The accent.. big deal

"Its a big deal... if they dont get what you say... you are really not saying anything... if you dont talk American accent.. you are not one among them..." one of my buddies chimed in as part of an avalanche of rigmarole that i was inundated with when i let a few people know that i was traveling to the land of dreams. I even imbibed a few of their insightful ideas, ideals and definitions of what it is that i need to survive in a land where i cant claim to be a citizen. We have all gone through this one, when traveling to a different country -- well, my fellow Indians will acknowledge it happens to them when they cross state borders in the Indian countryside -- we are inundated with a bunch of outdated concerns that ends up unsettling us.

One of the things that we are always in a race with is where does our accent stack up compared to the land that we are traveling to. People are psyched about accent and for good reason, they are worried what would happen if they mispronounce something... it might be something subtle, it might be something common but what are the repurcussions of the adressed not understanding us.

This becomes more of a frightful scenario if we are going to a different country for some extended periods of time to work, there we are forced into a situation where we are obligated to both understand the foreigners and make them understand what we are spouting. Each has its own variety and severity of difficulty in its execution. I think the biggest flaw that anyone can commit -- and this from experience -- is that we try to speak a non-native language like its one, we try to think its just our back of the hand and we can flip it on whenever we suppose and it will work just fine.

Unforntunately we often find out that its not the case, in most cases we are even humbled a bit by how our most basic pronounciations are incongruent and even grating to someone who has never listened to our vocals before. With a bit of humiliation and a stomach full of humble pie we try to ape them.. we in lieu of a'pe try aa'pp'e .. in lieu hel'loo' try whazz'upp'... like oil and water, like black and white somethings just arent meant to mix. We are what we are and whoever we maybe... an American cant speak like a Srilankan, an Indian cant speak like a French.. we all have our own styles and sometime styles align but they never are parallel....

I found that the perfect equilibrium after quite a few humble pies, i realized a) i cant talk like a man who was born there talks and b) it would be better if i talk slowly so people have a chance.

Most people never realise that they have an accent, its like snoring.. almost everyone does it but they cant know it, the accent is very similar. Its not a shame to have an accent, but if we do a few things right we can all be communicate better. Ultimately its the content not the style, but a little effort to be presentable is required and really its alright to have an accent. We would be robotic without it. Imagine for a moment what would a world sound like when everyone talks the same wavelength, my i can think of quite a few professions that will be thrown to the attic... be proud of what you are... and accent should be the least of your concerns.