No matter what people say, first impressions always count.
The first time you open your mouth to speak, an unconscious or conscious perception is made of you. As the world grows smaller and more mobile, people travel far and wide. They adopt different homes and countries and pending on age, accents stay or go.
Generally speaking a child’s accent is prone to change if they move countries whilst young however by your early twenties your accent stays the same no matter where you go. What does change, it probably goes softer given how long you stay outside from your natural environment and also you pick up local slang and sayings.
Certain accents are associated with higher prestige and obviously the opposite is true. And this is where the stereotyping can come in pending on the accent.
Having lived in a lot of different countries my accent is often confused from being from somewhere else so if people don’t ask do they naturally assume I am from there?
What’s your favourite accent and why? Or do you have any amusing accent anecdotes?