I took Spanish in high school as a completely native English speaker. I was able to do a perfect accent, however, it felt entirely artificial and not like mysel

I took Spanish in high school as a completely native English speaker. I was able to do a perfect accent, however, it felt entirely artificial and not like myself speaking. I felt like I was playing a Spanish news caster, and it felt so foreign that I couldn't tell if I was also changing my voice. Feynman once observed in his autobiographical "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman" that most of it comes down to being willing to make completely foreign sounds. On the other hand, I have a soft Austin, Texas accent. As the state capitol and a bit of a tech city, it actually consists mostly of immigrants but my family had been in the area for sometime, and knew other families that had been in the area for some time, so I can hear a "native" Austinite accent that most people probably wouldn't even be aware exists, because of how out-numbered the "natives" have become since the 60s or 70s. It's a little southern-tinged with a bit of "breathy" sound, and not very strong (not very markedly different from a "neutral" US accent), but pins down a pretty distinct region if you've heard it enough. I sort of trained it out of my voice around age 12 by emulating people on TV. At the moment, I cannot consciously speak with that accent. I don't even know how to, and I don't live in the area anymore, and I can't do a voice with that accent in my head, but do know it when I hear it. Under a lot of fatigue or stress, I sometimes actually start speaking with that accent, which seems strange, because I can't consciously make myself do it at any time. I couldn't consciously do it properly on command for a million dollars right now.