i was born in greece but came here when i was 10 months old why dont i have an accent like my parents do?

Answer 1

If the only people that you ever surrounded yourself with were your parents then you would have an accent. But since you were around Americans that was a bigger influence since you heard more at school, work, etc.

Answer 2

Well, you don't have an accent because you've lived here, and I think that when you live here for a long time, your accent becomes different, because you're used to hearing Americans talking in their accent, and therefore you will talk like them. For example, I was born in America, and my mom is from Trinidad. I don't have a Trinidadian accent like her, even if I try to talk like her. So, you live in America, you get used to the accent. Simple as that.

Answer 3

You don't have a greek accent because you were raised basically all of your life here, instead of Greece. So, most of the people are you didn't have a greek accent, except your family.

Answer 4

Well, you were raised here so you get the country's accent. I was raised in the Philippine Islands so I have an accent even though I'm 13. My Mom's friend's daughter doesn't know our native language anymore...

Answer 5

well u were basically raised here and everyone here speaks english w/o an accent therefore u don't have an accent. if you were raised in greece, that would be a different story.

Answer 6

because people sound more like their friends than their parents. It doesn't matter if you spoke greek from birth or not. You have been exposed to your peer's accents since you started school. You probably had a slight accent in kindergarden.

Answer 7

You probably have a very slight accent that you aren't aware of, since you were exposed to your parents' way of speaking at such an early age. And everyone around you speaks a different way, so you just picked it up from them.

Answer 8

Because there are 50 bazillion American and only two parents. There are more people speaking "standard" English around you that there are parents, even thought you spend your more time with your parents.

Besides, accents aren't "genetic". You don't automatically get one because your parents have one. It's your environment.

Answer 9

Because you learn your accent from your peers, not from your parents. You learn to speak like the children around you, the ones you play with.

Answer 10

How you speak depends on the voices you hear when you are learning. Yes, you heard your parents, but you also heard everyone else in the U.S. and on TV. It can lead to some strange combinations if you learn to speak a different language later in life, though. We once had a Belgian neighbor who learned English when he left Belgium with a troop of soldiers from Tennessee!