“Just remember, when someone has an accent, it means that he knows one more language than you do” –Sidney Sheldon
There are about 6,500 oral languages in the world. Contrary to common knowledge, English isn’t the most popular—Mandarin Chinese is. Each language has a family of dialects that come with it, which in turn lead to a whole neighborhood of accents.
Language and communication go hand in hand. Simply said, if you want to get to really know someone—you talk to them (hence, why text messaging is not the same as talking). My parents speak Gujarati, English is their second language. I am learning Spanish, which is my third language. The accent my parents have while speaking English and the one I have while talking in Spanish is more or less a sign. It’s a sign that we are learning.
I’ve always found it odd that individuals, including myself, would dote over British or Australian accents but pay no attention, snicker even when it came to others. Even after 6 years of Spanish, I can sense how limited my proficiency is. It’s ironic that we expect immigrants to “learn the language” or “speak clearly” when we can hardly hold a conversation in another language ourselves. People come to the United States, and we expect them to just know—whether it is speaking, reading, or writing. We hold others’ to such a high expectation, ignoring the fact that we will travel to places like Spain and Italy with pocket dictionaries in our hand.
“I love accents; I would love to find more characters with a variety of vocal intonations. It creates a character. It's like you're singing a song. Some people find their character through walking or movement - for me, voice is one of the ways I find parts of the character.” –Stana Katic
Accents are like trademarks—they’re distinct and memorable. Everyone’s always looking for what is different from the mainstream, yet when they are faced with “different,” they turn their cheeks. We remember singers according to their voices, artists by their techniques. Dancers by their styles, writers by their diction. With accents, we remember character.
“Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.” –Amy Chua
It takes courage to delve into a new language—knowing that you’ll never sound “like them.” It takes incredible patience and persistence—it’s a gradual process; it’s not over after simply going through a deck of vocabulary words. It takes curiosity—the willingness to learn another language that you may or may not use every day. Like I said before, with accents—we remember character. You may hear the “slightly off” tone—but you can’t hear the courage, patience, persistence, or curiosity it took to get there.
“A different language is a different vision of life” –Federico Fellini
