Once hitchhiking in Ireland, an elderly couple picked me up. After a while of nice conversation the Lady turned her head and asked me, who was sitting on the backseat
of the car: „Are you from Dublin, Dear? You´ve got a Dublin Accent!“
I was astonished and replied: „No, Lady, I´m not irish – I am from Bremen, Germany.“
„Oh, really? Then your English is quite good“ and to her husband she said:
„He definitely has a Dublin Accent, hasnt´t he?“
I felt a little proud and took it as a compliment for years – unless one day, by chance,
i heard a Dubliner speaking in his native language and it hit me like a stroke: he sounded like a stranger, speaking in a strange language. He sounded like a guy from Bremen, who speaks like tripping over a sharp stone; who speaks like not speaking english very well.