Can you imitate a foreign accent?

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I'd like to be able to do accents, but I'm rubbish at them. I sometimes like to imagine myself compensating for my rubbish social skills by becoming a brilliant impressionist (not to mention magician, juggler and piano player) and entertaining people for hours at high-class parties.

But I can't even master any of the various British accents that differ from my own.
The Northern Ireland accent is particularly difficult.

I can do the odd phrase in another accent (like "och aye the noo", "howay the lads" and "g'day mate"), and I do have some useful tips:

1. If you want to imitate a Dutch accent, whenever you need to use an "s" sound, say "sh" instead
2. If you say "beercan" you sound like a Jamaican saying "bacon"

I used to be quite good at imatating voices and accents, though I guess as my voice has gotten deeper and over some time, my voice has some larger difficulty. I kind like doing characters voices, and I think at times I can redo certain accents well. Also I seem to have a thing where I start using an accent when speaking to people with accents. And a bunch of you that are saying that you can do the Australian accent well, you might be a bit mistaken, most of the fake ones we get from over seas are realy bad, I assure you I do not know anyone who speaks like Steve Irwin. Also many of the Australians that have gone over to America seem to get a different accent, wich is some type of Aussie American hybrid, that is actualy closer to the idea overseas.

I can. I pick up on accents easily. It's like when I'm around it, it wiggles its way into my every day speech. Then I drop it just as quickly.

I was just thinking there, that I can do a pretty good (in my own opinion) impression of a Georgian accent because I've listened repeatedly to Blind Willie McTell songs.

I can do some kind of generic eastern-european accent.

b9 that was cool examples of yours, thanks for sharing!

Well me and my husband use to joke in diffrent accents all the time, its fun!

I tend to accidentally pick up people's accents when I'm talking to them. So when I'm talking to someone with a heavy accent, they might accidentally get the impression that I'm mocking them.

Oh no, it wasn't offensive at all. I didn't mean to seem offended. I was just curious about what people not from Britain imagine when they think "British accent."

I can mimic most accents,some easily and others with difficulty.I find Northern Irish one of the
easiest,possibly because it's got the same type of delivery as the Glaswegian I grew up with.
(To the untrained ear,people from Glasgow or Northern Ireland can sound unintentionally
agressive even when simply saying 'Hello,how are you?)

Like McTell,I'm also bemused when a 'British' accent is mentioned because there are so many completely different accents in Britain,such as Scouse (Liverpool),Cockney (east London),Brummie (Birmingham)Geordie (Newcastle),Doric (Aberdeen) and Welsh.
I reckon a 'British' accent to those outside the UK probably relates to either that spoken by
the Royal Family,or alternatively Michael Caine.

I can do any accent in the UK and Ireland.
I can do:
Scotland: Scottish
England: Northern, Scouse, London, Essex, West Country, South East
Wales: Welsh
Ireland: Irish
Australia: Australian

I would like to say I can do American, but there is a wide variety. A native American would know if it was genuine or not and where from too. People associate Britain as having one accent. There are multiple accents, so WHICH one? To me, there is no British accent

Of course, at the same time, I might say, "I can do a French accent," and maybe everyone will be fine about it, but really there are many French accents and we are only exposed to one. I don't think it's unfair to say "I can do a British accent," since there seems to be a stereotypical British accent that is widely known, but I do want to know what it is.