Accent

Charlene raised a good point the other day, something that I have also thought about before, and was also raised by my sister before. Why is there discrimination by Americans as to a person's accents? What I mean is, why do we judge people who speak English with an accent differently depending on where they are from?

It is often the case that, if you are Asian, or Middle Eastern, African or Mexican, just to name a few for example, that when they speak English with an accent, they are judged as not knowing how to speak English correctly, or even worse, not very smart and highly looked upon? However, if you are say, European (Western Europe mostly), and you start speaking English with an accent, whether it is a French accent, or Spanish accent or an Italian accent, you are not viewed in the same light as an Asian person speaking English with an accent? Often times, the Europeans will be looked at as an exotic foreigner who is speaking English in this sexy accent, while say a Chinese person speaking with an accent will be considered to be someone who doesn't know how to speak English, or as stupid immigrants. Why is there no such thing as a sexy Chinese accent when speaking English? Or, say for example, Mexicans as compared to Spaniards. If they are both speaking English with an accent, do you think they will be judged the same? I think not.

I am not quite sure how to understand this phenomenon. I think it might just be something deeply rooted in our culture. For example, I am sure many people have the experience of reaching customer support of banks or cable companies and the people who are on the other side of the conversation are located not in the US, but in India, and speaks English with an Indian accent. Do we not often find that annoying? Do we not often think to ourselves why can't they find someone who speaks English? Do we not often look down on them? These kind of thinking will even come from people who themselves speaks English with a foreign accent.

Perhaps it is society that puts a mental image into our head when we hear a certain kind of accent. I am sure, when you hear someone from down South with a Southern English accent, a certain image pops into your head, so is with someone speaking English with a Middle Eastern accent, or someone speaking English with an Asian accent. All different accents produce different images.

I heard someone mentioning that where she works, there are many foreigners with PhD degrees, or are Doctors or with other advanced professional degrees, obviously all very smart and educated people. However, they often speak with an accent, and when they do, when they cannot speak English fluently and have to often pause with the occasional "uhhhh" or "mmmmm" or some stuttering while they think of the next thing to say, the listeners often discount the speakers abilities and the contents of what is been said. Sure, the same thing can be said as a fluent English speaker who has trouble speaking or presenting his idea clearly, but the problem is even more profound for someone speaking with an accent. Some people might claim that they don’t think like that, they don’t judge people differently because of their accent, but is that really true? Do you really not judge when talking to the person over the phone with an Indian accent, or the taxi driver that speaks with a Middle Eastern accent?