Everybody Has An Accent — Don’t Let Your Accent Define you!
We recently saw the play My Fair Lady. It is amusing to hear: “Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?” And “Loverly!” The play is all about English accents. It triggered many memories of my experience with accents through the years!
Growing Up Without An Accent
Growing up in India, we were exposed to many accents of people from different parts of India — but it was always the other person who had the accent. Not us! We were bilingual at home and my siblings and I switched from Hindi to English and back without thinking. As we grew up, English became our primary language. I even took my High School Exam in Calcutta — called Senior Cambridge — that was conducted by the University of Cambridge. Yes, the one in England.
Now I Have An Accent?!
“You have an accent, and sometimes you are hard to understand,” said Tim. I was going through my annual review with my boss. We were rated on nine different evaluation factors and eight were no surprises. The ninth got me. I was rated low on “Communications.”
I had been in this country for over ten years. I had often been told that I over communicated, and never that I was hard to understand. Now I was being told not only that I had an accent but that it affected my ability to communicate!
Understanding My Accent
Purely coincidentally, our HR department had just contracted with a local professor to teach “Accent Reduction Class.” I interviewed for the class, and the professor declined to let me join. She explained that the class was more for people with English as a Second Language (ESL). However, hearing my story about being rated low on communications, she relented and let me join.
During the three month long bi-weekly classes, I felt like Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady. Speak, tape, listen, repeat! “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plains!” I discovered that my V’s sounded like B’s and my T’s were too hard. My “Thank You” sounded like “Tank You.” I also discovered that my emphasis for some words like “laboratory” was on the wrong syllable. One of the first things I had learned on arriving in the US was to say Zee and not Zed. Now I was also learning how I sounded different from others.
In the meantime, I took up a new assignment and my new manager, Ken, was horrified to discover that I was taking accent reduction classes. He and my colleagues had no difficulty in understanding me — other than my occasional corny sense of humor! His support, and the recognition of the sounds that I had difficulty with, gave me confidence. I was given many opportunities to make customer presentations, and often invited back.
Accent = Bravery
I also learned to appreciate and admire accents, and never define a person by her/his accent. A few years later, I was at a restaurant in Owego, NY. Four Japanese businessmen were trying to order steak at the next table. The server asked them “How would you like your steak?” The businessmen didn’t understand the question. The server just repeated his question louder and louder as if they had a hearing disability. I couldn’t take it anymore and stepped in to help.
I learned that there is no accent without some bravery. A different accent needs to be respected. The Japanese businessmen took the risk of coming to the US in spite of their limited English. Brave men willing to travel to a small town like Owego, to build their business. Brave men with an accent.
Most people with an accent are usually speaking English as a second language or have traveled far from their home. Accent be damned, this is bravery!
Appreciating Accents
Once I met a Russian professional who had no accent. None. Zip. Nada! My curiosity led me to discover that he had attended two years of accent reduction classes. That is true dedication and perseverance and deserves respect!
Now when I hear an accent — and the circumstances are right — I love to ask “Do I detect an accent? Where is it from?” Sometimes much to the embarrassment of my family. Often it is the beginning of a wonderful conversation — sometimes it is not!
Don’t Let Accent Define one.
I have been learning Spanish from an App. Last month in Las Vegas, our server had an accent, so I decided to try my Spanish. Much to my embarrassment I discovered that he was not Hispanic but originally from Albania! He was generous enough to share his crazy story. Winning the immigration lottery. His jobs in Napa Valley. His wife and kids. It was fun for both of us.
I have often wondered if the accent is a mouth thing or an ear thing?! Some people can detect an accent from Boston or Georgia. My ears are not so fine tuned. Is the accent coming from the speaker’s mouth or after it enters our ears? What happens during the transmission?
Dealing With My Accent
When I came to this country in 1980, people from India were still a novelty. Folks told me that they loved my singsong accent. Recently, while traveling with our masks on, a couple — strangers — told us that we must be from India based on our accent. They then went on to share stories about their neighbors who were also from India. Brave men and women who took the risk of coming to a new country.
Over the years I learned to combine my accent with my corny sense of humor. Most of my speeches include the line “If you hear an accent, remember that I didn’t have one till I came to this country!” It gets a laugh and breaks the ice. I don’t let my accent define me or my message.
Once while making a speech at a large conference in London, UK, I started with: “I come to you with an Indian accent, American idioms, but hopefully still speaking the Queen’s English.” I immediately had an applauding, appreciating and attentive audience.
In any case, who cares if I have an accent as long as like Eliza Doolittle, I have “lots of chocolates for me to eat!” … “Wouldn’t it be loverly?”
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S. K. Gupta is a former senior executive of a Fortune 50 corporation. He enjoys researching and writing about not-so-obvious things in life. Feedback welcome. sk.gupta.us at gmail dot com.
