Re: Apologetic for accent in English?! (was: Hello to you all!)

| At 04:01 2002-03-08 -0800, M.E.S. wrote:
| >dialects/accents?  It's silly, and I wonder if the
| >same feelings exist between nations of other
| >common/shared languages (eg, French, Spanish,
| >Portuguese, etc) on such a seemingly wide-scale.

        Here in North America, ohhhhh, yes....
        Almost everyone I've known from Canada claims the French view those
from Quebec as evil degenerate troglodytes who exist only to bastardize "The
Language". The one Canadian friend I've had who went to Paris ended up
leaving Paris a day early. (He and his friend are Israeli-Americans who went
on a walking tour of Europe before returning to the US. They only spoke
Hebrew to each other in France so they wouldn't be pegged as Americans. It
turns out, they had wonderful times in France. His Quebec accent only drew
open hostility among the "in crowd" in Paris.)
        I've known two black teachers who went to Africa on a teacher's
exchange program. They both got a lot of flack in Africa, particularly from
those of native decent, because their English was not Imperial standard.
        A friend of mine from Brazil says they make more fun of various
Brazilian accents than European Portuguese, but they don't take it very
seriously. He also said that European Portuguese think Brazilians sound like
hicks, and Brazilians think Europeans sound like stuffy academics who
haven't had a good party in years. However, he said it was something
everyone jokes about but doesn't take too seriously.
        The Spanish... Oh, Sweet Goddess Brigid.....
        In Florida, we have communities of almost every Spanish speaking
country in our hemisphere. When I took Spanish in high school, I sat in the
"parade of nations" corner. I quickly learned that each country speaks "The
One True Spanish", and all the others are Wrong. I vividly remember long,
rabid arguments over words and slang terms being right or wrong. I would try
to offer the logical argument that Spanish from different countries that
have been independent for centuries would begin to develop differently. I
quickly learned to just be quiet.
        There is also a lot of animosity with the US school system because
we are taught Castilian Spanish, "which no-one speaks". When I was trying to
practice the Spanish I had learned (and eager, wide-eyed geek in high
school), I so often encountered the attitude, "Your Spanish is horrible and
it's not real Spanish so I will only speak English to you," that I just gave
up. I was also told that, in those words, more than once.
        So, I just fell back on my 3 years of Latin as my foreign language.
I went on to take Japanese in college, only to find out that Japanese people
*will not* speak in Japanese to Americans unless the Americans can impress
them in under three seconds. (It's not a demeaning thing. They are afraid
the American will say something off or cause a misunderstanding, VERY easy
in Japanese, that they don't let it happen.)

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