Favorite way to say red wines in a german accent?

Why do I have a different accent than my family and community?

• Edit: Two online accent quizzes said that I have a neutral accent. This explains why my accent sounds foreign to people all over the country; it's not from anywhere. It's the sort of accent actors and newscasters train to acquire, which sort of explains why so many people find it pleasant. However, I still don't know why I have this accent in the first place. Ever since puberty, people in my home town have asked me where I'm from, since I apparently don't sound like I'm from Philadelphia. They say I speak astonishingly properly, and sometimes even say that I sound European. No person in my community has this same astonishingly proper quasi-European accent. I have literally seen people become flabbergasted; I'm not exaggerating. This began when I was 13 and I'm 20 now. It gets annoying. Once a naturalized citizen assumed that I was born in another country like him. I answered phones in my high school office, and people who never saw my face marveled at my voice. I have been asked: "Are you using a fake accent?" "Do you talk that way when you're at home?" "How did you learn to speak so properly?" Why do I have a different accent than everyone I know? Some have suggested that I picked it up from TV, but I didn't watch any European media as a child. I watched the same things as other kids in Philadelphia, so shouldn't I have the same accent? When I record my own voice I think I sound like a regular person from the Mid-Atlantic United States. Do I have some kind of speech impediment that makes me sound exceedingly articulate to most Americans? I was always intuitively good at grammar in high school, if that fact can help at all.

• Answer:

  Marcus, I suspect, from your description of your very sheltered childhood, that you have been intelligent, brave and curious enough to self-invent, and you have (maybe unconsciously) selected a unique and sophisticated way of expressing yourself, that sets you apart from everyone else. When I was very young, I created my own voice, because, to be honest, I thought that people around me sounded dumb. Although I'm just a generation away from Mississippi farms myself, I just hated the nasal twang that surrounded me. So I listened to the network news guys and worked on my pronunciation of words. By junior high (middle school) the other kids were saying, "You ain't from 'round here, are ya?" because I spoke so clearly. People can be unkind to those of us who are different, but, at 56, I can tell you that I don't regret my choices.  I can fit into any situation with any type of people, because it's not how you say something. It's what you say that comforts, amuses and sometimes enlightens and ultimately opens the hearts of others to you.