I was asked that question over and over again when I lived in California. People rarely guessed that my first language was French. Their guesses were most often Polish (they told me I looked Polish. What does a Polish person look like?), Irish (I can’t even imitate the Irish accent!) and German.
Via Way Down Here, I found a great Web site which archives a long list of accents. On the Speech Accent Archive, you get to hear a short text read in English by non-native speakers from all over the world. I particularly liked the serbo-croatian accent, but that might be because I’m an admirer of a certain doctor. I burst out laughing when I heard the French accent from Quebec! I’m not sure why. Probably because I recognized it so well…
