Accents: how do you feel about Western accents in an Indian-looking person

sssall

Karuna, if you've picked up a few words of Hindi then you may have more of a Welsh accent than you think, boyo.

Apparently, Welsh and Hindi sound very much alike, at least according to the report below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4328733.stm

karuna

It's weird that, isn't it? My boyfriend sounds Welsh when he tries to do an Indian accent. Mind you, he sounds Jamaican when trying to do Welsh, so maybe that doesn't prove anything!

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Nick-H

the archetypal "Indian" accent is very like Welsh, though I don't know what Indian accent it actually matches.

Come to think of it, I don't know what a Tamil accent is! When speaking English, that is, of course. I suppose I've just got used to it.

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Dilliwala

She's a genuine........Brit. As genuine as Meera Syal or Sanjiv Bhaskar or Parminder Nagra.


Nowadays you don't need a foreign vacation. Dropping someone to the airport who's going abroad is enough to acquire the accent.

Sama

another accent chameleon here....when I go to my fave south indian restaurant I immediately start ordering in "Tamglish"...

maybe it has to do with someone's ability to speak other languages....
I think one needs a good ear to easily pick up and speak other languages....

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snowcrab

I don't care what kind of an accent people have as long as I can understand it. In person it's not too bad. I found in India, especially in railway stations when people didn't understand my approximation of a local name that writing it on a piece of paper usually worked but it's impossible to do that on the phone so sometimes I have a very hard time understanding people from call centers trying to pass on a message.

Actually, for the most part I find Indian versions of English accents easier to understand than the real English thing!

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dzibead

I think there is a "good ear" thing going on - my friends who do not have a good ear and who are hopeless at learning languages are the ones who never seem to pick of the "local accent" at all - they often don't even put the emphasis on the right syllable of a foreign word, even when repeating it immediately after someone else just said it correctly to them! But the "accent chameleons", as karuna aptly called them, who do seem to pick up the accent and intonation of whatever environment they're immersed in, also seem to have a pretty good facility for learning other aspects of foreign languages.

I taught ESL to Japanese adults for a while and it was certainly the case that the students who best replicated the American accent also had the best grip on the rest of the language! Some of the worst English speakers obviously couldn't even hear/perceive some of the sounds they were supposed to be trying to replicate, and I think this is true with all languages - it's hard to learn a language that uses sounds that don't even exist in your native tongue, or that relies on tonal variation, or the distinction between aspirated and unaspirated consonants, or the length of vowal sounds, and so forth, to distinguish between words that sound similar to the language learner but that actually have radically different meanings - "shit" and "sheet"?

Sama

exactly. I think one either has a brain that is wired for learning new languages or doesn't. I grew up listening to polish and german and took spanish and french at the same time when I was in high school....a friend of mine took 4 languages at the same time: french, spanish, russian, and latin (the last two being rather esoteric language choices in a city of chicago public high school in the early '70s!)

dzibead

An is therefore now equipped to handle pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic Masses!

Nick-H

Ahhh... the RC mass in Latin had a certain magic!
A physical, as well as cultural problem, for me, with Tamil and Malayalam, the two Indian languages most likely to be useful to me

giripriya

I did this at one time in college - I was studying French, German, Italian and Spanish. I also attended the Latin Mass at one point(I am not that old - it was an 'indult mass' church in the late '80s) and took Latin in middle school... And yes, I pick up accents too - as soon as I arrive at my inlaws' house in Kathmandu I unintentionally start speaking 'Neplish' complete with head wobble and adding 'la' for emphasis.

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SidVicious

Capt... a response to your point on Indians using different accents in the US.

I think it's because the Indian community makes fun of or considers people 'snobbish' when they use an American accent with 'uncles and aunties'... or something to that effect..

What's sauce for the goose etc...

nayan

I think you are refering to the program "cooking isnt rocket science"...

nice program ..... learnt a few dishes which turned out well

Dilliwala

Yes, that's the one. I've only seen the ads though.

capt_mahajan

I've heard many explanations for this. What you say is one.

Another one is that other professionals at the workplace will not understand an Indian accent.

I think such reasons are hogwash. It is akin to people 'Americanising' Indian names, another practice which is amusing. Sukhvinder Singh becomes Sid Singh.

Changing your identity as in your name, or your demeanour- as with an accent, is often an over eager desire to 'fit in'. Insecurity, in a way.

Or at least thats my two bits.

Hope none of my extended family are reading this