Picking up accents

Is it possible to pick up accents by simply listening to the people around you (even though speaking would speed up the process)? And how long do you think it takes to pick up an accent?

By the way, I'm a French Canadian living in England, and the word "pardon" is starting to get on my nerves. :x

I believe it is. When I was in England for three weeks, I noticed that I picked up a bit of the British accent, but lost it again as soon as I was back home. Friend of mine lived in London for two years, and by that time spoke English with a more or less perfect British accent

CauldronBorn,

I'm puzzled by your question. If you don't speak, how will you know whether you're acquiring an accent?

Does the use of "pardon" bother you because you hear it so frequently, or because it's not pronounced as it is in French?

"I believe it is. When I was in England for three weeks, I noticed that I picked up a bit of the British accent"

I can't believe that, unless you were very young.
In my opinion, in order to pick up an accent, one needs really to pay attention to the people's speech .

Some people have a natural ability to mimic, and some people have a natural inclination to mimic. If you have both, you'll probably end up picking up an accent without even trying.

It depends... when you started to learn the language. If it is very young and if you practice it everyday, I think you can take the accent in a few years (or even months).
But If you've already learned the language long time ago, and spoke it with you "natural" accent since then? I thinjk I will be very difficult to take the good accent.

J'ai moi-même vu des Français vivant au Québec depuis plusieurs années et qui continuent à avoir l'accent du Québec (et réciproquement)

A lot of people pick up accents without any conscious effort, often whether they want to or not. It seems to depend greatly on individual personality, with some people rapidly changing to match the locals, and others never changing at all. My impression is that this characteristic is closely linked to the ability to achieve a high level of fluency in a new language.

Well, just passive listing alone won't do it, you have to be interacting with the people.

Well, I'm Mexican so my mothertongue is Castillian. I believe that for Castillian speakers is very common to pick up accents and you don't even notice it at all. I study six months in Madrid and when I called my parents or friends in Mexico, they asked all the time if I was joking or it was true that I have speaking with Spanish accent and I hadn't noticed it. Well that is my personal experience...

I ended up picking up a swiss accent to my Hochdeutsch by the end of a summer work-abroad program. I was`nt really aware of it,other than I would work to try and sound like them(even though I was speaking german and not their actual dialect). Being around people that sound a certain way can have an effect on how you speak/accent I think. Strange that at the summers end I was often mistaken,not for an Ami,while in germany but for Schweizer! That totally blew me away! Eventually on return to the states it subsided.

>"I believe it is. When I was in England for three weeks, I noticed that I picked up a bit of the British accent"

I can't believe that, unless you were very young.
In my opinion, in order to pick up an accent, one needs really to pay attention to the people's speech . <

Perhaps I should have specified more. I picked up certain ASPECTS of the British accent, I didn't totally speak with a British accent. And yes, I did pay particular attention to the accent.
Agree with Deborah

I agree with you Andre in S.A. that to pick up a noticable accent in a relatively short time requires lots of conscious effort. I think that is how I ended up sounding more like a swiss when I spoke standard german. I was always trying to fit in and altering my pronunciation to better match the sounds of the locals and their dialect seemed natural and actually made me less of an oddity. I guess a true accent would require much more time being immersed in the language. You are right about children picking up accents quicker.

You can pick up some traits of a new accent but not of all of it - listen to Nicole Kidman - she has this American twang to her Australian accent now.