L'accent; a road to self-discovery

I never noticed that, despite the fact that I went to a British school, I happen to have something of an American accent. I simply thought I had a 'non-accent' but when I went to London this summer, I was told, and even by Americans, that my accent is pure American. This is fine by me, even though I'd rather I didn't sound something that I wasn't; but it happened so khalas!

The point is, I was out on my lunch break the other day with a couple of co-workers, and was animatedly telling a story, when one of them interrupted me:
"Can you stop using the word "like" in between every sentence?" he said. (or something to that effect)
I was kind of caught off guard and went,"Sure!" but for the life of me I couldnt! I really tried but I couldnt tell a simple story without continuously stopping, rephrasing, etc. In the end I sounded like someone with a speech impediment.

This also happens to me when I try to talk completely in Arabic or completely in English (more difficult to do the Arabic one) 'cause I'm concentrating so hard on not interchanging between the two that I use literal translation which sounds awkward and flat-out wrong in some cases.

Going back to the 'like' story, I felt like a total bimbotic valley chick. I realised I completely act and sound the part as well sometimes. And that was not how I ever saw myself as, or saw myself becoming!

Next step; a mission. Eliminate all traces of "valley-talk" and no shopping for a month just to be safe :)


I'm broke anyway...