Do you speak English?

Interesting note regarding accents at orientation for international students at University of Technology Sydney (UTS) .  The presenter remarked in passing "some of you may have learned English from watching American television programs".   The presenter herself did not have a strong accent; what I would describe as a fairly "clean"  form of English.  However,  an Australian might describe what I say is "clean"  as being an "American"  accent.  In general,  Australians don't know a lot about American regional accents.  They probably don't know what they'd describe as an "American"  accent is actually the typical announcer voice in the United States which is fairly devoid of regional accents. So the classic "American accent"  is actually a form that may even have been practiced to intentionally strip traces of any regional accents. 

Similarly,  I was once listening to the radio and Fay explained to me that the announcers didn't normally speak the way they were speaking,  they were sort of poking fun of regional Australian accents.  I didn't even realize their "joke"  -  it all sounded like Australians speaking to me.  It struck me during the orientation at UTS that one person had a much more distinct Australian accent. He was the head of the security department.  The presentation consisted of the head of the international student department,  and a panel of about 10 people representing different departments or services.  The strongest accent overall was a guy who was probably from India,  representing IT services. I would not say that all of the others had "American"  accents,  but their English was,  again,  what I'd describe as "clean".  There is some sense that Australian's may be losing their accents for what is considered "American English",  but I would argue that the English of American announcers isn't so much "American"  but a form that's been stripped of American regional accents. So don't fear being overtaken by "American English" -  it's simply a form that different regions can understand as being stripped of accent.  Of course,  Southerners (in the US and Australians)  might refer to it as a "Yankee accent" -  which in the southern US means "northern".  But there isn't a specific place in the "north"  that is the origin of that "accent" ; if anything,  the source might be California,  a frontier of the melting pot which emerged as the source of much American media.