When someone has an accent, why can we often tell his/her origin? And why is it that we can hear that person’s origin no matter what language they speak? Why can we tell a French accent in English or in Spanish or in Chinese? More fundamentally, why can we even hear accents?

In this episode, I analyze a content creator who created a humorous take on the same Chinese phrase but said in various accents which we can tell apart, even if we don’t speak that language. I’ll analyze features that make you immediately recognize the linguistic origin, and by doing this you’ll recognize how accents work