- Hi, I'm Mark.
- Russian.
- You sound like an evil super villain.
- Wow. I'm gonna take that personally
- Ye-ye-yay.
- I don't know any accents.
I know what an accent is,
but like I don't know how to tell where they're from.
- I usually apologize for...
"Sorry, that didn't quite get through me."
- No. I mean, they don't really know where I'm from.
I was an air force brat and army wife my whole entire life,
so I've lived in a bunch of different countries
around a bunch of different languages.
So I think this'll be pretty fun.
- I'm hoping to get a C-,
a D.
- Like, I'm freaking out.
I don't even know how to guess.
- I don't think so, but we'll give it a shot.
- How's your day been going so far?
- Amazing. We had a birthday girl here,
so we're like celebrating in the back.
- Can you sing "Happy Birthday" to me for a second?
- Really?
- Yeah. I want to hear it.
Full out.
♪ Happy birthday to you. ♪
- And what's your morning routine?
- Every morning, I wake up.
Swim. I have a pool on the rooftop.
- What?
What you do for a living?
- I work at McDonald's.
- I don't believe you.
- I'm not lying, that's the truth.
- Do you like the way I'm dressed?
- I love it, actually.
I love your shoes.
- Shoes, shoes, shoes.
It's the word "shoes".
Norwegian, because of shoes.
- I feel like maybe you're from Brazil
because I've talked to a girl
that's from Brazil and now I'm hearing her voice in my head.
- It's kinda giving German a little bit, it sounds like.
- Hey! I wasn't expecting it to be so goth,
so leathery. (laughs)
- Where are you from?
- Macedonia.
- I've never heard of that.
- Okay.
- Where's that at?
- Next to Greece.
- What's the language?
- Macedonian language.
- Say, "Come on, daddy. Let's go shopping."
- You don't look like daddy to me,
but (speaks in Macedonian language)
- That's hot.
- Do you really do fries at McDonald's?
- Yeah. I'm general manager there, but I do fries too.
- Wow. Are we going out?
Can we go on a date?
- For sure.
- Okay!
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Hi. How are you?
- I'm good.
I heard there's a birthday girl in the other room.
- Yeah, I'm the birthday girl.
- Happy birthday!
- Thank you!
- The tone of your voice, it sounds quiet.
Say something like a little bit more aggressive
so I can hear a difference.
- What's your name?
- So, yeah, you're definitely a little sweet.
(laughing in the background)
- What do you do when you wake up?
- You know, get a good meal,
hike with my friends,
and then after that, I would just chill.
- I think she's from an English speaking country.
Now, which one?
I don't know yet.
- Tell me about your family.
- I'm from a working class family.
My mom's a hardworking lady.
- Are you like Somalian?
Eritrea?
- I think it's German.
Sounds like a German accent I've heard
probably from movies and TV.
- She's got that proper English,
but with a flare.
In UK.
- Where are you from?
- I'm from South Africa.
- Well that was a (indistinct).
- I didn't even think to ask about South Africa.
- You were quite close. I'm Somalian also.
So, you were right on that.
- Yeah. Okay.
See, now that I'm hearing you talk a little bit,
it is giving a little Trevor Noah.
- Oh, Trevor Noah! Yeah!
We're colonized by the British.
That's where we get the English from.
When I first arrived in the United States,
people were shocked that I could speak English.
Like, you know that we speak English, right?
- We're morons, sometimes because we think
we're the only people on the planet.
- Does your accent have an influence of other languages?
- Yeah. We speak 11 other languages.
And that also has an influence in my wording
and expressions here and there.
- Cool. Happy birthday!
- Thank you, thank you.
- Yeah.
- Hi.
- What do people in the States
usually think about your accent?
- I get a lot of things.
I get Latin America to Europe, to middle East
- It's a little sexy.
Do people commonly say that your accent is sexy?
- I feel like here in the US, yes, it's happened.
- Just the US finds it sexy?
- In other countries, maybe there are like some stigmas.
- I'm just gonna go broad
and say somewhere in Eastern Europe.
- I think your voice sounds cool
and I think Eastern European accents sound cool,
so I think you're Eastern European.
- You are exactly right.
- Oh, I finally got one right.
- Yes, I am Eastern European.
- Okay.
I'm from Romania.
- Romania!
- They just think people are dangerous there?
- Western Europe has a lot of this stigma
about Eastern Europe,
like they wanna steal or they have knives.
- Yeah.
- Do you know anything about Romania?
- No. Tell me. - Maybe Dracula?
- I thought Dracula was from Transylvania,
that's a fake place or a real place?
- It is a real place.
Transylvania is one of the regions in Romania.
- Oh, wow. That's whatsup.
- Do you speak Romanian, is that the language?
- Yes.
- Is it similar to anything else?
- Similar to like Italian, Spanish.
- Could you speak Romanian to someone in Italy
and they would know what you were saying?
- Actually, yes.
When I was traveling in Italy, I tried with English,
everyone would be clueless.
Then, I tried Romanian and they would understand.
- Oh, okay. That I didn't know. It was nice to meet you.
- Thank you. - Yeah.
- Hi, I'm Roberto Angeles.
- What do you have going on today?
- You know, I'll have lunch with a friend.
Yeah, it's pretty much open for the rest of the day.
- Tell me of a really nice experience with your mother.
- That would be tough to answer that,
I am an orphan.
I lost my mother when I was an infant.
- Now, I feel terrible.
- I'll help you in a little bit, okay.
You want me to get something out.
I have a stepmother that raised me.
- Oh, are you like Italian?
Isn't that like the romance language?
I'm feeling like he's very smooth,
like he's very romantic.
- Czechoslovakian, Hungarian something like that.
- Czechoslovakian?
I'm Filipino.
- Okay.
- Italian, huh?
- You wanna go to...
What do you call that place?
Olive...
Olive Gardens, nah, just kidding.
(laughing)
- Do you like being in USA?
- Yes. I love it here.
All my children were born here
and my grandchildren are here.
- I'm sorry, I could not guess your accent.
- Good luck next time.
- Hello, hi there.
- Hi.
- Very sweet and bouncy.
Would you say that's the accent or is that you?
- A little bit of both.
- I'm just hearing Caribbean.
Very bright, very light.
Very "Hello. Hello." (laughs)
- You sound European but maybe like it was colonized.
I'm gonna guess somewhere in Africa.
- Correct. Getting close.
- Like Ghana?
- You're very close.
- Yay!
- It's the Ivory Coast. Côte d'Ivoire.
It's literally the country right next to it.
And we were colonized by the French,
so my first language is French.
- How do they perceive you?
When people hear your accent?
- So after a while they guess French.
- See, now I hear it. See, 'cause now I hear it.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome, bye!
- Nice to meet you.
- Man, I got them all wrong so far.
- How long have you been here?
- I've been here for six years.
I came here for work.
I'm a software engineer.
Yes, I get that face a lot. Yes. I'm one of those people.
- Did you see the face just from my mouth?
- Yes. Oh, yes.
I'm so used to that already.
- Russian.
- You sound like an evil super villain.
- Wow. I'm gonna take that personally.
- No. I mean, they're the coolest ones in all the movies.
What do you mean?
- You, sir, are from Spain.
You got the fire in your accent.
- Yes, I am from Spain.
- Fantastic!
- I don't know how much fire I have, but I am from Spain.
- But you do. I mean, look at you.
- I'm from Spain.
- You're from Spain.
Yeah, I'm really bad at this today.
I'm terrible at this today.
I'm sad.
- Come on. Now, I got the new career choice.
- No, stick with engineers.
You're definitely giving engineer.
- Wow. Wow! That one I have heard before.
- Well it was true, it's right.
- It was awful.
I was going for a C-
but actually got an F.
So that's cool.
- No, there's a lot of stereotypes and generalizations.
When you hear people speak,
you just automatically assume a certain thing about them
and you shouldn't.
- Don't make me do that.
Say something smart about accents.
They make people sound different and that's cool.
Fuck!
Am I done?
Get me out of here.
Horrible.