What gives me the shits is when an Aussie goes accross to the states, say Greg Norman, and then after a year or so he speaks with a fluent American accent. What makes it so hard for people to understand the native dialect and why should people have to change just to be understood?
Same thing with Hugh Laurie - who played George in Blackadder Goes Forth, and is now more commonly known as House. I could understand using the accent for the show, but to continually use it at other times?
I had Californians tell me that I had picked up a slight Memphis accent in the 7 months that I was stationed there. OTOH I found Virginians to be stuck up fuck heads so none of their bastardized/hybridized Northeast/Southern accent stuck on me. When I speak Spanish I have to make an effort not to say things like an Andalusian would, i.e. "giro al izquierda" rather than the "giro al
ithquierda" as spoken in Andalusia.
I do think that you are right though about the likely hood of me picking up more than the vestiges of an Aussie accent. I would more likely just pick up the local idioms like using take away instead of to go. Most of the Limey/Kiwi/Aussie expressions intuitively make sense after a couple of listens.