Today I Learned

It doesn’t need to be surprising. It’s cool.

Exactly. I can't on earth see why this would be surprising.

Even my middle school had some unique weird speech shit that someone made up and it caught on.

And this was basically before the Internet. The only thing everyone in my generation knew was that Marilyn Manson had his ribs removed so he could suck his own duck.

A: Humans mimic others speech (unconsciously) in order to fit in. EG: person from country A moves to country B. Both countries speak English. A few years later A moves home. People in country A now hear a country B accent when this person talks.

Yep. As an American who's lived in Korea for about 10 years, I catch myself doing this all the time when speaking English to Koreans who understand some English. I also find myself doing the same thing to other Americans, and even my family.

I've also been told that I speak Korean with a female accent. I'm pretty sure it's because the majority of my Korean language exposure is from my wife of 18 years, and her friends. I've only really started making male friends of my own in the past three years or so.

Strange how all of that works.

person from country A moves to country B. Both countries speak English. A few years later A moves home. People in country A now hear a country B accent when this person talks.

See also: Third Culture Kid and articles about how language influences personality.

When you're from country A, but move to country B, you don't feel at home in country B. But when you return to country A, you also don't feel entirely home in country A. You have a slightly different accent, have had different experiences, likely developed different cultural mannerisms, habits, etc. etc. .... You're perpetually stuck between cultures, hence Third Culture Kid(TCK). Especially true of children who move at a young age. So much so that, if they read a book about TCKs, they soon realise that what they thought were unique personality quirks, strengths or character flaws. are anything but unique among fellow TCKs. Also true for adults but to a lesser degree. Also true for people who moved larger distances within a country, changed schools a lot, etc.

A bit like returning from a holiday and finding things have subtly changed, if you stay away long enough you'll likely never feel entirely at home again. The country you knew no longer exists, you're no longer the same, you notice it's not the same, and people notice you're not the same.

Of course, in some ways nostalgia is similar. Nostalgia is homesickness for a place that existed in the past. Like waking up one morning and discovering someone rearranged all the cutlery, it can make you feel perpetually discombobulated.

Unfortunately/fortunately, there's no way to stop time, and Make the World Like it was Again. Not that populists and advertisers won't try to sell you on that lie.

Humans mimic others speech (unconsciously) in order to fit in

No, it's because the brain uses the speech from others as additional learning feedback when speaking, as explained in the publication. This is why young children, who have zero interest in fitting in, still develop their accents from their social environment — even if that environment changes drastically

If it happened there though I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often, eg on submarines...

What is MLE?