The first British I’ve ever met was on TV and he was Mr. Bean. I could understand all episodes without knowing any single word of English (apart from the classic verb “to be” verb conjugation). I just had to look at the gestures and that’s it, easy! Our conversations were simple, I watched and I laughed and he kept doing funny faces. Years later, everything is different, I am about to finish my Masters in London and I have to face recruiters and companies with the proper British accent.

Doing a Masters at Hult gave me the chance to met people from 31 countries, just in my class. Yes! in one classroom. It feels like being in the Tower of Babel but here everyone is paying attention to the Professor. It gets me the chance to listen multiple accents (American, Filipino, Brazilian, Indian, Chinese, Russian, Mexican, etc). and get stuck with them for the next 2 hours. It is quite funny how people easily get the accent. Unfortunately we do not have a British classmate, otherwise we could improve our accent.

Actually, you don’t realize your dialect until someone make fun of it or when a person frowns while listening to you. I was wondering what will be easier, shall we all change ours to British accent or shall natives keep adapting their ears to weird pronunciation? Who knows. The main fact is that London gives this opportunity to understand, learn, tolerate and have fun with other cultures. Someone told me before I came here “In London you make friends in every corner” and she wasn’t wrong; that happens specially in summer when everyone is in a good mood. So stop reading for a second and look around, how many nationalities have you around? How many friends have you around? It can’t be the same number, otherwise you will be Miss or Mr. Sympathy. Although, if you have the chance, grab a coffee and try to talk to that person next to you, there is a lot more to listen than a funny accent.