https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/learning/what-does-your-accent-say-about-who-you-are.html

(Source: Voices.com)

Accent represents a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation. An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside, the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language, and so on.

Personally, I don’t think I have a typical accent. Although I am ethnically Chinese, I have been studying and communicating in English-as-first-language environments since Grade 7, so I don’t think that my accent represents any locality. My friends say that it is neutral.

However, one similarity between the international schools I have been in is that most teachers speak in American-accent. Which I believe is quite a difference from the traditional British-accent that we hear often on TV series.

Therefore, being engaged with American-speaking teachers for many years shaped my accent somewhat towards them. I believe is beneficial to me as a learner, as being engaged in different conversations with different accents can broaden my perspective on the world and different cultures, especially the way people speak and pronounce in their cultures.