Brain injured: The strange world of foreign accent syndrome

When Gwynne Berry fell on the ice while skiing in January 2017, she suspected she had a concussion. A Vermont native, she was shocked a short while later when she awoke speaking with a foreign accent. Berry, a former ski racing coach and a mother of two in Waterbury, Vermont, who works part-time as an office administrator, has been grappling for over two years with foreign accent syndrome, a rare disorder that strikes about 100 people worldwide. Her accents have ranged from French Canadian, to Swedish, Czech and now Irish. Berry is the subject of a short documentary, “Miss Me, I’m Irish.” She talks about the challenge of recovering from a serious brain injury and her healing journey.(August 7, 2019 broadcast)

Gwynne Berry, on foreign accent syndrome