May found an old poster associated with "accent" after a conversation with a friend of hers.
The regional accents are not included in this non-academic writing.
This finding was after May’s classmate Jane who sent a message, in which she praised a youngster, named X, running for office. Jane said, “He is an excellent young gentleman. Please support him and spread the words,” with a video attached.
May clicked the video and saw a young man, around his late 20s to early 30s, introduced by a high-rank bureaucrat in front of a crowd. Then X began his speech, in English, followed by Mandarin.
It was extremely rare for a candidate to express in a bilingual fashion, even though, it may be an election tactic. For, Taiwan, situated in the harsh geopolitical situations, desperately needs people with such a unique ability. May was surprised that X’s English had no accent. She thought, “Could be a new immigrant from Hong Kong, since the political turmoil derived from the Anti-Extradition Bill in March 2019, Taiwan has helped some dissents to escape from China’s brutality, and moved to Taiwan in obtaining the citizenship?” We know that Hong Kong was colonized by the UK for a century. Many Hongkongers and their offspring have more access to the better English learning environment, or opportunities to study in Canada, America, and other UK Commonwealth nations. With curiosity, May asked Jane, “Who is this young man? What is his background?”
You know, politics is the most expensive toy among all, not affordable to the regular people to play with, except the certain type of “made-desperados”, like Mao Zedong and his proteges, or due to specific political needs, such as producing the puppets…
Jane has been a zealot in cultural and political affairs. She is active in contributing understanding in these fields. Immediately, she responded, “X Y. Z. ’s son.” May involved with the media-politics-military service in Taiwan more than a dozen years - a long time ago. Jane might have thought that May recognized some active figures in the political arena. “Who is this X Y. Z.?", She asked Jane right away via a message, then deleted it immediately. For it could turn into an embarrassing event if Jane detected her being so archaic about Taiwan’s situations, since May, though, residing in the U.S., has been concerning Taiwan’s vicissitudes. After covering up this tiny “ignorance”, May logged online to check who this X Y. Z. was. “Oh, I see…,” exactly as she expected, the game-players were not small potatoes, but huge ones. The young X is from a wealthy family with several politico-economic gravitas, severing in the dissenting camp during Taiwan’s democratic movements. There are bitterness-n-sweets, ups-n-downs in that process of fighting for democracy after the lifting of Martial in 1987. The X family earned their economic-political capitals and deserved respects.
The X family sent the young X to an Ivy-League University to study when he was a teenager, which is a typical practice of many elite families in Taiwan, and other neighboring countries, such as the Communist Party leader Xi’s daughter, relatives, and most of the high rank-n-file politburos. And, more from India and South-east Asia. This incessant inundation of money floods into the US, in the name of learning from the Asian elite families, plays a significant role in flourishing her economies. This is a country, famous for her power of "money-talks." Business is the business of her business. Many name-brand and non-name brand universities have a hard time to resist these monetary seductions. Recent policy changes in the admission process, several Ivy League universities intend to reduce the opportunities of applicants from the domestic elite-Asian families. Some stakeholders might be skeptical, “to save the quota for the International super-rich and powerful families, maybe, is more profitable or beneficial to meet the US’ best interests?”
Note: At this juncture, readers might speculate, "May, are you trying to tell us that you are also a princess of an elite family? Are you a 'noble' too?" Well, May, pauses and makes a statement, "I wish I could accept such a 'compliment and honor'. I wish I were one of those top 1 or 5% echelons!! But things did not happen in a lucky way..." As a matter of fact, a random chance by winning a national scholarship competition in Taiwan, brought May to the U.S. to study sociology, focusing on social psychology as designated by the scholarship committee, at the age of 35. Without that event, May had no way to study overseas, though the journey brought her more somber effects than anything else. (Will be part of another writing. Stay tuned.)
Now, coming back to the points, having stayed and taught in the US. for more than two decades, May more or less understands some perspectives regarding accents, both regional and international. In the general population, people with accents tend to be jeered, if not sneered as the less educated, such as the poor working-class with a heavy regional accent, new adult immigrants from countries where English is not an emphasized curriculum, or not accessible to the common people. While the highly privileged individuals speaking with accents are less likely to be seen as a lack of culture and education. On the contrary, some respects are bestowed, in particular, to people with a "British" accent. Furthermore, individuals from an elitist lineage, or with prestigious educational background, even though with accents, such as the foreign-born college professors, and the dignitaries serving as ambassadors to other countries, or representatives in the united nation, i.e., current secretary-general, António Guterres, previous, Kofi Annan, and the rest, the accents become "invisible", or "less inaudible," and sometimes, "pleasantly expected!"
The more education of an individual, the more s/he can empathize, value, even respect people speaking with accents, but this understanding is only to a few people. For language/accent discrimination is part of human reality; even laws were enacted to prohibit it. The adult people who experience the complexity in mastering a foreign language, understand the rigorous endeavors demanded in the learning process. For, any language is a compressed package of all the cultural elements, comprising norms, values, beliefs, symbols, mores, folkways, history, philosophy, and the rest of essences of a nation or a culture. To master a language takes persistent hard-work of the learner and, most importantly, a nurturing environment to support or sustain it, if the fruition is desired.
Another feature of accents, as aforementioned, is that it can be invisible/marked if one has it while kept in “silence.” Once one opens his/her mouth, it turns into, like skin color, if one is not an any-type of the dignitary. It is immediately visible-audible to any listener. Then, judgment, either positive or negative, follows, and oftentimes, it is associated with one's socio-economic status.
Here is another episode about linguistic experiences: One of May's good friends joked about her "cute" accent. Though it was not a big deal to make a fuss, May decided to offer a tiny reminiscence to this friend.
"You mentioned how miserable your parents were. Due to being the poor second-generation immigrants from Europe during the big immigration wave, they did not get an adequate education, nor able to speak English properly. They struggled a lot!" May helped this friend to recall a conversation.
She continued, " Well, you know what, I am replaying your grandparents' and parents' linguistic journey with a little bit of twist in the 21st century !" Here is an old poster depicting that sentiment:
Now, turning back to the key theme. That’s the main reason through X's growing up from a teen (yes, the younger, the better - in "Americanization") and being educated in the US. into adulthood, the original accent found no way to linger on. The American "accent" takes over the native one! Thus, the already up-scale life chances and life opportunities - without the accent, are much expanded in the global politico-economic markets.
A good example is the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He and his family lived in the US (Pennsylvania) when he was a young child. He was born in 1949. Between 1956 and 1958, and from 1963 to 1967, his family lived in the United States in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, while father Benzion Netanyahu taught at Dropsie College. Benjamin attended and graduated from Cheltenham High School. Baptized by Americanization, the ability in speaking with fluent English enabled him to be active in the debate club and other communicative events that demanded high skill of language and broad knowledge of American culture. He is almost 100% bilingual, at least. The linguistic capacity helps Israel on many significant occasions in world politics. (Do you still remember his address to the Joint Session in excellent English in the US. Congress? (Here is one: https://www.house.gov/node/180.)
Mr. Natayahu's multi-lingual ability (Hebrew and English, at least) is "almost" reaching 100% fluency, though he was not 100% immersed in the US. environment. But the academic background and Jewish family and educational tradition may have helped the acquisition of a high level of language learning.
Most people put efforts into learning other languages, may have these funny experiences:
"When you speak two languages but start losing vocabulary in both of them - Byelingual."
"For a non-native speaker, making a pun demonstrates the highest understanding of language. As a native speaker, making a pun demonstrates the lowest understanding of comedy."
"S/He who is ambitious in learning 10 languages, only humbly found mastering in saying 'good-bye' in 10 ways."
"True bilingual culture is forgetting a word in your second language, so you make up for it by saying it in English but with an accent."
That's what May means: rarely can adult learners reach 100% bilingual or trilingual fluency, i.e., both the language skill per se, and the whole cultural packages (values, beliefs, norms, mores, folkways, and the rest of cultural traits and cultural complexes) associated with the language, unless in an extreme designed learning condition with multiple immersions when the learner is a child, again, the younger, the better, in acquiring the whole linguistic essences (the whole cultural package) without accents.
Otherwise, there is a price(s) to pay, or trade-off, for being a multiple-linguist.
Many people, including May, ask: why most adults carry accent(s) when learning foreign languages other than their mother tongue? On the contrary, some people regarding adults’ accents can be “cured”, “improved”, or even to “be get rid of ” if one tries harder with proper learning and practices. Particularly, May found in some commercial sites for language learning programs to promote the latter ideas. With her own episodes, May found several first-hand experiences and observations of some individuals. Attached as follows:
Al Tate of Shelby, US, shares his thoughts regarding accent issues, ”“It is to do with the formation of the palate which is usually formed by age 10-13. Once formed it is very difficult for an adult to achieve a totally fluent level in a new language without telltale accent whereas a child who learns another language in infancy or before the palate has formed can- given time and immersion attain total fluency.”
Allen from London, UK expresses, ”Language is incredibly complex and involves all kinds of accent, stress and inflection nuances. Most people grow up with their mother tongue innately and implicitly *acquired* and *learn* (an)other language(s)(usually explicitly) later on after they've already acquired their own. I would argue that only complete immersion in another language from a very early age would/might have that speaker sounding exactly like a native speaker, otherwise, it's inevitable that at least some of those little nuances get brought over when speaking a language that wasn't originally the speaker's mother tongue. As for 'neurological' ...I suppose so, in terms of innate memory, but on occasion, I think we are talking about phonetic/physiological memory too, such as when your average Spanish person - despite speaking English clearly for years - may still pronounce a 'v' sound like 'b'.”
Valko, Bracknell, UK, shares a very personal experience, “This can be attributed to a number of factors. As a person who lives in an area where many accents of the same country collide on a daily basis, the dialect of a certain region is learned. The relationship between my accent and the accent of someone living in the bayou of Louisiana (deep south to some people) is the same as the difference in my accent and the accent of a random country area of England (or a city area for that matter). The idea of learning a new language for most people is the idea of learning a language with the goal of having an intelligent conversation with a native speaker without needing an interpreter. The expulsion of an accent is impossible without knowing the region you'll be entering…”
And the most interesting point of view regarding accent is this one from Bhadreshwar, Hooghly, West Bengal India, “Given the fact that there are plenty of people that can simulate any native accents, I agree it is a combination of failure to learn enough and lack of accent simulation talent, you can learn RP or cockney if you try hard enough as many actors do. No complex neurological reasons here except laziness which if you think about it is neurological too - it comes from the brain.”
Linguistic scholar Norm Chomsky points out an idea, called, the language acquisition device or LAD, as a theoretical concept. The LAD is a hypothetical tool hardwired into the brain that helps children rapidly learn and understand language. Chomsky used it to explain just how amazing children are able to acquire language abilities as well as accounting for the innate understanding of grammar and syntax all children possess. Researchers in the language acquisition report[1] that newborns are language universalists. They are able to learn any sound in any language, distinguish all the sounds that humans utter. But adults are language specialists, due to exposure to their native language reducing their ability to perceive speech sounds that are not in that native tongue.
That could be the main reason why many wealthy and/or powerful parents try their best to send their young kids to other "desirable" countries to be fully “immersed” in an expensive, perfect language learning environment.
In a nutshell, ambitious parents' imperative: “Baby, we want you to be much ahead of the rest children- not only in our country but also, the whole world - without accent!!”
Here is an old poster designed a while ago for Diversity Studies classes. May uses it as a brief conclusion of the above writing of hers:
The sequels of this writing will be continued.
Attached are a couple of posters related to this topic:
Note: Here is a post done a while ago regarding linguistic imperialism:
https://ci8395.blogspot.com/2017/04/april-15-sa-2017-how-to-wield.html
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[1] More info, refer to https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/04/news/babies-learn-sounds-of-language-by-6-months.html
