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"Have you ever known someone who spent a few months in a foreign country and came home with a full-on accent? Don&amp;#x27;t blame them, say researchers, it&amp;#x27;s common and often difficult to prevent ... True story: A friend of mine moved to Chicago for the summer and came back sounding 100 percent different. She picked up a Chicagoan accent, and I always thought it was a little bit funny that it happened so fast after, um, living her whole life in Seattle! But, apparently accents and mannerisms are quite contagious, say researchers. Diane Mapes of MSNBC reported that we are so sponge-like when it comes to accents and mannerisms, that linguists say we often model tone and inflection after quick interactions with people. &amp;quot;Lots of us unintentionally pick up other people&amp;amp;#8217;s accents,&amp;quot; she writes. &amp;quot;There was an Oprah show where she had mimicked a Southern accent and somebody took offense so they went back and combed through the archives and basically she does it all the time,&amp;amp;#8221; says Arika Okrent, a Philadelphia-based linguistics expert and author of In the Land of Invented Languages. &amp;amp;#8220;When she&amp;amp;#8217;s talking to her guests, she&amp;amp;#8217;ll mimic the accent back to them.&amp;amp;#8221; It&amp;#x27;s a natural human trait, say experts, and it can help us appear more empathetic and compassionate to those around us. Check out this comment posted below the MSNBC story: &amp;quot;When I worked as a telephone customer service rep, we were encouraged to subtly mirror the tone and speed of our customers&amp;#x27; speech, it was believed that it helped the customer feel more comfortable, that we were on the same level and there to help,&amp;quot; writes a commenter. &amp;quot;I suppose by extension we also picked up a little accent along the way.&amp;quot; So interesting! Confession: Once, after watching a TV interview with Madonna, I realized that I was pronouncing the word &amp;quot;and&amp;quot; with a bit of a faux British tone. Weird! Yup, quickly got control of that one. Have you ever picked up an accent or twang from a trip or just from hanging around someone? P.S. More weird health news: You know health care is in a sad state when someone feels the need to shoot one&amp;#x27;s self to get medical treatment. True story. And, oddly, some TV shows may make you smarter. Plus, the controversy over the mom of 2 who wants to be the heaviest woman in the world ... More Ways to Get Glamour Visit Shopglamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter Add us to your iGoogle homepage FREE Beauty Stuff! Enter for your Chance to Win a New Prize Every Day! Photo: Thinkstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2010/06/weird-health-news-researchers>