What does an american accent sound like to a foreigner?

[mrstickball]

Millennium said:

shinyuhadouken said:
as others said, there is no official accent in the US.

This, more or less. About the closest one gets is the one spoken on the West coast and the mid-Atlantic states, and I'm not sure this accent has a name (or even that it's the same in both regions, though they sound similar enough that I suspect they're at least related). The Midwest has a different accent, as do the Northern cities. Then there's the South, which at the very least needs to be split between Southwest, Deep South, and Appalachia. And there's whatever the heck Sarah Palin has; it reminds me of North Dakota, but that's not where she's from; maybe some kind of Northwest accent (not to be confused with Pacific Northwest, which runs much closer to the West coast that I mentioned above)? If I really had to name a standard in terms of U.S. Presidents, I'd put it somewhere between Reagan and Obama and call both of them very close.

If you want a breakdown of major American accents:

• Northwestern (New Yorker-type accent. Italian-influenced)
• South Eastern (Southern-Draw. Comes in a few minor variants such as a heavier redneck, Larry The Cable Guy style and Alabama/Mississippi)
• North Mid-West (that's the Sarah Palin accent. Starts in Michigan and goes to North Dakota with a stop in Alaska, it seems)
• Cowboy (Oklahoma/Texas)
• Cajuin (Louisiana)
• Surfer/Valley Girl (Pacific-West..Pretty small group of accents)
• 'Traditional' (Mid-West to CA which is the default voice)

There are always variants, but those seem to be the major and minor variants. Its kind of like English accents - you know a scot or an Irishman when you hear one. Same goes for other language-speakers when they learn English.