When I took a semester of college Russian back in 1975, my Russian teacher spent about the first week of the course teaching us to speak English with a Russian accent. The idea was to learn to do that so thoroughly that when we started to learn Russian, we would be able to speak that with a Russian accent also (i.e. perfectly). I have long since forgotten all the Russian I learned, but hey, my Russian-accented English is still pretty good.
let us decide for ourselves. post some mp3's :)
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered when I'm talking to someone with limited English skills whether they would understand me better if I were to affect their accented English (French accented English to a French person, Russian accented to a Russian, etc.).
ReplyDeleteIt seems like it might be the case, but it might also come across as patronizing. I dunno.
Anon1, if you want to hear me, see me in person at Extreme Markup this year.
ReplyDeleteAnon2, I have to struggle not to mimic people I'm talking to, including whatever accent they have. One person from India told me I have a "light American accent" as a result.