Improve Your English: English in Everyday Life

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4. WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
Um, well, my accent has picked up little things from dif-
ferent places that I’ve been. I would describe it as, it’s very 
hard when you’re, uh, going to a new place, and as I said, 
you know, I traveled all to those diff erent countries try-
ing to sell my TV show, and it was a real challenge. Th
is 
was probably the easiest place in terms of the-the people 
in business are welcoming here. Um, whereas Europe 
is, from my perspective—from my experience—doesn’t 
like to experiment too much with new things. Um, in, 
uh, in the U.S., they love it, that is what they-they want 
and their motivation. So I would be faced with having 
to talk to people most of the time who didn’t want to 
talk to me. So having an accent that was slightly diff er-
ent meant I got another minute or two that they listened 
to me, before they got rid of me. So in that way, in that 
way, my accent, um, helped. Where they, most people, 
it depends where you are, where they think you’re from. 
Um, if you’re, if I was in England, they would, they’d be 
sure I was a colonial and they would say so. If I was here, 
uh, if I were in the U.S., they would probably think I was 
Australian or South African or-or English. Um, when I’m 

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in New Zealand, now they’re not sure where I am from. 
Th
ey, you know, but, “I’m from right here.” Uh, when I’m 
there, I say that. So-so it depends where you are.
5. CHANGE OVER TIME
Yes, most people will ask me where I’m from, in the United 
States. Uh, I think it’s funny, though, when I go back to 
England and if I used a British passport or they looked 
carefully at my American passport, they’d say, “Welcome 
home.” But everybody would call me a