My Accent

This is something that is actually quite fascinating to me and also falls into my field of work.  I have never actually seen someone for accent reduction, but it's within my scope of practice.  I would have to take a course first or something though, because I'd have no clue where to begin.  I should start by saying I can't fake an Australian accent to save my life!  We were taught in one class that there are three 'types' of Australian accent, and I'm borrowing off dialectblog.com for an explanation:

Roughly speaking, General accents represent the most common type of English spoken in Australia. Broad accents are usually described as more extreme (and associated with more working-class speech), while Cultivated Australian accents are a prestige variety somewhat closer to the British Received Pronunciation (although actual speakers of the latter are in the minority).
For a frame or reference, these corresponding celebrities might help:
1.) Broad: the late Steve Irwin.
2.) General: Australian PM Julia Gillard.
3.) Cultivated: Cate Blanchett. (Blanchett’s somewhat more “British-Sounding” accent may be a result of her being an actress, but her speech nonetheless resembles this type of elevated Australian speech).

So now we know what type of accent I don't have.

I consider my accent to be fairly neutral, as far as North American accents go.  No drawl or twang, I don't think I sound particularly 'clipped', not too nasal...but then again, most people probably think their own accents are 'normal'.  I've taken a few amusing quizzes, such as this one: http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have which tells me I have a "North Central" American accent (and that I probably get mistaken for Canadian a lot...hahaha).  Another quiz told me that my accent is most like people in Buffalo, Rochester, and Minneapolis and least like people in Philadelphia, Jackson and New Orleans.

So as you can see...I wasn't lying...I am interested!

My accent doesn't really get in the way too much, although there are some situations at work e.g. I ask if there are any straws and get blank looks (Australians round their mouths more for the vowel so it sounds more like 'stroe').  It definitely differentiates me.  I don't think I'll be getting rid of it any time soon (or ever) and I guess I'm okay with that!