ACCENT.......... - Page 2

good topic.... but have u guys had to suffer the Indian call center accent??? Its quite something trust me!

Well, I teach English, and I got the job to a large extent because I had a "native speaker accent"! Of course, my degrees and other academic qualifications were important, but what gave me the edge over the others was that if people close their eyes, they would hear a Brit speaking. It's not something that I was doing deliberately - I was raised and educated in Delhi, where I wasn't exposed to a Brit accent. So, where did I pick it up from? I lived in London for a short while, and that's when it happened. After that I started teaching in a British school and I was surrounded by Brits, so the effect stayed. The funny thing is that within this accented English my accent changes depending on who I am with - for two years I had a Canadian accent; in Texas, I spoke like a southerner; in India I speak Hinglish, and when I am with my in-laws, I have a broad Scottish accent. My linguistics professor explained the phenomenon - according to him, we Indians have an ear for languages. From childhood, most of us are exposed to different languages, and this helps us to pick up the finer points and nuances of any language with ease. This is not to say that all of us do not make any conscious effort. Some of us do, and it could be the desire to fit in, or probably just to let our fellow countrymen know that we live abroad. Conscious or subconscious, it doesn't matter. What matters is that at the end of the day our accents don't define us, but our actions do!

if a person moves to a foreign country after 17 or 18 his/her accent doesnt change. they try to speak in canadian or amercian accent, little bit succeed but cant speak as born canadian speaks .it happens only till 25. if a person who comes to canada or america after 16-17 and join the school the their accent changed but still it cant be percet canadian accent or the Indian accent, beech mein hi reh jaaten hain😆.for those who move after 20's then even if they are fluent english speakers but their accent cant be totally change and also take some time.

my accent is totally Indian and never tried to speak like canadians bcz I proud of my Indian accent.one thing i want to add that if a person goes back to india after 1-2 year ( moves here after 25's ) and speaks in American and canadian accent then he is totally showing off.it takes time yaar and still cant be exactly canadian or American accent for the whole of his life. Accent depends on our mother tongue and our tongue is used to speak like that so its hard to change.canadian born ppl speak their mother tongue in english accent😆.abcd😆

I completely agree with Tanaz and Sowmyaa here.

Working amidst people who sometimes fail to comprehend just because of a certain way you pronounced a word is a bit awkward. I don't think it is a completely natural process for people who have lived in India for over 20 years to change their accents! Some hearing experience and efforts go in at the beginning and then slowly, the new accent takes its own course. People who fake the new accent at all times stand a serious risk of speaking Indian English the minute they are upset / overjoyed/ emotional in general. There was this girl who started faking her accent within 2 months after her husband brought her here, and I used to love it to trigger the Indian English in her 😈 😈 😛

I do find a transition of my Indian accent to American and people have asked me if I was raised here, which means I seem to be doing okay, but there are times when the "K" just comes out like a bharateeya naree 😆 😆 and I am fine with it 😆 😃
I think both my brother and my husband are still closer to their Indian roots in terms of speaking and my nephew had asked me why I am american and his dad is indian. 😉 I believe the transition has much to do with staying in midwest among the LOCALS, rather than staying at costal regions (bro and hubby) where the work place is infested with DESIs.
Over a period of time, accent changes, and perhaps, what many of us have is an "IMMIGRATED Indian accent" We say skejule (schedule), raoot (route) and CuePAWn (coupon) but the K and R do sound funny at times😳

🤢, Those who change words in their own mother tongue after coming here may they seek a guiding light! 🤢. If you spoke Marathi with me, you'll never tell I even stepped out of maharashtra ever.

Some people make an attempt in life to fit in and change themselves to be successful, remove as many obstacles(if they see it needed) on the path to success.You change yourself to sell yourself to a particular demograhpic

Some people laugh at the people who make an attempt, world only cares if you successful

I find it funny, people in Call center are taught so much about accent and all, why? that explains doesnt it?

Originally posted by: mermaid_QT

🤢, Those who change words in their own mother tongue after coming here may they seek a guiding light! 🤢. If you spoke Marathi with me, you'll never tell I even stepped out of maharashtra ever.

Aho aiklat kaaaaa😉

Originally posted by: sareg

Some people make an attempt in life to fit in and change themselves to be successful, remove as many obstacles(if they see it needed) on the path to success.You change yourself to sell yourself to a particular demograhpic

Some people laugh at the people who make an attempt, world only cares if you successful

I find it funny, people in Call center are taught so much about accent and all, why? that explains doesnt it?

Well said Vineet. I agree with you.

Originally posted by: sareg

Aho aiklat kaaaaa😉

Aho, aikla ani sudaiwaana patla sudhhaa! 😉
(translation - I heard and luckily I agree)

Originally posted by: Buffie

It has always amazed me...as to how some people who have been born and raised in a country for more than 20 odd years, adopt the foreign accent(in just one year) when they move to a foreign country 😕.......

I had an acquaintance of mine, who got married and moved to the US......and when she's back after two years, her diction was completely different from what I've been used to hearing from her...She had this abysmal "American"(as she calls it and she swears that there wasnt even an iota of premeditated effort😕 and it was all a natural progression) accent, which didnt sound american at all...neither did it sound indian....it sounded as though i'm hearing a terrible melange of different accents🤢🤢🤢....

What's worse is when people sudenly switch over from their "fake" accent to their "original" accent...All of a sudden I had this acquaintance switched over to the "typical indian " accent which was so farcical🤢🤢..and when commented upon it,she stormed from the room in a fit of pique, shouting that she had been insulted😕🤢

Now my questions are :

• Can someone who has been born and raised in a country for almost 20-25 years,"naturally" change their accent when they move to a foreign country.."naturally" meaning without any deliberate effort from the person's side......

We still cant speak grammatically correct English even though british sat on our heads for 200 years but yes we can always "throw" that accent....😊.. actually even within US people moving from say texas or mid-west to boston... ny...take lessosns in pronunciations... i mean those who care...😊 No natural all pre-conceived....😆

• If its deliberate, then what makes it inexorable for the people to change their enunciation....is it just an attempt not to be the odd one out, or is it utterly needed❓

Its just to impress those simple folks back home....😆 who look at a person travelling from a phoren country (read us, uk, aus, nz) with a lot of awe, admiration and inquisitive curiosity...

your views😊..and I'm not talking about those who were born and raised in countries where parentd had immigrated😊

Contrrary to the popular belief you dont have to adopt an accent to be successfull. For heavens sake even if they try do you think all the south indians can throw an accent!!!😆 even though many of them are eminent and successful....

Originally posted by: T.

Or for instance, if you ask for a "rubber" or a "scale", they will get totally confused unless you say "eraser" or "ruler".

OMG! I can totally relate with that. That was the same thing that happened to me. I was used to speaking rubber according to the indian language but u just gotta change it here coz people won't get u if u say 'rubber'.

I always spoke fluet english, even when in india but i did have an indian accent but when u move here, people around u speak a little differently. U live with those people, meet those people, eat with them so u kinda naturally adopt it unknowingly.

there are some other differences in daily words as well. here are some i could think of:

In India u pronounce 'H' as 'aa-ch'
But here when u spell something out, if u pronouce it as that way, people will ask u to repeat again. Its pronounced as 'aaiich' here.

In India, the place ur particular house in a building is called a 'flat' but here its called an 'appartment'
Apartment is a term used for the building u live in, in India, the building u live in, in India.

I too wonder how people get used and implement the foriegn accent in a short time.What irks me is the artificiality in their accent ,that too in their mother tongue😆?

If we comment more,they may misunderstand that we are jealous of them.In India some creatures get trained to spoil their accent (training in american accent ).What to do "Necessity is mother of all those things"?

Cheers,

Mythili