> One of my favorite pasttimes is trying to emulate accents. I don't think I'm too bad at it, but it often takes me a few minutes of talking to really get into one. I imagine that if I ever tried one on someone who was really from there, they'd probably laugh me to scorn.

Heh...I used to do that more when I was younger than I do now. When I was young, I discovered I had an aptitude for faking accents. Then I started learning German...and discovered the reason I had that talent. It's part of my natural language talent.

If I applied myself more, I could probably learn a half dozen languages, but I don't have the concentration for it, so I tend to pick up scattered fragments here and there, and maybe delve into grammar.

Accents still fascinate me, but now that fascination is more turned toward *dialects*. For the last five years, I've been passively learning Japanese. In that time, I've learned much about masculine and feminine formal, informal, and crude pronouns/speech patterns, and also a bit about various regional dialects. If I were ever to actually take a trip to Japan, I'd probably amuse the natives by greeting anyone I met with a hearty "Konya natchiwa!" (Osaka dialect, which is sort of the 'Southern' accent of Japan.)

-Trunks