Accents

What is the big deal about accents, you have a texan drawl or a new york twang or just a regular midwest clean accent. Or you have an international accent like an indian or the actual english which is the way english should be spoken because it originated there.

In rome you behave like the romans do so if you are in america, you talk like the americans, or at least you try to. Most people who land in this supposed country of opportunities they learn to suppress their own accent and talk the way the others do around them. They do that just so that they do not have to repeat themselves. In any other country people would make an effort to understand what you are saying but here, they will make you repeat yourself till you start talking like them. I would just dub that as a lack of effort to understand someone and a definite amount of insensitivity.It is really not difficult to understand a different accent if you pay attention.

It can get tedious at times for the person trying to talk differently because your brain thinks in one accent and you are talking in another. You will slip and then people wonder why. Sometimes it is even another language. For example I was talking to someone at work the other day and abusing them in hindi in my head. So what happens when they ask me a question, instead of saying yes or yup, I say haan. They look at me perplexed saying did you just say huh and I say nope, I said yes.It is difficult. 

I am really tired of flip flopping between my american and indian accent and personally I would just prefer to stick to my original indian english. Do I have a choice, NO. I have to work in environments where people do not make an effort to pay attention so either I jump on the wagon or be left behind. Forget the people at work, even my own family behaves in that manner. My cousin told me I sounded Indian and I do not understand you. Really wanted to shake her and tell her, don't you know I am Indian and for the last twenty years when you visited us you had no issues understanding our english. Now all of sudden since I live in america I have to sound american or I do not make sense.

I do not care about accents and try my best to understand everyone. Yes sometimes you do have to ask someone to repeat themselves but I try my best not to and definitely do not laugh if they pronounce something in a different way because that is how they learnt it in school.