5 ms·

Life is unfair. As a person with an accent, I am very well aware that I will be judged by it. Just like fat people are judged for being fat, or stupid people f

by ldd 11y ago

Life is unfair. As a person with an accent, I am very well aware that I will be judged by it. Just like fat people are judged for being fat, or stupid people for being stupid. Yet, I have found solace in the ideas brought forward by thinkers like Marcus Aurelius, and my mentality has changed drastically. Yes, I have an accent, and yes, that means that certain people will openly mock me. In fact, the only time I was bullied in high school was due to my accent. I try very hard, everyday, to practice my pronunciation, and I still fail. I try hard to be understood. I try hard to be positive and to be kind and gentle towards others. Ultimately, this is what matters, and not whether I have an accent or not. Haters are going to hate.

bahargholipour 11y ago
I think that's the right attitude. The point is to communicate clearly and in a powerful manner—for everyone. You can have the most Native accent and yet communicate poorly. Or you can have a foreign accent but work on aspects of it to communicate clearly. At the same time, Native speakers, too, should work on their comprehension skills, especially in increasingly diverse societies. Haters gonna hate. But you don't even need them. If you speak clearly and proudly, those who need to understand, will.
vdaniuk 11y ago
>Haters are going to hate. I am more optimistic. Major advances of equality and discrimination prevention in many countries empirically prove that some haters will, in fact, stop hating.
- bahargholipour 11y ago
  That's a really good point.
- vlehto 11y ago
  I've perceived more of this sort: "OK these gay people are not evil after all. But this other group, they are evil! I don't hate anybody, but hating evil people doesn't count!!!"
  - ta0967 11y ago
    Works out pretty well if you focus on the evil in hateful people. Everybody's fine, only the hateful deserve hate! Let's hate the hateful! I mean, this is exactly the mechanism through which we've been able to build villages, cities, countries, and even (quite longstanding) multilateral pacts. Civilisation stands on the shoulders of atrophied fear of the other.
themetrician 11y ago
> I try very hard, everyday, to practice my pronunciation, and I still fail. You're missing some realization. Get a pronunciation trainer to help you. Anyone can overcome their accents - actors do it all the time. The tongue is a muscle that can learn new tricks, but you need a mirror and an expert guiding you. It should take you no time with help if you are an intelligent person. I'm not a native speaker but I have native-level speaking skills that I acquired through practice. Having an accent while possessing an IQ above 110 is laziness.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- charlesism 11y ago
  Laziness? To learn a second language takes a long, long time. I remember reading "4400 hours" somewhere. If you don't have an accent, congratulations, but it's not solely because of how hard-working you are, it's also because you learned the language while you were young. I have yet to meet a single person who speaks a second language without an accent who began their study as an adult.
  - Jtsummers 11y ago
    https://voxy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/110329-VOXY-HARDLANGUAGES-FINAL-WIDE.png https://voxy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/110329-VOXY... An infographic I found once regarding approximate time to learn a language for English speakers. > I have yet to meet a single person who speaks a second language without an accent who began their study as an adult. I've met a couple, but they're indeed very rare. Although English may not have been their second language, it may have been more like 4 or 5, perhaps that made a difference.
  - rdancer 11y ago
    Learning a language requires a lot of tedious work. Learning a new accent can be done in an afternoon: All you have to do is: (1) learn a few new phonemes, (2) learn how they combine, (3) learn how they map to the accent you already are familiar with, (4) practice the mapping. Compared to the thousands of words, grammar rules, idioms, culture differences, the two kinds of effort are hardly comparable.
solergiga 11y ago
what kind of accent do you have? I used to laugh at other's accents (even though I have one myself) and was very immature until I started learning a 3rd language and appreciating language itself. It's just horrid to laugh deliberately at someone for how they speak. I know of several people that have a heavy pompous Indian/British accent, but their knowledge of English is 100x my own ability. I should be laughing at myself.
- ldd 11y ago
  My mother tongue is Spanish, my second tongue is English and my third tongue is French. I grew up in Quebec and there were two greek guys who made fun of me for not being able to pronounce 'sheep' (in English) properly.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
bduerst 11y ago
I have some eastern European friends who have taken training classes to help reduce their accent with English. Even as much as it's unfair and biased for people to make assumptions based on accent, they still saw the cost as an investment into their careers and went through with it.
frenchy 11y ago
> I try very hard, everyday, to practice my pronunciation, and I still fail. This is the sort of thing makes me feel sad. I don't feel bad for ESL university professors who are impossible to understand because they won't bother to pay for accent training which is entirely within their reach. I'm glad that have a good attitude about it though.
rdancer 11y ago
It's not that hard. If I can speak standard English (alongside my standard Czech), so can you. Take an acting class already.

by ldd 11y ago

bahargholipour 11y ago

I think that's the right attitude. The point is to communicate clearly and in a powerful manner—for everyone. You can have the most Native accent and yet communicate poorly. Or you can have a foreign accent but work on aspects of it to communicate clearly. At the same time, Native speakers, too, should work on their comprehension skills, especially in increasingly diverse societies. Haters gonna hate. But you don't even need them. If you speak clearly and proudly, those who need to understand, will.

vdaniuk 11y ago

>Haters are going to hate. I am more optimistic. Major advances of equality and discrimination prevention in many countries empirically prove that some haters will, in fact, stop hating.

bahargholipour 11y ago
That's a really good point.
vlehto 11y ago
I've perceived more of this sort: "OK these gay people are not evil after all. But this other group, they are evil! I don't hate anybody, but hating evil people doesn't count!!!"
- ta0967 11y ago
  Works out pretty well if you focus on the evil in hateful people. Everybody's fine, only the hateful deserve hate! Let's hate the hateful! I mean, this is exactly the mechanism through which we've been able to build villages, cities, countries, and even (quite longstanding) multilateral pacts. Civilisation stands on the shoulders of atrophied fear of the other.

themetrician 11y ago

> I try very hard, everyday, to practice my pronunciation, and I still fail. You're missing some realization. Get a pronunciation trainer to help you. Anyone can overcome their accents - actors do it all the time. The tongue is a muscle that can learn new tricks, but you need a mirror and an expert guiding you. It should take you no time with help if you are an intelligent person. I'm not a native speaker but I have native-level speaking skills that I acquired through practice. Having an accent while possessing an IQ above 110 is laziness.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
charlesism 11y ago
Laziness? To learn a second language takes a long, long time. I remember reading "4400 hours" somewhere. If you don't have an accent, congratulations, but it's not solely because of how hard-working you are, it's also because you learned the language while you were young. I have yet to meet a single person who speaks a second language without an accent who began their study as an adult.
- Jtsummers 11y ago
  https://voxy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/110329-VOXY-HARDLANGUAGES-FINAL-WIDE.png https://voxy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/110329-VOXY... An infographic I found once regarding approximate time to learn a language for English speakers. > I have yet to meet a single person who speaks a second language without an accent who began their study as an adult. I've met a couple, but they're indeed very rare. Although English may not have been their second language, it may have been more like 4 or 5, perhaps that made a difference.
- rdancer 11y ago
  Learning a language requires a lot of tedious work. Learning a new accent can be done in an afternoon: All you have to do is: (1) learn a few new phonemes, (2) learn how they combine, (3) learn how they map to the accent you already are familiar with, (4) practice the mapping. Compared to the thousands of words, grammar rules, idioms, culture differences, the two kinds of effort are hardly comparable.

solergiga 11y ago

what kind of accent do you have? I used to laugh at other's accents (even though I have one myself) and was very immature until I started learning a 3rd language and appreciating language itself. It's just horrid to laugh deliberately at someone for how they speak. I know of several people that have a heavy pompous Indian/British accent, but their knowledge of English is 100x my own ability. I should be laughing at myself.

ldd 11y ago
My mother tongue is Spanish, my second tongue is English and my third tongue is French. I grew up in Quebec and there were two greek guys who made fun of me for not being able to pronounce 'sheep' (in English) properly.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

bduerst 11y ago

I have some eastern European friends who have taken training classes to help reduce their accent with English. Even as much as it's unfair and biased for people to make assumptions based on accent, they still saw the cost as an investment into their careers and went through with it.

frenchy 11y ago

> I try very hard, everyday, to practice my pronunciation, and I still fail. This is the sort of thing makes me feel sad. I don't feel bad for ESL university professors who are impossible to understand because they won't bother to pay for accent training which is entirely within their reach. I'm glad that have a good attitude about it though.

rdancer 11y ago

It's not that hard. If I can speak standard English (alongside my standard Czech), so can you. Take an acting class already.