18 Uncles — My Accent Feels Fake

Navigating the identity crisis after teaching in foreign countries

Mitchell Peterson
6 min readSep 6, 2023
Brother Dylan and I — photo from author.

Note to readers: My work has shifted to another website and all posts are at Substack.com. This is simply an introduction for my former Medium.com audience.

Follow the link below to subscribe to 18 Uncles and follow the journey. There you can find all 18 Uncles articles, pictures, and support the dream.

Madrid, August 2010, it was one of those sweaty Spanish summer nights where the midday heat refuses to leave, and the air just hangs around, seemingly with no place to go and too far away from the coast to be nudged by the famous Levante, Poniente, or Leche wind patterns. Skin still sticky with slight perspiration, I was leaning on the rail of a balcony in the center of the city, speaking to two new friends from Kentucky and in awe of the rhythm and elongated vowel sounds of their rural American drawl.

And I know they were thinking the same thing about me.

--

--

Mitchell Peterson
Mitchell Peterson

Written by Mitchell Peterson

Freelance writer who spent nine years outside the US, currently in rural America writing the Substack bestseller 18 Uncles.