Do you speak American?

"Where is your accent from? I love it!"

Being called out for sounding SO German. Story of my life and so frustrating!
Throughout my various stays abroad, the accent is a conversation opener. People who are close to me tell me straight to my face that I do not sound American at all. However, older generations and people more distant to me are surprised by the "not-so-typically-German" accent; they sometimes compliment me for sounding more American. Oh, thank you.

Fact is: being called out for my accent annoys me a lot and I have thought about this issue a lot. I am no perfectionist but concerning my language skills, I become frustrated easily, because I do want to be able speak English as good as I can. I assume any speaker of a foreign language should feel that way, because without reflecting one's own language skills, there will not be improvement. I have long thought about doing a pronunciation class and am still planning on doing it. When I tell this to people, I hear comments such as " Oh no, don't do it, it's not that bad, really, it sounds great!". Just today, I was asked about my accent due to my email address, which ends in .de and always tells that I am a foreigenr. No matter how hard I try to go undercover. The ending ".de" certainly isn't an easy one to figure out, sometimes people aren't even aware of the fact that different countries have different domains. "What does .de stand for?" is a common question that I answer with "Why, that's Germany, Deutschland." One good guess today was ".de" for Denmark, but then my accent threw her off. Oh bummer. I was assured that it was very cute and just the perfect amount and that I should be proud of it. Alright, point taken, it is part of me, it defines who I am and where I am from, I can live with it.
I am thankful for everyone who has ever pointed out my poor pronunciation skills, because as agitated as I get about it at times, by now I am more aware of my imperfect language skills than ever and will make sure to improve them. When I really think about it I'd not have it any other way: I rather am aware of my imperfections than being told it's all perfect.

Being blunt is a trait usually uncommon in Americans, therefore I am surprised by the quite clear comments that I have gotten so far in regards to my language skills. Especially when it comes from citizen's of a country which for a long time has been so oblivious to learning foreign languages.
Think about it America, aren't you the country that is just now admitting that being multilingual is becoming more and more important in our job world? Isn't your youth struggling so hard with learning Spanish in school? One of the easiest languages to learn? You should be proud of all these millions and millions of people in the world who try so hard to learn your language, just so YOU can keep conversing comfortably with them and ask little foreign girls --who deep down hope they sometimes speak at least a little bit like an American-- if they could pretend sounding like you, an "American."

XOXOXO. Happy Thursday AMUUUURICA.