April 22, 2013
Reading
the articles; particularly “English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination
in the United States”, made me think about my experience when I was trying to
speak English. The articles makes good points about how even English has many
variations in how it is spoken. There are so many Englishes with different
accent in them too. This made me think about the hold idea of ‘Standard English’
and how it is also another variation of English. My question is why is it that
when someone is trying to learn English and are uttering their accent, there
are so many negative factors linked to it. Is it because society is
discriminated those who are not consider ‘white Caucasian’ or are their other
attributes to why people who are trying to learn English are treated badly.
For
example, the article that was required to read for class was about a customer who
was trying to explain to the cashier about his change. The cashier, instead of
being of an assistance he was mocking the customer, who had an accent when
trying to speak English. So, is their more to having an accent to who the
person is for other to discriminate or treat them bad?
When I was trying to
learn English, I remember having a similar experience were people pointed out
my accent. They would either make fun of me or make me feel so uncomfortable because
I still had an accent. Instead of this being a motivation to speak English, it
push me into not to talk or say anything. I was just such a difficult time
because when I did have to speak in English it was just so difficult to be able
to express myself. I remember taking me such a long time to try to speak
English again. I believe that if people would see or understand that everyone
has different accents in the world and that even English itself has many accents
spoken by people who are native of that language.
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