When this short comment is uttered towards a person, it can have several meanings. It could mean you do not belong; you are outside of the group. If the person is an interviewer for a job, it is a sign that he/she would not hire you. You do not fit the job. Your accent will be a hindrance in the performance of your duties
The expression could also mean an identification. That executioner who beheaded several people in the Middle East was identified to be British, in spite of his covered face. When he talked, he gave away his origin.
On television, you might have come across that ad about OKA cheese, wherein the woman exclaimed, “I love your accent!” It could mean a high regard for the ethnicity of the person being addressed. Sometimes the expression is different. It may be rude, like “What are you saying? I can’t understand you.”
Having lived in this part of the world for more than four decades wherein the population comes from more than a hundred countries, being discriminated because of my accent is common place to me. The comment has come from people of different origins as well as from our own “kababayan”. I was once invited to speak in a commencement ceremony wherein the graduates come from a multicultural community. I thought my speech was well-received until a few days later an acquaintance brought me this comment of a member of the audience, “Is that the person you are very proud of ? She has very strong accent. There are other Filipinos who speak better than she did!”
I have never intended to get rid of my accent because I know I can not. I learned in one of my psychology subjects that people who have gone over their age of puberty would have difficulty in getting rid of one’s accent. I came to this country long after puberty.
Accent is the influence of one’s first language in the way subsequent languages are spoken. In the Philippines, Filipinos from different regions speak with various accents. You can identify a Visayan from a Tagalog, as well as Pampangos, Ilocanos or Bicolanos by the way they speak Filipino, our national language. It is not only the pronunciations that differ, there are also the different rhythms in speaking.
In some languages certain sounds like b and r are absent. When people from this group speak in English, they substitute other letters of the English alphabet.
While I retain my original accent I have been aware of certain subtle differences in Filipino and in English that I am careful not to commit in speaking. One is the difference between long e and short i as in sheet and shit. There are also quite a number of words wherein the accents within are different. These are differences that we can easily acquire and use in speaking.
Children of parents who were originally from the Philippines usually do not have the Filipino accent. There have been instances wherein these children make jokes of their parents’ pronunciation of certain English words. A friend of mine confided in me that these jokes hurt. Let us communicate to these young ones the hurt feelings of their parents.
We should not be ashamed of our accent. This is a part of the legacy from our origin. When someone utters that comment, “You have an accent” respond right away by saying, ‘Yes, of course, I have an accent. That is because I speak another language other than English.”
Some people are very proud of their accents. It is a part of their ethnicity that they treasure. I know of some people who try to imitate a foreign accent but the sounds are made artificial and often becomes a butt of jokes.
Rosalina E. Bustamante
February 12, 2015