She Faked a British Accent for 12 Years But She Cannot Live A Lie Anymore

She Faked a British Accent for 12 Years, But She Cannot Live A Lie Anymore; Now She Wants to Come Clean.

A tale on Reddit’s TIFU (Today I F**cked Up) subreddit saw a teenager fake a British accent for over twelve years to friends she met at a summer camp…

Attending Summer Camp

A girl was attending summer camp in a different US state. When she left the airport, her best friend called her, and they were talking. At the time, as an inside joke, they would fake a random accent when answering the phone. This time they faked a British accent.

Little did the girl know a group of people from the summer camp were standing next to her and waiting for the bus to pick them up. She didn’t know anyone at the camp at this time.

Cute Accent

As she walked onto the bus, she was met with an unfamiliar voice. A guy from the camp called her accent “cute” and asked her where she was from. She was so taken aback by it that her anxiety kicked in, and within moments, she found herself responding in kind with a passable fake British accent, saying that she was from “London, England” but moved to the states.

Unfortunately, the lies didn’t cease at that. What happens when you tell a small white lie? This was just the beginning of a whole web of lies.

A New Identity

During the bus ride to the camp, the girl listened to the guy talks about British TV shows like Doctor Who and continued to fake her accent. As a teenager, she lacked the self-esteem and confidence to laugh it off as a bad joke, even though she desperately wanted to. “NO DONT DO THAT IT’S TOO LATE YOU ARE BRITISH NOW!” Her anxiety told her.

Everyone on the bus heard the accent and her story about going to the London Theater (although she had never been!) and before she knew it, she had been accepted into the camp with a new identity: British!

Perfecting the Accent

She became great friends with the guy, and for the next two months of camp, she kept up the charade. Thinking that it would be easier to stick with her British accent than explain why she had adopted it in the first place, she worked hard to perfect it. She even watched YouTube videos on how to fake a better accent and words to say to get the intonation right.

Living a Lie

When camp ended, everyone parted ways, and she never expected to see the guy again. But over the next twelve years, they kept in touch through FaceTime calls and Snapchat messages—and each time, she would put on her British accent for him.

As the years went on, they weren’t in touch so much, but she continued to panic about it and live with the deep regret of faking her accent for so long. It was twelve years later, and while they were both happily married to other people at this stage, they had remained friends. The lie continued to eat the woman’s mind.

Reactions

The reactions to this story on Reddit were helpful (and funny).

“You should just gradually lose your accent. This happens naturally to a lot of people who do actually move to different countries, especially as youngsters. I’m impressed you managed to keep it up this long, though!” one user commented.

“Lewis Hamilton, basically,” another commented.

“Pretend to knock your head in front of him and then start speaking with an American accent. That sh*t will be hilarious,” another user wrote.

Coming Clean

Recently, however, she mustered up the courage to come clean. After much deliberation, she sent an apology and explanation of what had happened. Surprisingly, he already knew! He had done some googling after seeing a post from her father on her Facebook page that made him suspicious. He had also seen videos of her father speaking at conferences with a clearly American accent.

Feeling Relieved

He accepted her apology and said he was glad she had finally come clean. His only wish is that she still puts on the British accent if they ever meet in person again! She feels relieved to have come clean and grateful for his understanding.

The story serves as a reminder that it’s never too late, to tell the truth, no matter how embarrassing it may be. And while she may still cringe at the memory of her long-running hoax, hopefully, this story will inspire others to watch their tongue!

This was a Reddit discussion about someone faking a British account for 12 years. This post called Faking a British Accent for 12 Years was syndicated and produced by TPR Teaching.