Accents

I've spent enough time in UK, to just be able to distinguish an Irish accent from a Scottish one, and a Scottish accent from a British one and all these from the acquired desi ones ;-)

Me and C, while watching TV , try and spot out these and keep a score. It has made us more keen listeners, and we don't go all 'Sorry?', 'Pardon me?','Eh?', 'Huh?', 'What?', '??!!!' while interacting with the local people as much as we did when we arrived here ;-)
We have even picked up some slang as well, or the style in which ppl here speak - with a 'ya?' at the end ;-) 'Going home ya?', 'you reach the Liverpool stn ya?, then turn rt, ya?' . And the more recent 'mate'. We chat in office with a purposeful 'mate' at the end of every single conversation.
'Cheers mate'
'cya mate'
'how u doin mate?'
'shut up mate' ;-)

The desi accents ..esp for the lot like us, who arrive with english which is all mixed up with our regional accents. There is 'Marathi English' which has all the words rounded and pronounced till the last alphabet, without heeding the subtulity of an english word. Then there is 'Andhra English' where all words end with an extra 'u' or an extra 'a' at the end. Then there is 'Tamil English' which has a lull for every word to resonate it like a tamil word, there is 'Mallu English' which is as hard to get as is actual mallu :-) Then there are numerous north indian accents which are almost like speaking hindi, rather than english.
Watch Russell Peter doing how desis speak english - howlarious! :-)

And then once arrived, we try and blend our regional english with the local one here, and in an effort to be more understandable, try to pick the accent here. Sometimes its deliberate, sometimes its a sincere effort, sometimes its an embarassing showoff, sometimes a subconscious twang and its just so funny at times. :-)

English is a beautiful language and shines through all it goes through at the hands (or mouths? ;-) ) of all those who take a go at it. ( Did I mess up the sentence here? ;-) )