Losing/Changing your accent

I have heard of some accounts of people who have acquired a local accent after living overseas for several years, often at ages 30+. For example, one of my teacher's ex-husband moved to Australia when he was 35, and now, at 60, he speaks with an Aussie(she says it is more British-like) accent.
And then of course there's Mel Gibson, and Ron Paul.
Ron Paul has been living in Texas for 35 years, but he grew up in Penn. I saw him in New Orleans last week and he has a strange accent...definitely somewhat Texan-sounding.

Anyway, is this sort of thing common at such old ages(30+).

Also, can the same thing happen to a native English speaker who moves to, say, France, at age 30, and lives the rest of their life there?

This isn't another covert ad for Ron Paul is it? We had quite a few Ron Paul "topics" in December...the german heritage of Ron Paul etc.

I guess I'm old because I've already reached the age of thirty, lol.

OF COURSE, it's possible to change your accent!

You seem like a troll, by the way.

No, I'm not a troll. I am just using Paul as an example.

My question is: Is it possible/normal for your accent to change significantly(e.g. you use to be from the South (US), but after living in England for 30 yrs, you now have a posh RP accent) etc.? By significantly I mean to an accent vastly unlike your own. Is it normal for someone whose native accent is already completely developed (e.g. at age 30), and moves to a foreign place and lives there for a long time, to gradually, and naturally, adopt the foreign place's accent?

Yes, your accent can change. I wrote "can", I can't say that it WILL change. Jasper (from the American South originally) used shadowing to change his accent, I think. He writes in the English forum side most of the time.

I'm not sure that someone's accent is fully developed at age thirty. What about kids who grow up all over the world (there's a term for that now, but I'm not sure if it's perjorative or not, so I won't use it.)

If actors can learn a new accent, then the rest of us can, well some of us.
Some people are just fine with their original accent.

<<Some people are just fine with their original accent.>>

I know, but is it common for people's accent to change to the new area's accent like I described above? I'm having trouble putting my question into words, for some reason!

Let me try and be more clear.

Here's an example I made up:

Bob, a 67 yr old expat from South Carolina, speaks with a typical NZ accent. He has been living in NZ for 30 yrs. He used to have a typical Southern accent.

Is this normal? Can this same thing occur when someone has lived in a non-English speaking country for several years, e.g. a native-English speaker has acquired a Mexican accent after living in Mexico for 30 yrs?

I am referring to people who've moved to the foreign place after their native accent was already developed (e.g. ~age 20+)

I must agree, When I was 18 yo I moved to Madrid where a different Spanish accent is spoken but I never acquired it (not even a bit). Sometimes I immitate it so people can't know where I'm from, but I need to make an effort, it's not a natural thing for me.

Josh,

Is there some data on this? I know my accent has changed three or four times since I was 20 or so because of where I've moved. Granted, I haven't completely changed my accent to the local accent (because I'm not fond of it, frankly.), but certain mangled vowels slip out.

I'll add that I never picked up the accent in places where I didn't like the accent, but other places, no problem. I didn't even try to pick it up, I did!

For some more dramatic examples of such, my maternal grandmother natively spoke and was literate in Polish, and actively used it in school until the age of 16 or so - today she speaks no Polish whatsoever, and cannot read or write it. Similarly, my girlfriend's maternal grandmother learned German at a young age (to the point that she was effectively a native speaker of it, even though her true native language was English), and today she cannot speak German at all.

I must agree that there are some accents more prone to be picked up. For example sometimes when I listen to Argentinians too much, later I become aware of the fact that I myself picked up some elements of their accent. I don't know the reason why, but it's like if it gets into your head and you can't do anything to stop it. On the other hand I don't conceive me picking up the Cuban accent .

Es que los argentinos tienden a decir tonterías, ¿y a quien no le gusta decir tonterías? ¡Claro que voy a empezar a hablar como ellos!

Argentinians are such fun! I'd use an Argentian accent if I thought I could get away with it here.

>>No, this isn't normal. Usually your accent is pretty much settled by 12 or so. People who move to an area with a different accent often accommodate somewhat to the new accent, but they don't usually acquire it completely.

This sort of interesting phenomena about linguistic potential is more than phenomenal. That might have much more to do with social reasons, for example. I've seen quite a few local showbiz people and my own relatives who never completely lose their "foreign"/village accents. The showbiz people... who knows, they might not be motivated to remove their accents, or their accents are symbolic. For example, retaining a Taiwanese (Mandarin) accent would mean an elderly actor could still play a role as a Taiwanese wealthy old man in various drama programs. And my relatives? More often are those who say they "can't" learn a native accent/lose a village accent. When people accept their accents and don't care any more, then they won't do anything and let the accents as they are.

Thanks for the replies, y'all. Very enlightening. I guess this phenomenon is pretty unusual because I can only think of a handful of famous people (mentioned in my first post) who've done this.