The Accent "Perception"

Probably because I have the job I do, I don't really hear a lot from people who feel accent is a "delicate" issue anymore, but this perception definitely still exists. I was reminded of this recently at a networking event for "Indus Entrepreneurs" - basically, people from India starting companies.

I was in a small group of people, primarily born and raised in the US, and one Indian person joined the group. We all introduced ourselves, and when I stated my profession, she addressed everyone and said, "I don't know why they offer this kind of service; everyone can understand people from other places. I don't think there is a need." No one really said much, and the conversations continued. It didn't really concern me because everyone is certainly entitled to have an opinion, and accent work is not for everyone anyway.

The interesting part was later that evening when I was leaving another small group to grab a refreshment. I met up with one the US born networkers from the earlier group. She came up to me as if to share a secret: "Could you believe it!" I had to ask her what she was referring to, and she responded: "The Indian woman in that group earlier ... she had such a strong accent; I could hardly understand a word she said! And she was telling us accent work isn't needed? Boy, you have your work cut out for you!"

The interesting part to me is that accent is really all about perception. Whether someone has an accent that is challenging or easy to understand depends on a whole range of criteria from who the audience is to what the expectations are to what experiences each of us has had to perhaps what are ears are tuned to.

Of course, I am in the "neutral" category ... I noticed her accent, but I didn't judge it. I always tell people, "I'm the worst person to ask how strong your accent is or whether it's distracting." As a linguist, if someone only knows 2 words in English - my question is "Which 2?" Never a judgment of proficiency, just a genuine interest in how we acquire another language: in what order? in what way? and lastly ... how do we perceive an "accent" anyway?

It was so interesting to me that the woman making the comment had absolutely no idea that someone else was having difficulty understanding her. In our culture, it's not polite to say. That will certainly be the subject of a future posting!