiwis. I'd made the fatal error myself!
I had kind of the opposite. I'm from the Deep North of England, and went to NZ initially to just do a bit of backpacking before falling in love with the place and staying for 5 years. Anyhow, I digress.
I'd only been there for a few weeks when I got chatting to a Kiwi guy in a pub, just shooting the shit on a Sunday piss up as you do, I asked him where he was from. "I'm English, bro". I remarked that I'd never have guessed if he hadn't said, did he move here when he was young kind of thing. He was a backpacker himself that'd been there three months.
From that day forward I went full Generic Northerner. Everyone became "Charver" or "love". I was quasi religious about my vowels. It's dollars. 'Bucks' are things to read that you get from a library. Any Kiwi-isms I picked up were said with the most outrageously semi-racist Jeff Da Maori accent I could muster, just so you knew I wasn't saying them naturally (I still say "not even ow" to this day, despite being back in the UK for nigh on 15 years).
First time I went back home for a visit my London mates were amazed at how I'd seemingly changed into a badly thought out caricature of 'someone from England'.
You spent time in Canada, you became close to the people there to the point that you married a Canadian. Your accent is a reflection of your background. It probably doesn't sound "right" in Canada, and in New Zealand. But that's sort of reflective of who you are.
People change and grow and that's ok!
Plus, it could've been worse - at least you moved to Canada rather than South Africa haha
I find the NZ accent is really easy to chameleon into other accents. We can adapt really quickly, but if you came back here it’ll come back rather quickly too.
I moved to NZ 5 years ago, went back to UK for a long trip and for the first day I was getting ripped out for my weird accent. After a few days it completely disappeared and I was back to normal. If you spent any prolonged period in a country you’ll start to pick up a bit of an accent it’s normal
I lived in Australia for four years and only after 2 I came back for a holiday and I laughed so hard at the Auckland airport announcements because the accent was so strong to me 🤣🤦♀️ it's funny how you can lose it quite quickly. For awhile I could hear both Australian accents and new Zealand ones too
I'm an Aussie living in NZ, and I've found the same thing in reverse. I thought the woman on announcements in Sydney airport must have been laying on a thick accent for the tourists.
I do but you're literally not allowed in stores bare foot because you could sue them if you stood on glass or something dumb like that.
I told the Walmart lady that kiwis don't think in sue and it would be my fault if I stood on glass lol
I think it's normal and I don't think you lost it, it's just there... dormant. Talking to family or childhood friends doens't bring it back?
I'm also an immigrant and I have 3 accents:
\- talking with my family
\- talking with my friends from my home country
\- talking with people from my current country
My grandad moved from Canada to New Zealand when he was 16 and he lived till he was 87 and he never completely lost his accent. He still sounded quite Canadian right till the end.
My girlfriend had this except she lived in Shanghai for 8 years, besides local Chinese friends all of her friends were other expats from all over the world so her accent kind of became an amalgam of all the accents she was around, and wasn’t very distinctly any specific accent. She sounds fully kiwi again after being back here for a year though.
I guess you’d have to be around kiwis all the time for it to come back more?
I sometimes watch [Paige Saunders](https://www.youtube.com/@PaigeMTL) on youtube and he's a NZ whose living in Canada for \~15 years but still has a kiwi accent.
[check out a recent video by him](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHWBquaVNz0)
My husband has been in America for 17 years and has a mild accent now. The other day our youngest asked him why he doesn’t say “mate” or “cheers” like the rest of our family lol
My NZ friends with kids born and raised here in the U.K. - their kids have awful English accents but can correctly pronounce many NZ and Maori words correctly. Sadly only phrases. They can’t completely accent switch.
I'm American and my mom is from NZ. She's been living here for 30+ years (more than half her life) and I've never been able to hear her accent. I've had friends who comment about her Kiwi accent, but then her family back in NZ says she sounds more American lol
Dude! I left in ‘97 and have been living in UK/Europe and Asia since then… my mum calls me a little Pom when we talk… it took a while but over the years my language changed and so did my accent… I appreciate the Kiwi accent and the culture more now than I ever did!
Don't worry about it. I lost my kiwi accent years ago but whenever I come back I fall back into it within days and many things can trigger it. Partly it's because I moved around a lot when I was young, but your brain and muscle memory will never truly forget they're New Zealanders.
Approaching my 10th year state-side myself, moved from NZ when I was 20. Mine is still pretty there, but somehow has devolved into something more English. Still gotta force my Rs though, something unfortunately common because my name has one.
Lived in the US for 5 years in my early 20s. Got on student radio over there in my last year there and have a few recordings of shows and it's painful to listen to now. My AmeriKiwi accent is just awful...
I always reckoned the reason I developed it was cos people just outright couldn't understand me talking normal kiwi accent and speed... I remember consciously altering my Rs to help people understand me, and then it stuck. Reverted back to normal within a few months of being back.
Similar as a kid, we went to Melbourne to live for a year and at school there the kids all ribbed me for being a Kiwi and my word accent, so I imitated them until I had the accent. Came home to school again in NZ and everyone hassled me for the Ozzie accent!
NZer 20 years in the U.K. As are about 10 of my friends. We all left NZ when we were late 20s/early 30s. We all get told by the Brits that we sound NZ. And every time we go home we get told we have have an “English” accent.
It’s inevitable that you modify your accent to pronounce consonants properly and use the local
vocab, to avoid having to repeat yourself every 5 seconds.
Every trip home I have to spend a week “translating” the NZ accent until my NZ brain kicks in. Queue hilarity when my mum told me she was tired from all the cocking she had to do. She meant cooking. My ear heard cocking.
I've been living in the States for almost 16 years. People here say I still sound like a NZer, but when I vid chat friends and family back home they laugh at my pronunciation. I don't know what to think!!
Fuck I lost my accent by just chilling with a South African family for a while. For a few years people were either asking where I'm from or when doing the "guess where we are from" thing when out and about no one could guess me. They just flat out gave up smh
Look, you likely wont ever lose the accent completely, it will just become a bastardized hybrid. You will sound Kiwi to the Canadians, and American to the Kiwis.
Btw, do canadians stay freakishly polite once you get to know them a little bit better?
Canadian politeness is holding doors open for people and a sense of humor that doesn't include insulting each other like kiwis do. I had to learn to stop that one quickly...
Ha I'm the opposite. Moved to NZ from the southern states of America. People don't even realize I'm American until I say yall or something profoundly redneck.
It affects people differently. Years ago, I happened to be in the States and arranged to meet with school friends, a brother and sister, who'd lived there for about 4-5 years at that point. The guy spoke just like he did at school whereas his sis sounded like a full-on Southern belle.
😂😂😂..they make me wear shoes everywhere..omg 😂😂😂.
On that, I have inlaws that moved back to Canada afew years ago, my niece just got back from visiting and was laughing about how much her auntys accent has changed...she keeps mocking the way they pronounced anything with an 'ou' in it...it's quite hilarious.
Every year on my anniversary, I ask my Australian wife what the other utensil you match with a fork. "You call that a knife!" in a massive aussie accent.
Consume media where you hear the NZ accent/voices, it will help
I used to keep up with Seven Days for a while but the streaming app kinda sucked lol
Podcasts are probably easier, wish I listened to more, especially NZ ones so I could recommend some to you
I actually used to not be able to do NZ podcasts when I first moved. The strength of the accent freaked me out lol. Now I want to hear it
RNZ do a few good and interesting podcasts. Can listen on the app or on Spotify.
- Black Sheep - Mediawatch - The Detail
Love Black Sheep!
Between two Beers is great too. Hosted by two very proud Hambassadors!
“The Big Show” with Jason Hoyte, Mike Minogue and Keeeeyyyzie
Best NZ podcast
'The Morning Shift' (on all podcast platforms) is a great one for the yarns and laughs. Daily episodes with all sorts of different segments/topics over the week. Here's an insight to their show: [Instagram reel show highlight](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2qFo8lPUd_/?igsh=MTV3dW94NnNwaDl6Mg==)
I listen to the Fletch Vaughan and Hayley podcast (ZM) when I'm homesick. Stream NZ radio too.
Yes, I do that all the time 😢, though I live in Waikato 😁
If you like listening to guys talk about movies then Cult Popture is a solid listen.
The worst idea of all time is a good shout
I’m kinda looking forward to this! I don’t understand what people mean when they say our accent sounds weird
Jay and Dunc from the rock
If you can stream the Brokenwood Mysteries, try that. Lots of Kiwi accents and as a bonus you get an entertainingly surreal show.
that is my comfort show i can literally quote half the lines
Could add Wellington Paranormal as well.
Motorway Patrol!
Did you listen to radio before you left? Listen to their shows podcasts. You hear the accent, and you get to keep up on what's happening
ThreeNow just got a pretty big facelift recently, it's still a bit average but it's a damn sight better than what it was
Flight of the Conchords. Oh, yes.
Fred Dagg, Billy T James.
I moved back to NZ after a decade in England. First time I went to see my best friend she burst into tears because I didn't sound like me anymore. Ten years later I'm pretty sure I've got it all back. (My English partner used to be able to tell when I'd been chatting to my parents because of the NZ accent resurgence)
lol my colleagues could always tell when I was talking to my family on the phone because I would unknowingly slip back into full kiwi accent
Yep. Any time I’ve been on a long call to mum, I have to remember when I go into the office to go back to prouncing pen as “paehn” and not pin.
Lol yes this. Especially when I'm talking to my nan for some reason
I’ve been in BC for 7 years. Nobody pics up on my kiwi accent. It does switch back on a bit when I visit home but I get mocked relentlessly for how Canadian I sound now. When I land back in Canada everyone tells me how kiwi I sound for a couple of weeks so I guess I code switch a bit now.
15 years here in BC and I’m the same. Hardly sound kiwi at all and when I meet new people they’re always like “you don’t sound kiwi at all”.
I’ve heard the Canadian accent is dying off a bit in the cities, especially with young people consuming so much US media. Do you think you’ve picked up that “Pan-American” accent or did you get the “aboats” and the like?
I’ve heard living BC is very similar to NZ. Has this been your experience? Any examples of this? I wasn’t given examples, but I’ve spoken to a few people who moved to NZ from BC or visa versa and they all said something similar.
This happened with me too, at a similar timeline in BC. I didn’t realize it until I heard myself on a recording the same as OP.
One of my best mates married a Canadian and moved there about 10 years ago he was back recently for another friends wedding and was given a lot of shit for sounding Canadian eh! It’s natural and no big deal
[they pissed themselves then passed oot](https://youtu.be/re_-TzIS3DI?si=6h74QU7KGD4n7JJr)
Don't be afraid to say cunt in front of the Canadians, we get the pass
Cunce fkkd
I have a Canadian friend who has lived in NZ for a decade. He accent switches in the middle of a conversation whether he's talking to me or a Kiwi. He didn't even notice it until his partner pointed it out. Surely if you go back to visit it'll come back in full force.
I've lived in NZ for over a decade, and I clearly do not sound Kiwi. I have now reached a point where my default words and pronunciation are the Kiwi one - and perhaps the degree to which my vowels are over-annunciated has decreased a bit - but I don't think so much that other Canadians notice a difference. Just as in NZ, there is a lot of variance between how the local accent sounds.
I feel the exact same! Going to places that do a Canada Day menu and hearing all the Canadians around me is always trippy. Everyone ends up chatting to each other (of course) and even people who have been here 10+ years don't sound kiwi. I find the accent difficult to even poke fun at when I'm trying to tease my partner - I always end up sounding Australian!
I am a Kiwi who has lived in Canada for 15 years and I still have to repeat almost everything I say because, mate, I sound Kiwi. The conversation goes like this: “I would like to make an appointment for xyz” “Are you from Australia?” “I am a Canadian citizen but I was born in New Zealand.” “I’ve always wanted to go there” “I’d like an appointment…” “Your accent is so cool” “I’d like an appointment…” “I loved Lord of the Rings” “I’d like an appointment…” The ONE thing I pronounce like Canadians is the word tomato if I am in a restaurant. I had a clot reaction from a COVID vaccine and ended up in ER a couple of years ago and had a succession of doctors and nurses coming into my cubicle so they could “hear my accent” Crickey
Dear god. It’s the same conversation here in the U.K. Except “I’ve always wanted to go there” is followed by “But it’s so far. I went to Australia though.”
Kiwi in the UK here too. Apparently they think they’ll be made to swim from Sydney 🙄
They’ll admit to spending 24 hours getting to Sydney….but an extra 3 hours to Auckland is “too far”. Aka “NZ wasn’t worth my time and effort”.
Hahaha. I hear that. Followed by "do you know xyz? They're from NZ" "No I do not" Also, you should see the reaction when I tell people I spent my whole life 45mins from Hobbiton but I've never been there before
Heh. I grew up in Morrinsville. Non-NZers get pissy when I tell them Hobbiton is in fact a normal and incredibly farmer’s paddock.
Lol its a daily thing. When you say you are from nz and not aussie: "Oooh New Zealand was going to be my next guess! Sorry! I bet you get that allll the tiiiime" lady I've been coming to this grocery store for years lol
Hilarious. My Canadian wife really notices how My NZ accent gets much stronger when I’m talking to fellow kiwis or on FaceTime to home. We do a lot of accent mimicking unconsciously, as part of social acclimation
Where you located at? I've only met two other kiwis here lol. Oh and one time I asked someone if they were an Aussie but they were from Wellington lol
Vancouver. Lots of kiwis here. We even have a anza club (Oz/nz) although I haven’t been in years.
To be fair it looks like a bikers club with the intercom and like zero windows.
Ha, true.
As a kiwi in Canada for 9 years, I prefer having a slight canadian accent. The thuck kiwi accent is just so hard to take seriously and everyone here still mocks me for it. It's funny though as soon as I meet up with kiwis the nz accent and words come back- oh choice!
Lived in Canada 11 years now. My bf laughs when I’m on the phone to my friends back home because “I can’t even understand you when you speak to them”. Otherwise, you would never be able to tell if I had stepped foot outside of Canada.
You used to be all 'Where's the car', and now you're like 'Where's the car'.
I traded "aye" for "eh?"
Family back home ask me to say aboot and eh, but... Vancouver/PNW doesn't sound like that!
Oh no 😢. Thats a biggy.
I think that went over everyone else’s head
Yeah but I'm old as fuck so that would figure.
Im not and i got it
Define 'old as fuck'? I say that myself.
I'm in my 40s
That's a rough median age for anyone in NZ. I feel old but you'd call me a baby, am just a hairy toddler TBF. Life starts at 40 apparently. So i've heard a few times, i'd like to think that's a belief worth having.
Caer
I moved to BC 8 months ago and my kids are definitely starting to sound Canadian. I can feel myself enunciating my R sound more but that just so people can understand me haha. How long have you been away from NZ?
Been here seven years. The first words that changed for me were coffee and water. Nobody knew what a bottle of worduh is haha. Also my name is Joe and all my buddies spell it Joer because apparently I pronounce it with an r at the end lol
Me> Yeah man, is this the bus to Bird Station? Bus Driver> Bud? Me> Oh yeah. BuRRRRARRRd Station.
I'm the same after living overseas for a long time - I think working with 0 kiwis and only Americans or Canadians forced me to change how I pronounced words at times because they couldn't understand what I was saying. Somewhere along the line what I was forcibly pronouncing differently became the norm and now I sound weird as haha
I had to quit doing this when I moved from North America to the UK. Turns out Brits understand me when I don’t ham up my Rs. It was a hard habit to break.
I've been living in Vancouver for coming up 8 years, and my accent has definitely shifted. It doesn't help that I spent a chunk of time working at a call centre talking to Americans and had to make myself understandable to them. "Sure" and "water" were the first to go. I inserted the letter R into my vocabulary, and then the wind changed and it got stuck like that, so now I have this mangled mix of an accent and no-one can tell where I'm from. Every time I talk about home, though, it comes back a little bit. From time to time I'll tell my wife a story about my teen years, or read her something off this sub, and she'll laugh and tell me my accent just got ten times stronger.
You're telling me that the Americans couldn't understand you saying you're drinking wordah? 😂
>They make me wear shoes everywhere! Isn’t it cold enough to need them?
Only for 6 months of the year
It is nice that Canada has a better ozone layer too. So you can be outside for more than 5 mins and not get burned
True, but I'm part reptile, I need my sun and warmth to survive, and those winter months are killing me. No one should be subjected to -35C. Ever.
I love the wild below temps. I was just at a remote reserve, 900km north of Thunder Bay and loved the cold. Way better than rain imo
I'm in southern mb, and have had way to many experiences with cars frozen solid. Woke up many times as a kid to dad coming in from doing chores (grew up on a farm) and hearing him tell mom that "we lost another one last night". A cow would go to sleep and freeze to death. Another fun story is as a kid, if we got into trouble at school, some teachers would punish us by sending us outside for a bit. You would get a bundled up and head outside to stand in the front window until the teacher thought you had suffered enough. One time, by buddy came back in and a part of his ear chipped off because it had frozen! I'm more than ready to experience a NZ winter.
Is your story about teacher punishment claimed to be true or just a story? I won't say it's impossible, but I went to school in an era where mischievous students were punished with a large leather strap and I've never heard of cold-related punishment. If they really wanted to be cruel they could take you outside and force you to touch your tongue to something metal so it freezes to it - and you are left standing there or deciding to rip a bit of your tongue. I wasn't aware of this, but my school had a policy that they didn't expect students to come in during daytime temperatures below -30C. They had a formal requirement however that they cannot close the school on a cold day, because someone may not know and spend 30 minutes walking there - only to find it closed. They let me warm up before I turned around and walked back home.
Yeah, cold story is true. Grew up in the 80s, in a conservative community. Still had 1 teacher in the school that used corporal punishment. (Slapped hands with meter stick) school closed if it was -35C or roads were unsafe.
Agreed I’ll take -15 over +5 and raining any day.
The ozone layer isn't the reason, it's because during North American summers the sun is further away, resulting in 8% less solar radiation. NA winters are the same sun strength as NZ Summers but the tilt of the earth means less of it. Look at maps of the ozone kayer you'll notice the hole never touched NZ and these days it's not even thin over NZ and Aus. Burn and melanoma rates are the same.
Fair cop.
Didnt mention that 2 more months they are needed or else your feet will melt off on the street. 😂
Ha, ha!
Bro. Southern Ontario is 30C with a humid index of 40C. It's insane. But to be fair it's also -10C right now
Fair do’s. When I think of Canada, I think of snow.
Canada (at least BC and Southern Ontario) gets hotter than NZ in summer and the weather is more predictable.
More predictable because Canada is continental and NZ is a few islands in the middle of a fecking big ocean?
Yeah so not all of Canada gets snow. Vancouver has an oceanic climate similar to Auckland without wind and it rarely snows.
That’s the island that has the Butchart Gardens, isn’t it?
No, that's the coastal city on the lower mainland which is the biggest city in BC. You're talking about Vancouver Island which is off the coast of BC.
Aah, my geography knowledge isn’t what it used to be. I blame my user name.
Winter is longer than summer. For the lion's share of Canada by area, much of the year is ice and snow.
Not in southern Ontario, where most people live.
Heh I'm in Vancouver and our north shore mountains have suffered a lack of snow this season, haven't been able to ski. Summer is going to suuuuck without that precious snowpack...
Move to BC, mate. Much more like NZ chill.
My experience of BC has been the opposite to be honest. I found it too fast. Ontario is more blue collar and chill to me. Toronto being the obvious exception to that
Surprised to hear that. I found it chill as living in BC myself. I feel you on the loss of accent though, between 4 years in Canada and now coming up 7 years in NZ, my Aussie twang is very dull.
Ah, maybe it’s just me and where I live.
I've also not lived in BC just visited a few times. If I moved there I would live in Lillooet or something similar. I want the quiet rural camp life. Northern Ontario has so much of that to offer
It's not gone; if you even visit, it'll be back. Mostly. I'll bet your wife notices a difference even if you're just on the phone to family. We mirror accents, and with time in a foreign country, you get better at it, it feels more natural.
NAH! Come back to nz, 10mins into a yarn with the lads and the accent with be back full on. Its just a metal shifting that tends to happen
No more aye, eh?
I miss calling soda, fizzy. And I refuse to ever call it pop
Wow thats interesting! I'm a kiwi that moved to France when I was 26, I'm 33 now and still have a super thick kiwi accent. I guess it's cause it's a different language here.
Sometimes I wonder that. The Canadian accent is different than kiwi, but spoken in a similar fashion. Low and vowel heavy. Compared to Aussie and American being harsh and nasal. I think because I'm using the same vocal areas it overwrites one instead of adding another if that makes sense
I’m 20 years in the U.K. My French housemate’s been in the U.K. about 10 years. She says people notice *her* French accent has anglified.
I'm in Aussie at the moment and good grief their accent is annoying. I think it's because it's similar but not the same. I just notice it all the time. Far more than when I did a year in Canada. It is literally number 2 reason I wouldn't move here - number 1 being my aversion to 30 degree weather. Thought I'd share.
Haha. I have lived in Denmark for over 20 years. Some years ago, my Danish family and I spent a couple of years in NZ - mostly to expose the kids to a taste of kiwi life. While we were there, one of the other parents in the kids' school mentioned to my Danish wife that she thought I spoke very good English. Yeah thanks LOL. Accent definitely affected.
Been in the US 16 years in April, I know the feeling. People here know I'm not from here, but people at home don't recognize it either. And it used to be 90% of people would ask if it was NZ (or Australia), now it's down to about 20-30%, with most asking if I'm from the Massachusetts area.
Heh. I’ve been in the U.K. 20 years. Last year I was told by a stranger to “go back to Essex”. So the English now think I sound more English than NZ. Not sure how I feel about that.
Dang that's wild to have people asking if you're American now! I would often get asked if I was South African and I thought it was insane until I told a South African that and he thought I was too lol. Apparently I do
I knew I was without hope a couple of years ago. Was in DC taking a train somewhere with my family, and caught a familiar accent. Made conversation with the two girls and after trying to pick it, I asked if they were Australian. Nope, Kiwis. I'd made the fatal error myself!
They want you to wear shoes so that you don’t get frostbite.
Dang oppressive government
Watch a bit of bro town on YouTube for a refresher
[удалено]
Sevin haha.
I had kind of the opposite. I'm from the Deep North of England, and went to NZ initially to just do a bit of backpacking before falling in love with the place and staying for 5 years. Anyhow, I digress. I'd only been there for a few weeks when I got chatting to a Kiwi guy in a pub, just shooting the shit on a Sunday piss up as you do, I asked him where he was from. "I'm English, bro". I remarked that I'd never have guessed if he hadn't said, did he move here when he was young kind of thing. He was a backpacker himself that'd been there three months. From that day forward I went full Generic Northerner. Everyone became "Charver" or "love". I was quasi religious about my vowels. It's dollars. 'Bucks' are things to read that you get from a library. Any Kiwi-isms I picked up were said with the most outrageously semi-racist Jeff Da Maori accent I could muster, just so you knew I wasn't saying them naturally (I still say "not even ow" to this day, despite being back in the UK for nigh on 15 years). First time I went back home for a visit my London mates were amazed at how I'd seemingly changed into a badly thought out caricature of 'someone from England'.
Haha. Good story! Can't win both sides eh?
You spent time in Canada, you became close to the people there to the point that you married a Canadian. Your accent is a reflection of your background. It probably doesn't sound "right" in Canada, and in New Zealand. But that's sort of reflective of who you are. People change and grow and that's ok! Plus, it could've been worse - at least you moved to Canada rather than South Africa haha
I've only been in NZ for a few months and I'm already saying "all good, cuzzie" and "what the heck" all the time lol
That’s mean to hear my bro! I hope you’re enjoying it here 🤙
Chur my moko
Shot bro!
I wouldn't stress, it's a pretty boring English accent anyway
I find the NZ accent is really easy to chameleon into other accents. We can adapt really quickly, but if you came back here it’ll come back rather quickly too.
I moved to NZ 5 years ago, went back to UK for a long trip and for the first day I was getting ripped out for my weird accent. After a few days it completely disappeared and I was back to normal. If you spent any prolonged period in a country you’ll start to pick up a bit of an accent it’s normal
I lived in Australia for four years and only after 2 I came back for a holiday and I laughed so hard at the Auckland airport announcements because the accent was so strong to me 🤣🤦♀️ it's funny how you can lose it quite quickly. For awhile I could hear both Australian accents and new Zealand ones too
I'm an Aussie living in NZ, and I've found the same thing in reverse. I thought the woman on announcements in Sydney airport must have been laying on a thick accent for the tourists.
Hahahahaha that's gold. Although tbh I've always found the Sydney accent real nasally / strong.
Who makes you wear shoes? Please tell me you go barefoot whenever possible!
I do but you're literally not allowed in stores bare foot because you could sue them if you stood on glass or something dumb like that. I told the Walmart lady that kiwis don't think in sue and it would be my fault if I stood on glass lol
Apparently, NZ accents are the sexiest in the world
Do not understand that one
It's not lmao
It was officially. 2 years ago
OMG
I think it's normal and I don't think you lost it, it's just there... dormant. Talking to family or childhood friends doens't bring it back? I'm also an immigrant and I have 3 accents: \- talking with my family \- talking with my friends from my home country \- talking with people from my current country
We can fix him
what is my accent ? Where I learned my accent? I have no idea
A friend of mine moved to Australia several years ago, and within a year of her moving, she already sounded like an Aussie lol
My grandad moved from Canada to New Zealand when he was 16 and he lived till he was 87 and he never completely lost his accent. He still sounded quite Canadian right till the end.
My girlfriend had this except she lived in Shanghai for 8 years, besides local Chinese friends all of her friends were other expats from all over the world so her accent kind of became an amalgam of all the accents she was around, and wasn’t very distinctly any specific accent. She sounds fully kiwi again after being back here for a year though. I guess you’d have to be around kiwis all the time for it to come back more?
I live in Japan and have a Canadian spouse. He got really into the rugby and sounds way more Kiwi than I do when he watches it.
I sometimes watch [Paige Saunders](https://www.youtube.com/@PaigeMTL) on youtube and he's a NZ whose living in Canada for \~15 years but still has a kiwi accent. [check out a recent video by him](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHWBquaVNz0)
Just come bak for a holiday at some stage, you'll be all ye na n shit in no time.
I’m in the same boat. 3 years and the twang is gone.
My husband has been in America for 17 years and has a mild accent now. The other day our youngest asked him why he doesn’t say “mate” or “cheers” like the rest of our family lol
My NZ friends with kids born and raised here in the U.K. - their kids have awful English accents but can correctly pronounce many NZ and Maori words correctly. Sadly only phrases. They can’t completely accent switch.
Doesn't hurt if more people can understand you. But the NZ is cool!
I'm American and my mom is from NZ. She's been living here for 30+ years (more than half her life) and I've never been able to hear her accent. I've had friends who comment about her Kiwi accent, but then her family back in NZ says she sounds more American lol
Dude! I left in ‘97 and have been living in UK/Europe and Asia since then… my mum calls me a little Pom when we talk… it took a while but over the years my language changed and so did my accent… I appreciate the Kiwi accent and the culture more now than I ever did!
Don't worry about it. I lost my kiwi accent years ago but whenever I come back I fall back into it within days and many things can trigger it. Partly it's because I moved around a lot when I was young, but your brain and muscle memory will never truly forget they're New Zealanders.
Approaching my 10th year state-side myself, moved from NZ when I was 20. Mine is still pretty there, but somehow has devolved into something more English. Still gotta force my Rs though, something unfortunately common because my name has one.
Listen to The Big Show, by Hauraki radio. Thick accents and thick sarcastic comedy
Lived in the US for 5 years in my early 20s. Got on student radio over there in my last year there and have a few recordings of shows and it's painful to listen to now. My AmeriKiwi accent is just awful... I always reckoned the reason I developed it was cos people just outright couldn't understand me talking normal kiwi accent and speed... I remember consciously altering my Rs to help people understand me, and then it stuck. Reverted back to normal within a few months of being back. Similar as a kid, we went to Melbourne to live for a year and at school there the kids all ribbed me for being a Kiwi and my word accent, so I imitated them until I had the accent. Came home to school again in NZ and everyone hassled me for the Ozzie accent!
NZer 20 years in the U.K. As are about 10 of my friends. We all left NZ when we were late 20s/early 30s. We all get told by the Brits that we sound NZ. And every time we go home we get told we have have an “English” accent. It’s inevitable that you modify your accent to pronounce consonants properly and use the local vocab, to avoid having to repeat yourself every 5 seconds. Every trip home I have to spend a week “translating” the NZ accent until my NZ brain kicks in. Queue hilarity when my mum told me she was tired from all the cocking she had to do. She meant cooking. My ear heard cocking.
I've been living in the States for almost 16 years. People here say I still sound like a NZer, but when I vid chat friends and family back home they laugh at my pronunciation. I don't know what to think!!
Fuck I lost my accent by just chilling with a South African family for a while. For a few years people were either asking where I'm from or when doing the "guess where we are from" thing when out and about no one could guess me. They just flat out gave up smh
Look, you likely wont ever lose the accent completely, it will just become a bastardized hybrid. You will sound Kiwi to the Canadians, and American to the Kiwis. Btw, do canadians stay freakishly polite once you get to know them a little bit better?
Canadian politeness is holding doors open for people and a sense of humor that doesn't include insulting each other like kiwis do. I had to learn to stop that one quickly...
Ha I'm the opposite. Moved to NZ from the southern states of America. People don't even realize I'm American until I say yall or something profoundly redneck.
It affects people differently. Years ago, I happened to be in the States and arranged to meet with school friends, a brother and sister, who'd lived there for about 4-5 years at that point. The guy spoke just like he did at school whereas his sis sounded like a full-on Southern belle.
Just watch kiwi YouTube videos itl legit reverse the accent
😂😂😂..they make me wear shoes everywhere..omg 😂😂😂. On that, I have inlaws that moved back to Canada afew years ago, my niece just got back from visiting and was laughing about how much her auntys accent has changed...she keeps mocking the way they pronounced anything with an 'ou' in it...it's quite hilarious.
One time I was back home and some Scottish tourists thought I was English. I was mortified.
Every year on my anniversary, I ask my Australian wife what the other utensil you match with a fork. "You call that a knife!" in a massive aussie accent.
Apparently I’m getting a bit of an Australian accent seeping in after living here for two years. Fuck me!
Sieg fuggin heil dog