Australian woman, who's never been to Ireland, wakes up with an Irish accent after surgery

An Australian woman is going viral on TikTok after claiming that she developed an Irish accent following tonsil surgery. Angela Yen has never been to Ireland so it was obviously odd for her to suddenly start speaking in an Irish accent. Yen had undergone a tonsillectomy on April 19 but within ten days of the surgery, her strong Australian accent was deserting her and she started speaking in an Irish brogue accent. “I’ve never been to Ireland. I grew up in Australia and had an Aussie accent for the last 20 years since I moved here when I was 8 years old,” said Yen, reported New York Post.

For the first few days, Yen said she was alternating between accents but suddenly it was all Irish. On the first day, it felt like a normal morning. Yen was singing in the shower and it suddenly sounded odd. Yen soon realized she had developed an Irish accent. “When I started singing, I was singing in a different sound and also talking words in a funny accent,” Yen recalled. In the first video, she keeps alternating between accents. She even ended up speaking in an Irish accent for a job interview. 

In the first video, she appears to be directing the question of the development at an Irish friend of hers, and ends it jokingly asking them accent if her accent is from "a cool part of Ireland or not." It appears Yen may have foreign accent syndrome, which is a rare speech disorder that changes the voice’s intonation and stress. Sheila Blumstein at Brown University, Rhode Island touched upon the matter and said it could even affect one's identity. "It is no laughing matter. “Think: you go to sleep, wake up and no longer sound to you like the person you really are — and there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Blumstein, reported BBC. “When we speak, we have a speech melody and rhythm – and it’s here they have changes,” added Blumstein.

Yen has been documenting her journey from Day 1 and confirmed that she has found a neurologist with a specialty in stroke rehabilitation who is willing to help diagnose her. Few of her followers are skeptical, but a few people claiming to be from Ireland were even locating the part from where her Irish slang comes from. During a phone call with a friend, Yen's friend told her that her accent kept fluctuating between Aussie and Irish.

Barbara Tomasino, who is based at the University of Udine in Italy, recalled examining a patient with a brain tumor. “Sometimes she sounded like she was South American, sometimes she spoke with an English accent – it was a very strange way of speaking Italian,” said Tomasino, reported BBC. 

Yen even started having fun with it by trying to pronounce Aussie slang words in her newfound Irish accent. 

Yen was certainly enjoying the whole episode and announced to her followers that she even moved my birthday dinner to an Irish pub as a joke. 

After many doubted if Yen was actually faking through all the videos, she posted an old voice recording that reflected her strong aussie accent. One person joked, "Past life coming through." She also opened up about it to her mother. 

After someone mocked her about faking an accent, she shared a calculation of the medical bills that are adding up as she tries to get back her Aussie slang. Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki, a science author, shared a video highlighting how Yen's was a real issue and should be taken seriously. One can only hope that Yen recovers fully and gets her Aussie slang back.