Does easily picking up accents indicate Se?
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I have always unconsciously taken on the accents of people I spend time around, while others seem unaffected, and I'm wondering if this is a sign of Se, strong Se or some other function. Maybe it indicates nothing, but I thought I'd throw the question out there.
Examples:
1. When I was a child, my family was very close with a Chinese American family and I spent a lot of time with the parents. After awhile, my parents said that I started talking in their particular accent. They say it went away a few months after we moved.
2. When I was in 11th grade, I became good friends with a girl from Louisiana and started speaking with a deep southern drawl, which really freaked out a lot of my friends who had known me forever. That one went away probably a year or so after we had become friends.
3. I worked on a cruise ship for 6 months with a mostly Canadian staff. Half way through my contract, my parents drove down to meet me at one of the ports and took me out to lunch. They told me I sounded nothing like myself and sounded like someone from Canada. When I came home, my husband (a long time friend of mine) and I started spending time together and he remarked several times that I sounded like I was Canadian. That one didn't go away fully until around 6 months after the contract ended.
4. I used to have a job which required that I speak on the phone with company CFOs all over the United States and some internationally. The woman I shared an office with told me she noticed my accent adjusted with every phone conversation to that of the person I was speaking with at the time.
I never seem to notice that I am doing this, though it is clear to other people. Does anyone else do this? What does it indicate, if anything, about cognitive functions?
Examples:
1. When I was a child, my family was very close with a Chinese American family and I spent a lot of time with the parents. After awhile, my parents said that I started talking in their particular accent. They say it went away a few months after we moved.
2. When I was in 11th grade, I became good friends with a girl from Louisiana and started speaking with a deep southern drawl, which really freaked out a lot of my friends who had known me forever. That one went away probably a year or so after we had become friends.
3. I worked on a cruise ship for 6 months with a mostly Canadian staff. Half way through my contract, my parents drove down to meet me at one of the ports and took me out to lunch. They told me I sounded nothing like myself and sounded like someone from Canada. When I came home, my husband (a long time friend of mine) and I started spending time together and he remarked several times that I sounded like I was Canadian. That one didn't go away fully until around 6 months after the contract ended.
4. I used to have a job which required that I speak on the phone with company CFOs all over the United States and some internationally. The woman I shared an office with told me she noticed my accent adjusted with every phone conversation to that of the person I was speaking with at the time.
I never seem to notice that I am doing this, though it is clear to other people. Does anyone else do this? What does it indicate, if anything, about cognitive functions?
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If you unconsciously take on accents rather than consciously assimilate them, it might not have much to do with your conscious cognitive function use 
And I think perceptions that have us assimilate various things can come in many forms, it doesn't have to be in strict sensory form! The whole "you're musical? Si/Se!" is missing that you can perceive information about things like music intuitively.
But it's a good question and I don't pretend to know much about what goes into it. The main thing I would say is no given behavior, activity, tendency must necessarily indicate a cognitive function.
And I think perceptions that have us assimilate various things can come in many forms, it doesn't have to be in strict sensory form! The whole "you're musical? Si/Se!" is missing that you can perceive information about things like music intuitively.
But it's a good question and I don't pretend to know much about what goes into it. The main thing I would say is no given behavior, activity, tendency must necessarily indicate a cognitive function.
I would guess that if any function plays a big role in this, it might be Fe. Fe can cause a person to unconsciously pick up the same values and preferences as their main social group. Under the right circumstances, that might easily include accents.
Subconcious adaptability? Power of Se?
Like @bearotter said if its unconscious its probably not a function (or you wouldn't recognize it as such at least). In any event I think it would be a stretch of causality to assert picking up accents = Se, anymore than picking up on patterns or colors would equal Se.
It's a sign of strong Fe.
Based on what? What does feeling have to do with accents?
I don't think being impressionable equates to a function. If it does, then it is probably an inferior one that resides within the unconscious.
If I had to guess what chachacharlie meant it's the general trend people observe around Fe of "adopting common values / habits / etc" to be as acceptable as possible.
But of course it doesn't at all need to be the rationale behind why a given person gets accents.
The thing is it doesn't sound like this is a willfully executed tendency so the best way to explain it is to first acknowledge that most of our discussions on type really revolve around conscious functions, even though the not conscious is easily important as an influence.
But of course it doesn't at all need to be the rationale behind why a given person gets accents.
The thing is it doesn't sound like this is a willfully executed tendency so the best way to explain it is to first acknowledge that most of our discussions on type really revolve around conscious functions, even though the not conscious is easily important as an influence.
It being a sign of strong Fe contradicts everything else about my personality. I have taken MBTI and cognitive functions tests many times and always score ENTJ and INTJ. I have scored ENTP a couple times but I think it was a fluke, as I am very strong on the Te side (more on that in this thread: http://personalitycafe.com/whats-my-personality-type/156282-entp-entj.html)-- I'm also not good with knowing how people are feeling and never really care about making an emotional connection with others. I have to force myself most of the time to ask people about their feelings etc., that are considered social niceties, whereas it just comes naturally to my Fe dom husband.
I'm always more concerned with talking to others about interesting objective topics/projects I'm studying or working on or I'm preoccupied with getting a task done or goal met at social gatherings while my husband is interested in connecting with the person-- and he NEVER unconsciously picks up the accents of others. I of course could more so get behind the idea of it being a shadow function because Fe is my shadow function and Fe is typically very draining for me to use.
I'm always more concerned with talking to others about interesting objective topics/projects I'm studying or working on or I'm preoccupied with getting a task done or goal met at social gatherings while my husband is interested in connecting with the person-- and he NEVER unconsciously picks up the accents of others. I of course could more so get behind the idea of it being a shadow function because Fe is my shadow function and Fe is typically very draining for me to use.
I doubt it. I'm the same way, but I identify as INFP/FiNe. I mimic accents easily, better than the Se-types than I know. I hate saying this because it sounds arrogant, but I've had native Russian, French, Arabic, Mandarin, Hebrew and Korean speakers tell me that my accent while speaking these languages is almost perfect. Sometimes if I'm around people who speak with an accent, I'll catch myself wanting to speak with the same accent. I just thought it was because I was personally interested in languages, which is not type related.
I'm pretty good at accents. So no, I'd say Se has nothing to do with it.
In this case, I would look into a neurological explanation of this phenomenon and leave out the functions until you've understood what yours are by other means. Granted I'm no neurological expert by any stretch but what immediately comes to mind is the possibility of your mirror neurons being partly responsible.
I say this because while functions can be useful to organize your understanding of mental response, you can't rely on there being one strict functional explanation of any one phenomenon - the whole system is an interpretation of human behavior, and it has to be used in a sort of summative way where the conclusion on a likely type is dependent on a lifetime's worth of a person's data and trending. So could picking up accents easily 'indicate' Se? Perhaps - or perhaps Fe - or perhaps Ne - or perhaps Si - and so on, depending on how the person is conceiving of it mentally and doing it, and you can try to rationalize for yourself through your typing to figure out what might be happening - but neurologically you can simply scan a person's brain and/or think about established knowledge to look for an overt answer.
I say this because while functions can be useful to organize your understanding of mental response, you can't rely on there being one strict functional explanation of any one phenomenon - the whole system is an interpretation of human behavior, and it has to be used in a sort of summative way where the conclusion on a likely type is dependent on a lifetime's worth of a person's data and trending. So could picking up accents easily 'indicate' Se? Perhaps - or perhaps Fe - or perhaps Ne - or perhaps Si - and so on, depending on how the person is conceiving of it mentally and doing it, and you can try to rationalize for yourself through your typing to figure out what might be happening - but neurologically you can simply scan a person's brain and/or think about established knowledge to look for an overt answer.
Yeah ,it could be .Cause I'm a sensor and I too can pick out the same thing when I encounter people with different accent and I'm not intuitive or feeling person .
Please, not even Hyundai drivers are buying that accent.
My first function is Se and I don't pick up accents quickly. Nearly ten years in Canada and I still sound very much English. I can guess where people come from quickly but the way I talk doesn't change much.
I don't think this is a Se thing.
I don't think this is a Se thing.
Some say it does because they have Se, other say it doesn't because of the opposite reason, so I think it's safe to say it doesn't have anything to do with Se. Being able to passively pick up accents has to do with musical hearing, since it allows you notice the minute differences between how words are spoken; and something else entirely.
That makes a lot of sense to me. I used to play songs on the piano by ear when I was young and my husband has told me he doesn't get how I can sing a song with perfect melody and pitch after hearing it just once, even years after I've heard it. Didn't know about musical hearing, but I woul guess I have it.
Definitely sounds like it.
Probably not, but your ability to mimic those accents accurately might be a sign, depending on the attention to detail.
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