How Long Have You Been In Australia?

How long have you been in Australia? is probably one of the first questions people ask me when we meet.

It can be in any manner of places, at the checkout queue in the supermarket, waiting for the bus, waiting for people at the airport and it comes from all different types of people.

When I’m asked I always feel a little self-conscious of my Yorkshire accent, after all this is what has probably given me away. When I tell the questioner “11 years” I already know the response: ‘wow you sound like you have just stepped off a plane, isn’t your accent cute” 

Whilst I always answer the question with a smile, and sometimes truth be told I may answer “all my life” or “about 10 minutes”. I always then feel the need to explain why I don’t sound like an aussie after all this time. The thing is I spend an awful lot of time speaking to my family back home, even after nearly 11 years. I video call my sisters and parents nearly every day, even if it’s just for 5 minutes while I am waiting for the bath to run. I also have a couple of video calls with my best friend, who still lives in Barnsley, weekly. I probably spend more time talking to fellow Yorkshire people than I do to actual Aussie’s. It also doesn’t help either that I have a guilty obsession with watching Hollyoaks (no judgements please the story plots are soooo realistic) …. And British crime dramas…

When we first arrived in Brisbane from Barnsley 11 years ago we had difficulty with our youngest 

son speaking and sought the services of a local speech therapist. We visited twice weekly, for months and during this time, it was suggested multiple times that the issues we were having were made far worse by my Yorkshire accent. The lovely lady tried very unsuccessfully to persuade me to work on losing my accent and adopt an American/Australian twang… This didn’t go down well, and we parted ways shortly after.

It also is funny to note that when I’m out with my teenage boys (practically 18 and 15) and they sound nothing like me.  People say “wow don’t the boys sound different to you, is their dad

Australian”. I then must explain that Super G is from the south of England and I am from the north, and no we don’t hate each other weirdly enough. The boys Australian accents also gets picked up on a lot, especially by the family and friends back home. A few weeks ago, my youngest answered the phone, spoke for a minute and then put the phone back down. I said “who was that” he said “oh it was Auntie Tez but she thought she had the wrong number, so I pranked her”

I am not sure how long I will be asked this question, it may be for the rest of my life, but one thing is for sure my Yorkshire accent is here to stay  and I couldn’t be prouder :)

Until Next Time

The Opal One

www.opalrelocations.com.au