Accents

What's in an accent? No, I'm not referring to musical accents but to the accents that we use in English.

It's known that we have Malaysian accent, British accent, American accent, Indian accent and so on. It is just how we sound when we converse in English. When a person speaks in English with a Chinese accent, it simply means that his English bears a Chinese feel.

Therefore, what is wrong with these accents? I had a conversation with a friend on the telephone, and he commented that my English sounds "nice". I assume that he meant that I don't have the Chinese accent in my English. Well, in a way, I must admit it is true. He said that he was embarassed of having this Chinese accent while speaking in English.

For a while, I thought, what is wrong with the Chinese accent? Do the Chinese in China speak English like a typical Englishman?

Actually, the most important point is why must we imitate the British accent or American accent? Just because the British are the native speakers of English does not mean that we must follow their style of speaking, too. Accents come naturally to us, it is not something that we can imitate. Therefore, there is nothing to be shy about if you speak English with a Chinese or Indian accent. In fact, it is perfectly OK as long as you are understood. That is more important in communicating with people in English.

However, I also agree that there is no harm for people to rid themselves of the Chinese accent and speak in English in a more "natural" tone. Perhaps, this is to build a good impression. Well, it is not to say that there is nothing you can do. There is one thing that you can do to reduce the Chinese-accented or Indian-accented English of yours, if you have one.

Firstly, you should use the correct pronunciation of English words. They have stresses at certain parts of the words. For example, the word "subject" has the stress on "sub" so you should stress more on the first syllable of the word and soften on the second one (actually, it depends on what you mean by "subject"; whether you're referring to it as a noun or a verb). To improve your pronunciation, you should refer to the dictionary always and learn up the phonetics used in the dictionary. Attempt to pronounce the words according to the phonetics. Correct your own pronunciation and try to always converse in English using appropriate intonation and pronunciation.

No matter how much you try to be British or American, you can never speak English like them (unless you live in the USA or the UK for years). Let me emphasise here that having a Chinese, Indian or Malay accent in your English is something that occurs naturally due to your frequent use of your mother tongue. I speak in Mandarin very often too, and my English used to be Chinese accented. However, knowing the correct pronunciation and practising good intonation allowed me to reduce the accent and thus enables me to sound "nicer".