DOES ACCENT MATTER

Normally I work with actors. So when it comes to language or accent you could say that I am used to people wanting to prepare their speech SOUND wise. Beyond grammar, comprehension and clarity they are also concerned with the best possible pronunciation of their lines. Sound matters to them because they want to portray their character’s voice as best they can.

Then there are those who want to prepare an audition for that role in an English production where they either have to sound more “British” or more “American”, which means there is a whole bunch of specifics they familiarise themselves with.

But what about “beyond the drama world “?

What about speaking in another language either for a presentation, a pitch or in every day life for that matter?

As for the languages I operate within (German, English, French) I know that personally I want to sound good. Yes, I want to know the vocabulary, the grammar, the phrases, the expressions. And I also want to know about the pronunciation, about how the sounds in that language are made… I am one of those people who want to order that “café crème et un croissant” in Paris sounding as French as I possibly can (unlike Emily… that “American in Paris”)

This might be due to a couple of things. One, I have a musical background having been a singer before becoming a coach. This means “sounding good”, detailed listening, a sense of tune and rhythm was part of the territory and my listening skills got honed – having a husband who is a musical sound engineer adds to that equation.

I have had a perception of and a passion for sound my whole life and have also been interested in how sound might affect us.?

Another reason probably is – and possibly this is the bigger one – that my very first language was German so when I moved to England I tried to get the accent of my (Southern English) surroundings exactly right not least because I got so very bored of all the “don’t-talk-about-the-war” references… Not necessarily offended I might add, just very, very bored.

So I thought: what if they didn’t recognise me as a German?

Which prompts an interesting question:

Did I give up my German-ness? Did I neglect an essential part of my personality in order to adapt to my surroundings? Did I deny my country of origin in order to fully adapt to my country of residence? In other words: did I LOSE in innate part of myself (I have by the way neither ever been efficient, punctual nor good at anything that involves technical knowledge… any more cliches you might like to add?)

The answer is: no! I felt I gained something… something very significant:

I GAINED ACCESS,

access to the culture I was living in. I gained a deeper understanding of the people I knew, of their humour and their mentality. And did I feel I lost part of my identity? Not really because who was keeping me from going back to it whenever I wanted?

Instead I felt I widened my scope of communication.?

Consequently it is difficult for me to truly understand why for some people “sounding good” in their go to language (or in any language for that matter, but that is a whole other issue) doesn’t seem to be important.

When working in the theatre in England I met a woman once in the green room and we got chatting, she was of a certain age. She had “ze strongest tshermen ekssent “ you can imagine. Then she told me that she had left Germany in the 1950’s and had been married to an Englishman for 40 years (yes, this is a while back). In my head I went “how then is it that she NEVER remotely adapted to the accent?”

There’s only two things I can think of at this point. She might not have the listening skills (the straight forward answer) or maybe there was just a deeply seated “not wanting to let go of home”? Which leads me back to the identity question of how the motivation to acquire the accent of your new country can depend on your personal circumstance.?

So my question remains: does accent matter.

Imagine for a moment how someone from another country in a conversation is asking you how to say a word correctly in your language… what is likely your reaction? You would accommodate them, probably try to explain quite thoroughly how you’re saying what you’re saying

Something in us appreciates that curiosity, wouldn't you say? The fact that someone cares about your language so much that they really want to get it right kind of touches us somewhere deep down, I find.

So if you speak and/or present in the other language as best you can I would argue that maybe on some level it is a signal of respect and appreciation of your listeners’ language and ?their culture and that by making that effort possibly some unexpected doors might open for you – and them in the process?