Even though I've lived in non-English-speaking countries for 9 years of my adult life, only once did I (an American!) have the opportunity of "hearing" the American accent. It was my year in France, after several months of not hearing ANYTHING American. We found a "broken" payphone that would work without cash (quite the find for us poor international students). Of course I dialed my mother. Was I EVER surprised to hear her absolute TWANGY speech!
It sounded something like what a country accent sounds to a Northerner. My mom is a born and bred Californian and has no discernable regional dialect, and to me now has no accent. But after that long break with no American media or voices, she really spoke with a strong twang!
In my later years in Europe, I had American friends and international phone calls and CNN International so I never again lost the ear for our tongue.
This is off-topic, but all of a sudden this (rather old) thread is getting a lot of traffic. Guessing a pinglist got pinged or something.