Accentual...

British Accents? They're hot.

So... there's this boy. He's actually a teaching assistant for my ethics class. He's not traditionally (if at all) attractive, a bit portly, arguably sloppy in dress, wears the same slouchy beany on his head each day (I hate those), and never appears clean shaven or even remotely groomed, but...

He's English.

Naturally it follows that he speaks with an English accent and I therefore find this seemingly unattractive boy irresistible. Imagine my surprise sitting in my little wooden desk, listening to this boy who I would never be attracted to otherwise lecture on Mill, Kant, and Aristotle when I find myself mildly turned on. Of course I'm sure that some of that attraction stems from the fact that he is educated (smart boys kind of do it for me) and speaking about a subject that really interests me (philosophy and ethics are a recent interest), but a majority, a big majority, of that attraction stems merely from that accent, that use of language, and that way of speaking that can only be described as...

Accentual.
(Accent+Sensual... you like that right?)

You might wonder, as I have, what the English think of our accent given our attraction to theirs. Well, I've encountered many Brits through my travels, both in London while on study abroad summer '07 and in Africa last summer (there were many British volunteers). Unfortunately they described the American accent to be both nasal and obnoxious. Sadly the stereotype of the loud, uneducated, and rude American is alive and well and continues to be proliferated in British (and European) media and film. Indeed, our love of the English accent is not reciprocated...

The feeling is Not mutual.

Regardless of what effect my own American accent might have on the British, their accent still does it for me. So here's to you proper speakers of the "Queen's English" from across the pond and to you unkempt slouchy beany boy. You make my ears happy and my heart pound.

Here's a clip from one of my favorite flicks Love Actually depicting the relatively unattractive character Collin Frissell working his charming British accent in America.

Oh Collin, so funny, yet so accurate...

**P.S. If you've not seen Love Actually it's a must. I watch it every Christmas.