Hi,

I have a little question for people who's motherlanguage is other then the language of the country you live in.
For me, my "natural" language is Russian. By now, I've lived for almost 9 years in Belgium and I'm speaking Dutch very fluently. But... I still have a slight Russian accent. Many people notice I wasn't born here fast but can't "categorize" me. Some people like my accent. No one explicitly "hated" my accent.
But still, I wonder, what effect does accent have on picking up?
Yeah, I've heard it makes you kinda exclusive (maybe only if you're a latino or something, but i'm a vanilla face russian), but on the other side, it makes you a "foreign stranger" and on still another side, it brings up the stereotypes of your nation (i'm getting really bored with the Russians & Vodka thing), which can be fun at times.
So what are your experiences and opinions on accents and pickup?

Denis

DOES NOT MATTER! As long as your accent doesn't hinder their understanding, you are fine. I can say that, because I have an accent and I've still gotten attraction from the hottest of the hot girls. (Just haven't closed ).

As long as you're fluent and can be understood, then it's no effect... in some places accents are considered very attractive. In others they're neutral and/or slight negatives. Either way, they shouldn't make much of a difference...

Kiwi accent in the USA= Gold. I had a stripper open me last night because she could tell I was foreign.

Accents can be a negative occasionally; see Mark's post on the thread about racial stereotyping, but I think overall it's a big advantage if you just don't do anything stupid to undermine it's power. The biggest thing is that it can help create a sense of mystery that can create a lot of attraction. The only way to destroy that is to actively work against that perception, for example by going in with a whole bunch of interview questions that make you look boring.

Try to get away with saying less, it's more powerful.