American accents

3 Nov 2011

I knew the day would come when my students would ask me about my accent. I've been waiting for it because for the first couple weeks I was at the school the older students giggled when they heard me talk. I'm just surprised it took this long.

While I was reading a text aloud to my students, one student raised her hand. She asked me, "Why doesn't your pronunciation sound like the tape?"

In turn, I asked her if she knew where I was from. (A valid question because not all of the students know.) I explained that the tape for their English book has a British accent and I have an American accent.

Then, the teacher pointed out my pronunciation of various words--like Britain. With my accent, it sounds more like "Britin." A few weeks ago, my other teacher noticed the difference in the way that I pronounce my numbers. I don't over-enunciate them. Instead, they sound more like "seven-dy," "eight-dy," and "nine-dy."

This led to a mini-lecture on accents. My host teacher reminded them that a Spanish accent is different than a Mexican accent. Even within Spain, a accent from Andalucia is very different from an accent from Galicia.

I told them that it was the same in the United States and preceded to do a terrible imitation of a Bostonian accent. My teacher supplied the Southern accent--which probably gave students a bad impression of Southerners.

After class, a bunch of the students asked me questions about things that they had "heard" that people say in America. One student asked me about "wanna" and if I use it. Someone asked me about what a Canadian accent sounds like. They are so curious about America, but we haven't had an opportunity where they could ask me to their hearts' content.