While reading Lippie-Green's article, I couldn't help but think about my flatmates while studying abroad. All of them new English as a second language, and all of them had varying English accents. I remember one conversation in particular, when two girls from the Netherlands were discussing why they chose what accent they wanted while learning English. One girl chose to learn "British English", while the other chose to learn "American English." This surprised me very much, since I didn't know that these practices existed. When I learned Spanish in high school, I took a "Spanish" course, free from an explicit dialect. Yes, we obviously were learning some form of spanish particular to the instructor, but there was no focus on it. This made me wonder what my flatmates would be learning in an "American English" class.
Another event that I recall was a conversation with a Finnish girl named Rikka. While talking to her, I would have thought she was a native British speaker. Maybe it was because I wasn't fully acclimated to varieties of British English to hear any native language breakthrough, but I was convinced she was British, along with many others. Some other Finnish flatmates of mine criticized her for speaking British, pretty much free of any Finnish accent. They were under the assumption that she was hiding her identity and ask questions such as, "Why doesn't she speak with an accent like every other exchange student here? In regards to this reading, I question if Rikka was right or wrong in attempting to mask her Finnish accent. Personally, I feel that there are obviously people who want to reduce their accents, so they have an individual right to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment