One of the things I do in my life is work at an arts organization that attracts visitors from all over the world. It is a lovely place to visit and a lovely place to work. Many people who visit this place are not English speakers, if they happen to speak Spanish I can be of help.
I was helping a couple from Spain and when it became apparent that they were uncomfortable in English I switched to Spanish. Grateful, the man said, (in Spanish, but I will translate) “You speak Spanish so well, where is your accent from?” I responded that my family is from Mexico and he said, “You need to lose that accent.” Holy crap, that comment made me go from friendly to pissed off in no seconds flat.
I felt my whole body flush and I could feel the anger rise to my face, but I kept smiling. His comment upset me because it is ignorant and reeks of a sense of superiority and colonialist bullshit. Can you tell the comment really got under my skin? I kept smiling, but the woman that was with him either noticed something in my demeanor or found his comment offensive as well because she was kinda shaking her head. I kept the smile on my face and said, “For me it is not an accent, for me yours is an accent and I wouldn’t ask you to lose it.” To his credit, he laughed heartily as his companion said, “She’s right.” He replied, “Vale“*, which I took to mean: point taken.
Seriously, accents are relative! I would never say to a person with a British accent in America, “You speak English so well, you need to lose that accent” and I doubt that anyone would expect me to lose my American accent if I was speaking English in England.
Accents are relative, which means we all have them. People often forget that.
*In Spain “vale” can mean okay.
To speak Castilian Spanish, just use a lisp. At all times, spit your words with the tip of your tongue. I speak Spanish with a Honduran accent. When I am in Costa Rica, I get snubbed at times because the accent is different. However, I am really good at mimicking accents. I love speaking Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cajun French, and Southern English. It is fun. Also I do a good Brit accent. I should have been an actress. I used to be annoyed when people seemed to look down on my Cajun heritage. Who cares? You are a unique and precious person, no matter how you speak or where you are from. Speak on, Unknown Mami! (by the way, Jesus had an accent. He spoke the poor Narazeth accent, as opposed to the correct Jerusalem way, I suppose. He was from the poor hill country. I bet he sounded like a hillbilly. and he was the Son of God. so THere!)
Rude guy. I’ve been teased a lot, first for my convent school English accent and then, by virtue of living in Tamil Nadu, for my Tamil accent frequently. I can just imagine how you felt.
I’d love to hear you do a vlog, paper bag and all. But you’re the master of concealing very dexterously – so – your voice would be a pleasure to hear. I suspect you sing well, too.
🙂 Accents are interesting. I love to listen to different languages. I remember while learning Spanish, decades ago – we had a practice conversation class and I walked in a little late for the class. The teacher looked at me and said – quickly – give me a sentence in Spanish. I forgot the word for dinner and said “dinero”. The teacher was shocked. And the class was entertained. In India – we have so many languages that each one has a unique accent. We can recognize where a person is from just by listening to their English or Hindi accent – which are the two common languages in most places.
I wish I had a spanish accent. I’m Puerto Rican, but raised in a family that didn’t speak spanish all the time, so I didn’t learn. I hate not knowing Spanish. Have tried taking it in school, and college, but that didn’t help. Been working on a post about being Puerto Rican and not speaking spanish. Posting sometime this week.
Let me know when your post goes up. We’re taking turns being sick over here so I don’t want to miss it.
Wow. That was pretty rude.
I enjoy hearing different accents. They all have an unique beauty to them.
His remark was so very narrow minded. Accents are a part of each of us, signifying our origins. Even across the United States the accent changes drastically, and often you can tell exactly what state a person is from or was raised in just by their accent. I grew up in California then moved north to Oregon then to the Midwest and just recently moved to Virginia. Each time there was an adjustment period during which I had to learn the different inflections of the dominant accent, but I would never suggest to anyone that they need to lose their accent.
Wow, that was so rude of him!! Excellent response from you. We all have accents and we all should respect that.. and especially that man should be proud that you can speak his language. I’m Swedish but I speak Italian quite ok and every time I’m in Italy people say that I speak Italian so well even though it sucks big time.. because they are proud and glad that someone from Sweden has learned to speak their language.
I enjoy accents. The world would be boring without them.
WTF is wrong with people? That would have gotten under my skin too.
I love that there are accents. I think they are so unique and fun to listen to. That was terribly offensive because, as you said, we all have them. I think the entertainment business feeds into those stereotypes though – don’t they always make the Southerner dumb, and the guy from Brooklyn rough and tough – maybe a gangster, and the woman from the UK brilliant. You handled yourself well though and made your point.
Que maleducato!
Americans love the British accent, and the British love the American accent. But of course the British accent varies a great deal. I’m a londoner, and although I’m kinda posh, I have a bit of a cockney twang to it at times.
Accents add colour to a person.
And color (or colour) is a great thing.
I am Canadian and when I visit my daughter who lives in the Southern US I get asked where I come from – I didn’t think I had an accent however I think everyone talks differently from everywhere.
I love accent. But I will not copy the way a local Brit talks when in England. I’ll just comfortably blurt everything out in my stupid Malaysian English accent. I can sense when somebody tries very hard to ‘blend’ in and try speaking a locl dialect, when they fail miserably (their face would show as if they’re constipating LOL), I feel like laughing. Be yourself. He’s a loser!!
– http://timmohdali.blogspot.com –
What kills me is he had to ask you where your accent came from. He couldn’t be a snob about it until you supplied him with the information. Good for you for standing up to him. Politely too. I’m impressed. I visited Spain once to see a friend. Apparently I confounded the locals. A couple of little old ladies asked her where I was from. She told them I was from the midwest in the United States of America. They said they had never heard such a flat accent. Well, I can’t deny that.
You definitely kept your cool. I don’t know how I would have responded. I have a very good Spanish friend, we have a good time teasing one another about accents and “proper” words. He’s lived here a long time and hangs out with mostly Mexicans. When he goes back to visit, he says he gets a hard time for having “lost” his accent and sounding like “us”. Which is basically an insult because, you know, we speak bastard Spanish. Which we only speak because of colonization and the forced repression of indigenous languages. Ugh, I best not get started…
It’s true – everyone has an accent. I don’t have a cliched Canadian accent – but I do have a different accent than my friend from Salem, MA. Accents truly are relative.
Sir, if you don’t prefer my Spanish accent, perhaps we should switch back to English.UGh.Annoying but I think you handled it perfectly.
I’m really surprised he said that to you. Glad you straightened him out!