Growing up in Wisconsin it is inevitable to have people make fun of our accents (among other things). It doesn’t help that every TV personality interviews people from here that epitomize the north woods, WI accent and make us look like idiots in general. I always thought I didn’t sound like a Midwesterner - boy, was I wrong. I used to spend some time with people from Nebraska (which is actually in the Midwest!) and every time they would see me they would ask me to “say bag” and when I did they thought it was the funniest thing. They then would continue to blurt out other words and the laughter continued. Yes, I became the Wisconsin party favor.

I found this website - GoToQuiz - that is GREAT fun in finding out what American accent you have. It is fun to say the questions out loud - you will naturally anyway. It’s like those forwards where you automatically sing the song as you go and then the next line is pointing out to you that you’re probably singing. They always get me.

The last question on the quiz in particular made me smile. Here is what my result was:

“You may think you speak ‘Standard English straight out of the dictionary’ but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like “Are you from Wisconsin?” or “Are you from Chicago?” Chances are you call carbonated drinks ‘pop.’”

For the record, I call it soda!

I think I’ll stop making fun of people from the south now.