Accent discrimination, or linguistic racism, is a common experience for non-native English speakers. At first, it can seem unintentional, like being interrupted in the middle of a sentence to answer “where are you from?” or a server in a restaurant who mindlessly corrects your pronunciation of ‘asparagus’ (uh-speh-ruh-guhs, not uh-spah-ruh-guhs). But it can easily become purposely harmful, such as having to hear “I don’t understand anything you say,” “can you speak proper English?” or even people commenting on the unintelligibility of a speaker’s English and excluding them from meetings.
As a non-native English speaker who spent years studying the language, it is still impossible for me to not have an accent. Everything I learned was taught to me by professors who had accents themselves. Attempts to erase mine or any other non-native speaker’s accent are an attempt to take away our voices and belittle the sounds of our cultures.
Accents are one of the most noticeable traits of people who move to a new country to live, work or study Constituting an important part of their social identity. But having a non-standard accent is usually a trigger to identify a non-native speaker, which can lead to unfavorable perceptions.
These responses are also linked to the contemptible common practice of ranking particular types of accents higher than others, in which accents from rich, majority-white and mostly monolingual nations are seen as having a certain prestige. For example, Arabic and Chinese accents are seen as difficult and unpleasant, while Italian and French accents are regarded as smart and fashionable. It is vital to note that these assessments are based mostly on views about one’s nationality or ethnicity, and have little to do with communication skills. These analyses are a reflection of systemic racism—a racial hierarchy that permeates all layers of society and places people of color at the bottom of it.
The idea that accents are language barriers that prevent understanding has encouraged the development of “accent softening” classes. This belief can not only affect English learners, keeping them from practicing English, but can also add to the unfounded presumption of an “accent-neutral” English—often attributed to American and British English. It overlooks that the American pronunciation can lack short vowel sounds and substitute them for longer ones—‘stop’ becomes ‘stahp’ and ‘botanist’ becomes ‘bahtanist’—and British English speakers can omit the ‘r’ sound when it is not followed by a vowel sound—‘further’ becomes ‘fu-ther’ and ‘horse’ becomes ‘ho-se.’ None of them are asked to “speak proper English” or to constantly repeat themselves, so why should a non-native speaker?
According to researchers, discrimination may begin with the way our brains perceive foreign accents. For one, it is more difficult to comprehend conversations if you’re not used to a specific accent. Phrases may be lengthier, contain more pauses and have different enunciations than usual, requiring more mental effort to interpret the speech. As a result, native speakers remember less accurately what non-native speakers say and assume non-native speakers to be less skilled, focusing on what is expected to be said rather than what is actually spoken.
Nonetheless, it can be tempting to believe that the cognitive difficulties imposed by non-native speech inescapably lead to discrimination. In reality, the more people are exposed to foreign accents, the more they train their brains to analyze foreign speech more effectively.
My accent, for example, is composed of various little details that make it exclusively mine. I pronounce ‘those’ and ‘dose’ alike, and my attempts on ‘three’ always make me pronounce a mix of ‘free’ and ‘tree’ when I try to “properly” utter the ‘th’ sound that does not exist in Brazilian Portuguese.
Every time I pronounce a silent ‘ed’ with emphasis on the consonant, it seems like it is plastered on my forehead where I am from. And I do not even realize when my mouth puts an ‘e’ before almost every word that begins with an ‘s.’ These mispronunciations do not make my speech grammatically wrong nor incomprehensible. These “mispronunciations” reflect my identity, culture and upbringing, just as they reflect the same in any other non-native English speaker.
Chinese speakers are not used to pronouncing the ‘r’ sound, thus in English, ‘french’ becomes ‘filench.’ Arabic speakers add vowel sounds to words that contain consonant clusters, ‘stress’ becomes ‘e-set-ress.’ Russian speakers make strong vowels in words that there should be a weak vowel. Turkish speakers may swap the ‘ng’ sound for ‘nk,’ due to the lack of an equivalent sound in their tongue. These are not a result of improper English, these are their cultures and first-languages prevailing.
Still, more than ever, it is common to see accounts across social media that offer tips to “improve your accent,” or websites that sell lessons on how to “switch between your foreign or regional accent and Standard American English.” English is the most spoken language worldwide—it is the dominant language in politics, business and science. It is nonsensical to expect conformity from a language that is constantly changing.
Instead of pushing for “accent softening” classes or lessons to remove one’s accent, constant exposure to accents should be encouraged. Embracing diversity in all spheres of society should be the number one priority. Accents are a reflection of culture, ideas, values, and identities. They do not need to be a language barrier, they should be cherished and celebrated instead. But, most importantly, no one should be asked to willingly erase their cultures from their voices to satisfy native speakers’ ears.
