Foreign accent syndrome

[Cgk]

Hello everyone,

today I was searching the Internet for the ten weirdest mental syndromes, because I like searching for the ten weirdest ___ (fill in the blanks because I do that with just about every topic), and I came upon an illness called "Foreign accent syndrome". Perhaps some of you have heard of it already, others may wonder, "What on earth is that?"

Foreign accent syndrome usually occurs after some kind of brain injury or after having suffered a stroke. It is rare, however. What happens is that when a patient suffers this kind of syndrome, he or she suddenly pronounces words in his/her native language differently, and not just differently, they sound completely foreign! An American woman, who had suffered a stroke recovered and found herself speaking with a perfect British accent, although she has never been in Great Britain! A Norwegian woman, who had sustained a head injury by a shrapnel in 1941, woke up and spoke her native language with a thick German accent.

Just imagine: you suffer a stroke or a head injury, and suddenly you sound like a foreigner in your own country!

Claudia
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In the land of the ignorant, the biggest fool is king.

[Kitosdad]

Good afternoon Claudia. Perhaps some of our non-native speakers will appear that way if they should reach their desired goals in losing their own accents and speaking perfect, fluent English.

Surely something for them to ponder over.

Kitos.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Foah]

Hello Claudia,

that reminds me of the poor jerk who was head over heels with the Eastern Frisian girl and wanted to marry her. Since her parents insisted on a good relationship and required him to get familar with them the poor man went to the doctor and asked him for a solution. "Ok, I can help you" the doctor claimed "I only have to replace 80 percent of our brain!!!!" Well the lover agreed on a surgery and soon it was done.
All went well, but when the lover awoke from the anesthesia the doctor ashamed admitted: "I´m so sorry. Instead of 80% I replaced 90% of your brain!!!!!"
"Ja mei ,....." the lover responded in best Bavarian tongue " dös macht a nix.................!"
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"Ho ho!" said the clown

[Jamie (K)]

When I heard that joke, it was a Czech man who wanted to be Slovak. He was told the surgeon would have to remove half of his brain. When he came out of anesthesia, he was told they had accidentally removed three-quarters of his brain, and he answered, "Этo ничего!" in Russian.

A friend of mine is American, his wife is Filipina, and their daughter, born and raised in the US, had a German accent when she first started learning to talk. Nobody knows how.

[Blue113]

Some kids here speak in a semi American accent. They picked it up from the TV shows.

Do you think if I give them a really hard knock on their heads, they would starting speaking with a perfect American accent? You know..kind of like knocking your TV set when the reception is bad.

[Cezve]

I wonder what kind of exposure the patients had to those foreign accents before their accidents. I can understand getting a brain injury, and as a result not being able to speak words properly, but developing a perfect accent is just weird.

[Foah]