ACCENT.......... - Page 3

Originally posted by: Buffie

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......

My answer is NO , its not "naturally" ofcourse. One has to try to learn new language/variation or modulation of pitch or tone. or make some efforts.

• 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❓

Some people do it for not to be odd one out or for some people its utterly needed - For me I think I am okay and happy in my Indian english accent and so far I havent had any problem in dealing with people over here and I think sometimes its really funny to hear an Indian trying to change his accent and neither it sounds american nor indian 😆 I would say one doesnt have to adopt an accent change to be successful - osho rajneesh is one example .

But thats just my opinion.

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

Originally posted by: Buffie

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......
• 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❓

Like everyone said above, it can't be helped as when one immigrates, a lot of what and how they lived changes to suit the new land and culture. It depends on how thick your Indian accent is. I have found ppl from Delhi or Mumbai having diff Indian accents then ppl from the South which tend to pronunce "M' as "Yem"... More then accent, one needs to adopt American linguistic skills which are very different then European and Indian Hinglish... (No one will understand when you say "I am having to do this")

Americans love foreign accents esp if it British or European... Some ppl never change their accent like Arnold Schwarznagger, actor/Governer of CA.

Originally posted by: serialbuff

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!

I agree with you ..
To me it is not restricted to english....... even speaking hindi \urdu\ 😛with people of different origin I find myself changing my accent along with words . 😆

😆 Tonnes to say and not enough time today. I'll leave with a few brief comments and maybe we'll pick up from there at a later time.

The first few things that came to mind while reading:

~I picked up an "American" accent without meaning to. Actually, some say it's more British than American. That might have something to do with the fact that I find British English more pure and charming. (Let's not get into dialects now though..that wasn't the point).

I don't know how I picked up the accent, as it was certainly not a concious effort. I think it had more to do with just living in the environment for an extended period of time and naturally adapting the customs of the culture.

~My friends have noted that when I speak to my mother on the phone I immediately switch into a VERY desi accent 😆 I'd never noticed that either. It was this incident that made me aware that I had an accent at all.

~I still mix my "v" and "w" terribly. It takes concious efforts to say work instead of vork, weather instead of veather and variety instead of wariety. 😕 😳

~My "three" sounds like "tree" to Americans. 😆

~I admit that I do get annoyed with Indian adults who have lived in the US for well over 20-30 years, yet they still sound like they barely passed through primary education in a village in India. 😳 It might be the "aristrocat" in me. More than the fact that they "sound different" I am just astonished that they have been able to thrive for an extended period of time. Americans are not neccessarily the most patient of people and will dismiss you if communication becomes a problem. That's first hand experience speaking.

~The influence on my diction has been primarily courtesy my education in India (I guess Army schools and my experience at British CoEd school lent to the British accent as well). The English taught in America is of deplorable standards and best left unmentioned hereafter.

~My dad still prounounces "H" as "etch" and "Z" as "zed" ... whereas the "American" pronunciations are "a-tch" and "zee" respectively.

Oh..so much more to say 😉 Just thought I'd start off by sharing some personal experiences.

Originally posted by: simtara

~My friends have noted that when I speak to my mother on the phone I immediately switch into a VERY desi accent 😆 I'd never noticed that either. It was this incident that made me aware that I had an accent at all.

I remember someone from my old office who had shifted for few years to US, her son was very young when they shifted. Once she came back to India and visited our office, she mentioned that about her son. He would chat with his yankee friends in yankee accent and unconciously switch to desi accent while speaking to his parents.

I must say when I see desi girls/boys chatting in Firangi accent...strange feeling hoti hai. 😆

Originally posted by: SolidSnake

I remember someone from my old office who had shifted for few years to US, her son was very young when they shifted. Once she came back to India and visited our office, she mentioned that about her son. He would chat with his yankee friends in yankee accent and unconciously switch to desi accent while speaking to his parents.

I must say when I see desi girls/boys chatting in Firangi accent...strange feeling hoti hai. 😆

I got over that strange feeling now... 😆 😆 😆

I always wonder why its only Indians who have a big prob with the way other Indians speak with or without an accent. What I have noticed the world over is that all non-native speakers of English have some type of accent...The French give English their own little twist...so do the Germans. I have heard Malay, Chinese, Arab accents and they are all quite quaint and unique in their own way. I don't get why we Indians look down on the way some of our own people speak English...

Having a natural accent is very beautiful, exotic, sexy thing to have IMHO.

Originally posted by: syrene

I always wonder why its only Indians who have a big prob with the way other Indians speak with or without an accent. What I have noticed the world over is that all non-native speakers of English have some type of accent...The French give English their own little twist...so do the Germans. I have heard Malay, Chinese, Arab accents and they are all quite quaint and unique in their own way. I don't get why we Indians look down on the way some of our own people speak English...

It's going to sound defensive...can't help it as I can't generalize and speak for others and so am only going to speak for myself.

It's not that I look down upon people who retain an Indian accent while speaking English. Lord knows, even I've got an Indian accent when I speak with my mom and other family members (especially the elders, come to think of it). And I don't really have a problem with it.

I guess I'm just astonished at the fact that some people retain a heavy Indian accent despite having lived in the US for a majority of their lives, where as others who have lived the same number of years have adopted an accent or tone more similar to that of the area. Again, I refer to it as a matter of communication with the "locals."

The fact is that some of the people I've met have such heavy accents, even I have difficulty understanding them. It would be far easier for me to understand them if they just spoke Hindi or Bangla (the people I'm referring to being Bengali). I'm fairly adept at understanding Indians, whether they are TAs who've just arrived in the US and have either not developed or not adopted an accent/tone, or whether they are people who've lived in the country for x-years and have developed a pseudo, quasi or mixed accent. If I, as an Indian who is familiar with hearing various Indian accents and is familiar with a variety of Indian languages, has a hard time understanding the aforementioned people, then does their accent not pose a hinderance in conversation with the goras?

I don't see it as an inferior quality. I see it as a hinderance in communication...something key to thriving and surviving on a daily basis.

well i came to canada about 3 years ago.. and i know my accent has completely changed.. i've been told dat by a lotta ppl.. and also by my chums back there in india.. and i don't fake da accent.. lol and i dont think anywun can switch to a desi accent.. maybe da accent probably sounds different to one only when they're talking in hindi nd punjabi i guess :P