As you know, there are four different English accents in the listening part of the TOEIC test.Though there are actually far more English accents other than those four, the most influential and frequently-used two are arguably American English and British English.
The English I was taught at school form junior high to college was British English.
But as those who know me in the real life might have noticed, I have a strong American accent when speaking English. Actually I'm not able to speak British accent and can barely remember the British spellings.
You might be wondering "how come that could happen?" The answer, which will probably surprise you, is that I wasn't interested in English at all when I was a student, and of course didn't study English that much at school.(As long as I can pass the exam and get the diploma.)
This changed when I was a senior in college.
One of my favorite game series - CIVILIZATION released its then newest game - CIVILIZATION 3, which, for some political reason, seemed never to be able to have a Chinese edition.
Without understanding all the descriptions and dialogs, I could never enjoy the game!
I had been put into a situation where I had to learn English in order to enjoy my favorite game. So, as a result, with a dictionary and a notebook put beside me, I started to play CIVILIZATION 3 and learn English ... earnestly!
Gradually, even before I was aware of it, I was getting interested in learning English and all those stuffs relevant to English.
From then on, I played a lot of English games, watched a lot of English TV series. Most of those were made in America.
......
Several years later when I worked as a volunteer interpreter, an Australian asked me "Have you studied or lived in the US?" That's when I first realized I had an American accent.
