Is English your first language?

I can't believe I forgot to post this post-Greece. So our fun Greek friend who bought us Metro tickets asked me the craziest question.

Toward the end of our 15-20 minute conversation he asked me if English was my first language! I said no and asked why he might think so. His response was that I had a funny accent and talked really slow like I was looking for the words.

I laughed so hard and tried to explain to him that slow speech and drawls were just how it was done in the south.

And for those of you who don't think I sound that southern, I should note that as it gets later in the night my accent gets increasingly thicker. Also, to be fair, no English class listens to southern dialects for dialogues.