Mike Smith of NAU - Where is he originally from?

I'm a French speaker and literally thought he was Francophone when I first heard him speak. The accent is like no other American I've ever heard!

From an earlier (March 15th) thread on the same subject:

A. I don't think he's faking it - guru or no guru.

B. I don't think it's a minor speech impediment, although I haven't heard him talk enough to tell.

C. It sounds to me like he came to the US (or other English-speaking nation) at age 6 or 7, from a country that speaks a Germanic language (like English, Dutch, German, Afrikaans, a Scandinavian language, etc.)

D. Or, wild card, maybe like Lawrence Welk and a few other famous people, he grew up in an ethnic enclave in the US, and didn't speak English until he went to school. This happens less and less as TV and influencers seep deeper into the culture, but I think there are still places in the US (and certainly in Canada) where you can grow up speaking Norwegian, Finnish, Czech. And of course you can grow up speaking Spanish in the US, but that's not his accent.

Gotta listen to a bit more of his sage comments.

Then:

Turns out he is from just outside Worcester, Massachusetts and ran at Wachusett Regional High School.

So, possibilities are narrowed to:

1. He is working hard to lose his Wuh-stuh / Bwah-stun accent.

2. He has a Flagstaff accent. Get used to it.

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=10484220

Sami-246 wrote:

I'm a French speaker and literally thought he was Francophone when I first heard him speak. The accent is like no other American I've ever heard!

My thoughts exactly. It is the most unique accent I've heard, and sounds nothing like people here in New England.

His accent is nothing more than him saying 'Uhhhhhh" or "ummm". He says both of those words quite a bit. Listen to his interviews. Uhhhhhhh

Sounds like a Cali surfer brah accent to me

Spainflyer wrote:

D. Or, wild card, maybe like Lawrence Welk and a few other famous people, he grew up in an ethnic enclave in the US, and didn't speak English until he went to school. This happens less and less as TV and influencers seep deeper into the culture, but I think there are still places in the US (and certainly in Canada) where you can grow up speaking Norwegian, Finnish, Czech. And of course you can grow up speaking Spanish in the US, but that's not his accent.

Gotta listen to a bit more of his sage comments.

.

Prefontaine grew up in a German speaking household.

This stuff seriously needs to stop in the college coaching ranks. I do not know why he gets a free pass because he wins at NAU, which is traditionally good anyway.

DwideSchrude wrote:

This stuff seriously needs to stop in the college coaching ranks. I do not know why he gets a free pass because he wins at NAU, which is traditionally good anyway.

What "stuff" are you referring to?

Scoonie wrote:

DwideSchrude wrote:

This stuff seriously needs to stop in the college coaching ranks. I do not know why he gets a free pass because he wins at NAU, which is traditionally good anyway.

What "stuff" are you referring to?

what a loser wrote:

He fooled Rachel Schneider, who he coached in college and is now dating.

Scoonie wrote:

I'm originally from MA myself, and nobody in MA talks like that. If he was born and raised in MA then I would be very surprised.

I've always assumed he moved to MA from somewhere else.

Agreed. It sounds very affected.

It's not an accent. It's a way of emphasizing his words so as to get people to pay attention.

DwideSchrude wrote:

This stuff seriously needs to stop in the college coaching ranks. I do not know why he gets a free pass because he wins at NAU, which is traditionally good anyway.

Here is what Rachael said in a recent interview:

She adds, “Shortly after we both moved out to Flagstaff — at that point in our coach-athlete relationship, we had become way more collaborative — we started developing a friendship and then we started dating about 4 years ago.”

A quick Google said she graduated in 2014 and if they started dating 4 years ago that would be 2017.

xczvzxcv wrote:

It's not an accent. It's a way of emphasizing his words so as to get people to pay attention.

It's definitely an accent. It may be real or it may be fake, but nobody seems to know.

Definitely has a general african sound to it - very odd

600mRunner wrote:

Definitely has a general african sound to it - very odd

Agreed. Go to 4:50 in this video:

It's the strangest accent I've ever heard.

Bizarre

Who cares he's a great guy

Half Mass, half DC, half Christopher Walken

They're actually engaged now. Mazel to the lovebirds!

Anyway, accent isn't just affected by where you are born but also who you are around. So just because he is from MA doesn't mean he sounds like he is from there. Maybe his parents are from elsewhere. Or he is pulling a Hilaria Baldwin and wants you to think he is from somewhere else.