Agree on the accent point. I knew a Dutch girl who'd lived in the US from the ages from 5 to 11, so she spoke English with an American accent ... but with the

Agree on the accent point. I knew a Dutch girl who'd lived in the US from the ages from 5 to 11, so she spoke English with an American accent ... but with the vocabulary of an 11-year-old. If she'd garbled the language just a wee bit she'd have been impressively good; as it was, she just sounded dumb. But I'll agree with David that being an American that speaks the local language can be quite a novelty in Europe. I'm in the same boat. :-)