Why on earth do we need to put on a pseudo American/British/Australian accent???
I have been watching many people do it..
And what gets more annoying is to put a fake accent and then term it as slang.
Many of our countries eminent personalities/celebs have done it and continue to do so, every time they step their foot out of the country.
For instance, if you could remember when, Aishwarya Rai appeared on the Oprah Winfrey’s show. She just gave her best on the pseudo British Accent. Why should an ex- Miss World need to feel so inferior with her usual accent? This really, speaks volumes about Indians per se, and puts us to shame.
Most of us when abroad behave this way!!!But have we ever seen an American or Brit or Aussie faking an Indian accent when in India? It is not that, we Indians easily understand their heavy accented English.
There was an instance lately, when I visited Mc D, and had asked for a classic burger and an ice tea. The American lady @ the counter said “Sorry, I just understand English”. Wow!!! Awesome!!! As if all my years of existence, I have been speaking Honolulu. And if so, “Hullo” to all my dearest Hawaiians who are going through my blog. ;-)
Perhaps, it is by faking the accent we try to make the American/Brit/Aussie understand us better, in their own way. But it just makes us feel inferior, and what’s wrong if we let them put an extra effort in understanding us better?
Few of us do have a perception that, if “I” had a proper Brit English accent…
It would make me feel intelligent, cultured and thoughtful and have the greatest manners and be the most trustworthy, honest and debonaire chap on the face of earth.
I would have then stood up straight and I would eat with the right fork and I would have every women swooning at the simple mention of the words “cheers”, “bullocks” and “right-o”.
Where “I” could be the biggest, most annoying, idiotic man in the world, but because of “my” Brit English accent — well, you would embrace “me” with all your heart.
I agree such a fake Brit accent, could help one to get into a long conversation with a pretty English woman, and talk like hours about driving on the wrong side of the road, bangers and mash, the Queen (lord save her) and the Beatles (whom I have hardly heard) and on Scotland being “really green” and Germany “very german” and on Sir Elton John (”gay but happy”).
With young boys and girls spending hours faking accent at the call centres, it’s no surprise that they assume, it to be their original accent. They then speak helplessly in that particular accent for the rest of their lives.
I really can’t stand the fact that even among just us Indians here in America/England, few do continue using their newly acquired ‘foreign’ accent which is obviously fake.
Huh! You aren’t kidding anybody. You spend 20 odd years of your life back in India, and within an year or two in England/America and you now have a Yorkshire/American accent? While on top of their plastic imitations of the acquired accent, their grammar is totally out of shape.
In the end, what you get is a strange blend of a poor grammar spoken with an even poorer imitation of Yorkshire/American/Aussie English, which can be totally hilarious or positively irritating, depending on how you want to look at it.
The Brits will speak the way they do, the Americans will speak the way they do, the Aussies will speak the way they do, why shouldn't I try to speak in any other way I do know?
As they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So at some point of time, I intent to try out sitting down in the local american pub, have a pint of ale and talk about the Yankees, Obama’s, Osama’s... ;)
Usually, a simple ‘bye’ would suffice, but people here part by saying
“Cheers! Get the hell outta here!”… ;)
Anyways, one shouldn’t try to pretend to be what one is not.
Its always better to have our own accent which is real, proper and legitimate.
P.S. Well my grammar isn’t that great either, nor is my pronunciation perfect...
I am thankful to those who have been correcting me then and there. :)
I have been watching many people do it..
And what gets more annoying is to put a fake accent and then term it as slang.
Many of our countries eminent personalities/celebs have done it and continue to do so, every time they step their foot out of the country.
For instance, if you could remember when, Aishwarya Rai appeared on the Oprah Winfrey’s show. She just gave her best on the pseudo British Accent. Why should an ex- Miss World need to feel so inferior with her usual accent? This really, speaks volumes about Indians per se, and puts us to shame.
Most of us when abroad behave this way!!!But have we ever seen an American or Brit or Aussie faking an Indian accent when in India? It is not that, we Indians easily understand their heavy accented English.
There was an instance lately, when I visited Mc D, and had asked for a classic burger and an ice tea. The American lady @ the counter said “Sorry, I just understand English”. Wow!!! Awesome!!! As if all my years of existence, I have been speaking Honolulu. And if so, “Hullo” to all my dearest Hawaiians who are going through my blog. ;-)
Perhaps, it is by faking the accent we try to make the American/Brit/Aussie understand us better, in their own way. But it just makes us feel inferior, and what’s wrong if we let them put an extra effort in understanding us better?
Few of us do have a perception that, if “I” had a proper Brit English accent…
It would make me feel intelligent, cultured and thoughtful and have the greatest manners and be the most trustworthy, honest and debonaire chap on the face of earth.
I would have then stood up straight and I would eat with the right fork and I would have every women swooning at the simple mention of the words “cheers”, “bullocks” and “right-o”.
Where “I” could be the biggest, most annoying, idiotic man in the world, but because of “my” Brit English accent — well, you would embrace “me” with all your heart.
I agree such a fake Brit accent, could help one to get into a long conversation with a pretty English woman, and talk like hours about driving on the wrong side of the road, bangers and mash, the Queen (lord save her) and the Beatles (whom I have hardly heard) and on Scotland being “really green” and Germany “very german” and on Sir Elton John (”gay but happy”).
With young boys and girls spending hours faking accent at the call centres, it’s no surprise that they assume, it to be their original accent. They then speak helplessly in that particular accent for the rest of their lives.
I really can’t stand the fact that even among just us Indians here in America/England, few do continue using their newly acquired ‘foreign’ accent which is obviously fake.
Huh! You aren’t kidding anybody. You spend 20 odd years of your life back in India, and within an year or two in England/America and you now have a Yorkshire/American accent? While on top of their plastic imitations of the acquired accent, their grammar is totally out of shape.
In the end, what you get is a strange blend of a poor grammar spoken with an even poorer imitation of Yorkshire/American/Aussie English, which can be totally hilarious or positively irritating, depending on how you want to look at it.
The Brits will speak the way they do, the Americans will speak the way they do, the Aussies will speak the way they do, why shouldn't I try to speak in any other way I do know?
As they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So at some point of time, I intent to try out sitting down in the local american pub, have a pint of ale and talk about the Yankees, Obama’s, Osama’s... ;)
Usually, a simple ‘bye’ would suffice, but people here part by saying
“Cheers! Get the hell outta here!”… ;)
Anyways, one shouldn’t try to pretend to be what one is not.
Its always better to have our own accent which is real, proper and legitimate.
P.S. Well my grammar isn’t that great either, nor is my pronunciation perfect...
I am thankful to those who have been correcting me then and there. :)
13 comments:
Hey shiva, thats quite interesting.. but there are ways to look at it, if you land up at McD and stand on your feet saying you will stick on to Indian English.. then there are all chances that you could end up starving.. unless you find a slurpy HSB. But neverthless it makes sense to think back reasoning out the need to change the accent. The reason would be.. we (India) had always been takers/adapters than dictators.
This reminds me of an interesting incident. I was touring Niagara and caught up with this Brit lady.. while i was talking to her with my bits and piece english she appreciated saying.. you guyz are good at everything.. you speak varied languages. We are not that capable like you Indians. She said we Brits expect ppl visiting our country to know our language, but you guyz are not so.. you are so capable to learn and accept anything... now is this a sarcasm.. but I was innocent to have my heads high when she said so..
Some of these really makes the Americans go crazy
1. 102 = One Not Two??
2. Phone is engaged Engaged = Phone is busy
3. I have a doubt = I have a question
4. We will intimate (this word is used even in our government orders) = we will inform
Here is the deal ... I do agree that there is a subset of the population that puts on a fake accent, but u adopt the accent like you have been speaking it all your life because you have constantly been exposed to it for the past year or so, for example my bro and i used to speak phenomenal telugu when we were young by virtue of the fact that we lived there for a couple of years, altho i can still speak decent telugu, lack of usage has resulted in my looking for words when at one point, it used to roll off my tongue naturally. Its the same with pretty much everything, dont work with java for a year and see if you can work with the same efficiency as before or dont play cricket for a year and see if you can pick up where you left off ... so i disagree with the fact that its pseudo ... its more a question of what you are in touch with and used to and what you arent
macha what u said is ok agreed 100% ....but the money flows from west to east ...we just adapt to get our work done faster :P ..your friend rightly pointed out "i have a doubt" ya i tell my folks working for me to change it to "i have query or whatever .."
Eggzactly korrect !!!
:)
Well dude, I wud accept most of your views and opinions. Some of ur friends said v are very quick in adapting and learning things which ill agree beyond doubts but there are few things which i cant accept out of 'em..
-> V don have to adapt to 'em jus' coz money flows from West. After all, v are working for what they pay n more so, we are not pay'd for anything else(V don ' necessarily have to change our style nor accent). I really don c a point in faking our own accent.
-> Yes, v lose touch when v don' practice it but v would not lose our basics in anything. When v want'd to make sure v show case what v are then vll definitely be that where ever we are n whoever we interact( or meet up) with (Eg: Let it be american chick or a brit lady). I guess its not so necessary for you to talk their way.. All u need is to prove that u know what they are talkin about (personally, I had met up with so many brit hotties but never had i used brit accent for impressing 'em but jus' show 'em what stuffs i got, which is more than ample)...
-> Most of the america's & brit's people admire and talk high about us only coz v are grammatically correct!!(in most cases) (which is why v could adapt so quickly.. No need to mention it to u folks) when we try to adapt their accent we lose grammar so much which ll be chaotic as shiva mentioned
I'm talkin' with whatever experience i have and had heard from others.
PS: I'm not making a point here to say that they don't know what is proper grammar or claim that I'm perfect in it.
Very true... I have seen a nut who fakes his accent..probably the American..and on top of it speaks it wrongly. Thats incorrect English!
English is foreign language to us. So it hardly matters what accent we use. Are you able to communicate correctly? Thats all is required.
Danx to all for agreeing and disagreeing wid me :)...
Partha ~ hope ya meeting wid tat brit lady ended up @ niagara itself, wid ur innocence... :D
nice examplez... thankz da...
aditya ~ machii.. nice to cya comments... when ya talk on lack of touch or so.. i agree.. but how abt d other half of d desi population wid proper english knowledge... n who jus try to put on a pseudo, for no good reason... not tat it comes wid them naturally..
vikram ~ sun rises in d east n sets in d west... though money flows d other way... :P...
tink d gas prices may turn d flow to d middle east soon... now, u inspired me to start another blog here.. :D...
perfect, as u said.. we jus adapt for getting things done d easier way.. but in turn we do compromise a lot wid ourselves..
Murali ~ Gr8 to see ur comments too... Danx... Tink ya gonna end up impressing more than a few brit n american chics soon... :D
anck su namun ~ hey uths... iz tat u???? danx for ur comments... ya remem of d overdue munch's [:D]..
btw... ejjactly.. @ d end of it.. its all about communication!!!
HA! The new thing at my work is to end emails with "Cheers"...drives me nuts!!
sara ~ exactly... its been an official nonsense stuff now.. :D
Hey Chiva.....I got this in a forwarded email....nice thoughts and I felt worth sharing....
"These days when I forget checking if the child has done his homework, my wife does not scream at me. She gives me ‘feedback’.
I am told that in most organisations, these ‘feedback’ sessions are particularly elaborate and gladiatorial. Teams are taken ‘offsite’, an outing to a charming and unsuspecting place like Goa, holed up in a five-star hotel throughout the stay, and encouraged to give trenchant ‘feedback’ about one another. Success stories The scene soon turns into a bloody rink of jibes, jealousy and finally unrestrained catfights and humiliation, with human resource flunkeys cheering from the sides. That’s ‘feedback’ for you.
As India becomes the post-global India Inc, the English it speaks is suddenly becoming unrecognisable. Thousands of people, especially the poor losers who know the language otherwise but are not part of the boardroom and hence the great success story, are alienated from it.
You no longer speak to explain. You speak to hide, baffle, impress, belong, and most often, bore. This is a vocabulary hurriedly curried up for Powerpoint presentations and meetings, at boardrooms and over ‘power’ lunches chiefly by the engines of the industry - the MBAs a.k.a. widely known and respected as Mediocre But Arrogant.
Words of change, clear, simple words have suddenly become untouchable. You no longer start something, you ‘activate’. You don’t like each other, you ‘connect’. You cannot agree with me: you are either ‘in sync’, or to borrow a Bush-ism, ‘with me’.
People no longer reply or respond. They ‘revert’. At a lesser level of literacy, one ‘reverts back’. Just as one has ‘future plans’, thankfully , and not plans for the past or this moment. Change is no longer profound enough. Things must undergo a ‘paradigm shift’.
And smart people don’t think, they ‘ideate’. Nor do they write letters. They send communication’ . Getting a new customer is ‘acquisition’ , and working with somebody is ‘partnering’.
Satisfying me is not enough, you want my ‘mindspace’. Merely being creative is passé, since there is a shatteringly orgasmic cliché for it: you must let the ‘creative juices flow’.
There is a corporate term for spaced-out thinking as well, and I love this one - ‘blue sky thinking’ - something you claim to do when you do not have even a straw of concrete thought about anything. Common acronyms but perhaps the most pillaged is ‘impact’. In every sentence uttered at a meeting, the noun is dragged like a reluctant horse to water, to its awkward and grotesque verb form, ‘impacted’. Some acronyms make their way from teen text messages straight into corporate vocabulary, and are subsequently made even
more puerile.
Take FYI (for your information) , for instance. The wildly popular acronym has found its siblings in important business talk - FYIP (a ‘please’ added politely when writing to a senior), FYIA (’for your information and action’, to bully juniors) and FYINA (’necessary action’, making you wonder how much unnecessary action is otherwise encouraged).
And after much good work, you no longer become a name, you become a ‘brand’, and your goodwill is ‘equity’, even if you have never invested in stocks.
To fully explore the contours of this new species of words is beyond the scope of this piece. But it will be interesting to see how long the English language can take this brisk repositioning in the rear."
liked ur write up dear.. its true .. and the way u have mentioned abt it is so amusing :)
I accidentally dropped by your orkut profile and in turn your blog. Well what I really want to say here is that when you can babble and speak to your child so that the child understands; In the same manner we should be open to say water as "Waaterr" so that the Americans can follow what we want to communicate. Its not about faking an accent its just a way to make the person in front of you to feel at ease. After all we speak to communicate our thoughts so why should an accent or a language be a barrier. This is just my way of looking at it. But yes this is a really thought provoking blog.. Cheers!!!!! :) :) :)
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