Thanks I think to my army brat background I can tell from most people’s accents where they’ve lived/grown up...
EVEN If they grew up in multiple places and EVEN when those places are overseas places I have never lived nor have a close connection to.
With British accents I can even tell within a few miles difference eg people from different parts of the same city.
I once seriously impressed a foreign dr with this who was due to do a minor op on me (I was very nervous and when nervous I like to blether about other things than what I’m nervous about, he was lovely and happy to do so). He was unsurprised I picked up that he’d grown up in Western Africa, as he considered that an easy spot, but I was kinda “softening him up”, he was shocked when I pinned it down to Sierra Leone, then he was quite bewildered when I Also noted he’d spent time in Israel, Japan and had hints of New York and Tennessee in his accent!
He’d only spent a year in New York and as an adult, so he really didn’t think he’d picked up anything from there at all, and was like “how the HELL did you pick that up?!”
I just seem to have an ear for it.
Some people are really interested and find it entertaining, but some people don’t like that I can tell they came from or spent time in places considered “rough” or “low class”. So I have learned to be careful about what I say on the matter.
Especially as a couple of times the latter group have said “go on ‘do me’ bet you can’t” when in social situations (it’s seen more as a “party trick” among those who know) because they think they’ve lost the “rougher” accent completely or even outright lied to people about where they’re from. I’ve come unstuck on occasion if I’m not careful.
Somewhat contrarily though I’ve yet to meet anyone can make head or tails of my accent - because it’s a hideous Anglo-Scots mash with both parts containing accents from several wildly different regional accents from both countries! I’ve been accused of being aus, South African, dutch!
Other super powers:
I can spot an about to vomit person at 50 paces! (Many years spent as a nurse and caring for children - you learn when to “dodge”!!)
I can spot a substance addict at 50 paces (sorry not so lighthearted, again too much life experience)
I can name most 80’s chart hits, say top 20? within the first few bars, completely oblivious to modern music though!
I read VERY fast, didn’t even know until others pointed it out. Thought maybe just my enjoyment of books really and that others weren’t as keen, went on a weeks holiday with now exh (pre kindle days) and I packed 10 books, which he thought excessive and said so, but then had to swallow his words because I’d easily get through a book at bedtime before sleeping and another during the day while he “siesta’d” plus newspapers & magazines, the thing that really threw him was that I was able to read even after drinking/clubbing - but it helped me calm before going to sleep. BUT he is not a reader. Then years later I went to uni to do an English degree (so SURROUNDED by other readers!) and it became apparent from things like sharing reading handouts or sharing computers in the library and reading articles/websites with other students and I’d have finished the whole page and they were just finished the 1st paragraph! One commented in a seminar and the lecturer was fascinated, he suggested a speed test that could be done online and I easily hit 900 wpm with no impact on comprehension, I can read faster but my comprehension/recall then suffers.
I can also read and concentrate on something else at the same time which apparently is weird, my mum was the first to notice this when she commented I couldn’t possibly be following an episode of “Morse” AND learning my biology homework - so she quizzed me on both and I was taking both in just fine - I’d even spotted a couple things on “Morse” that she’d missed, which she briefly argued with me about, then the next “part” was the start of the denouement and the things she’d missed were part of the “solution” to the crime.
“I have an anti superhero power if that helps?? I can get lost anywhere and have quite literally no sense of direction...to absurd levels of excessiveness.” Same! I was saying on another thread it’s led to me taking the most bizarre detours when driving!
“I can make a meal out of seemingly empty food cupboards.” Both my grans could and my mum can do this! Curious as to your age and social class/background @BikeRunSki as I suspect in their cases it was out of necessity as they came from VERY poor working class backgrounds but with big families needing fed (catholic). I very much struggle with this. They also all 3 could bake without needing scales! I’m crap at estimating amounts of butter, flour etc - even following a recipe I can’t make scones to save my life! Whereas all 3 of these ladies could knock up a batch of scones, a Victoria sponge and a gingerbread within an hour without breaking a sweat!
@Strokethefurrywall - a friend of mine can tell someone is pregnant AND the sex AS SOON as someone is pregnant - even before they know! Even when sonographers have said otherwise they turn out to be wrong, the ONLY time she got it wrong it was boy girl twins.