Why do we lose our accents overseas?

I VERY vividly remember being bored along with the rest of my university class while a group presented their assignment. The five presenters took turns to read off their slides but everything they said just flew over our heads.

Then, one of them took the PowerPoint remote and started speaking – and suddenly everyone in the class, including the lecturer, lifted their heads in attention. This guy, who is a friend and now a successful radio deejay, wasn’t saying anything ground-breaking or interesting or with much charisma or presence, he was just saying it with a Western accent.