science vs. romance: accents

so here's an actual exchange at a jack in the box drive-through window not too long ago:

drive-thru lady: so where you from?
me: i was born and raised round here. my parents are from vietnam though.
drive-thru lady: ah i was just wondrin' cuz you got a southern accent.
me: oh, that's cuz i'm drunk.
drive-thru lady: oh.. well... drive safe, hon

(just for the record, i wasn't really drunk. just slightly tipsy. i've vowed never to drive drunk again after the previous incident. and also, that's just endangering not only yourself but other motorists on the road. basically DON'T DRIVE DRUNK)

i dunno, maybe it's because i'm still a bit buzzed but i found the exchange hilarious. it's also a bit ironic, because it seems that most of the time (when i'm sober i guess) people are surprised by my lack of a texan accent.

for those of you who don't know, i work at a restaurant inside the airport. most of my customers are locals on their way to fly out to whatever destination, but i also often get customers from out of town just passing through DFW for whatever reason. twice in one week i got asked from tables where i was from, and when i told them i was born and raised in texas they were very surprised.

one of the times it was a family from san diego. at first when they commented on my lack of an accent i was confused. growing up in a suburban town in the middle of nowhere where i came from the ONLY asian family within a 30 mile radius, i was used to ignorant white folks that would assume i was fresh off the boat or something (my freshman year of high school, i knew someone who told me, verbatim, that he expected me to have an asian accent when he first met me and was shocked when i spoke perfect english). so anyway, when this californian family was saying the opposite ("i'm just surprised.. you have no accent!"), i was confused for a second. then i realized they were surprised that i had no texan accent (all the other servers they spoke to did i guess). they even told me i spoke kind of like a valley girl (which normally i'd take offense to, but i'd take valley girl over texan any day).

another time, it was a couple of canadians. yes, they were actually from canada (HA i love telling that joke. only servers would get that joke though i suppose). they told me i spoke like a northerner. they were adorable. i could just imagine them saying something like, "what's this hoser talking aboot, eh?"

anyway, i suppose for most of my life i've suppressed my texan accent. i've recently acquired "y'all" but that's because it's just such a convenient word to use. and i try not to say it with too much of a drawl.

i know i'm guilty of more than just the stereotypical "y'all." i'm pretty sure at some point in my life i've said "reckon" and "fixin' to." but i don't reckon i've said it within the past few years. one of my biggest pet peeves is when people refer to any type of soda as a "coke." like, someone will ask me if i want a "coke" and they bring me a dr. pepper. which is fine, because i prefer dr. pepper, but i also prefer using the generic term "soda." i don't say "pop" because apparently that's a northern thing.

so after ranting this last bit i decided to go take that quiz. here are my results:

You Speak General American English!