Speaking English with a Foreign Accent

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, this is Sarap. I’m calling from San Diego.

Hey, Sarap.

Hi, Sarap. What’s up?

How are you guys doing?

Doing fine. What’s up?

Well, I’m calling about traveling abroad.

And back in 2003, I was in Armenia on kind of a youth mission.

And I was, let me set it up for you.

I was talking to a security guard outside, and he spoke a little bit of English,

And I spoke a little bit of Armenian.

But I basically was trying to say supermarket, supermarket, and he wouldn’t understand me.

So I just kind of tried, and I’ve done this before, I kind of said it with an accent, like supermarket.

And right when I said that, he got it, like, right away.

And so I kind of felt bad about, kind of, it sounded like I was making fun of him, but it worked.

So I was just wondering about how that works, you know, what’s the etiquette about that?

Interesting. So you were saying the English word supermarket to someone who speaks Armenian?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, he spoke a little bit of English, and I could tell he wasn’t understanding when I said supermarket.

And, you know, I could just kind of sense his accent, so I kind of put his accent on the word supermarket, and it worked.

I mean, it clicked, like, instantly he got it.

I’m not surprised. I really am not, because it does work. It absolutely works.

Again and again and again, you’re going to find, no matter where you are, that if you can speak English as your first language,

In the accent that a local might use, they’re going to understand you better if their English

Isn’t that great.

Yeah. Well, awesome. I have one more question kind of on the same topic, if you didn’t mind.

It was just, when I speak Armenian, I was born and raised in San Diego, California,

So I have an American accent, but I know the proper pronunciation of Armenian. And so when

I speak Armenian, I’m more inclined to speak it, you know, with the English accent. And

When I speak it with the proper pronunciation, it sounds inauthentic.

So I was just wondering what you guys thought about that one also.

Well, these two points that you’re making, Sarah, are kind of two sides of the same coin, aren’t they?

Yeah, yeah.

I guess it’s the same thing.

Do you speak another language besides those two?

Not that I’m expecting that you have to, but French or German or Spanish.

Yeah, I speak a little bit of Spanish, and yeah, you know, my family is very language-oriented, so.

When I was in the seventh grade and I took my first Spanish class, our instructor wasn’t very good, but one thing she said stuck with me.

She said, look, just act like you’re making fun of somebody who speaks Spanish.

Yeah, yeah.

Over enunciate, like exaggerate these, like the trilled R and exaggerate the way the S is a little more hyper-sibilant than it is.

You know, there’s more of an S-ful sound in Spanish than there is in English sometimes.

And she said, you’re going to get close to it because after a while, you’re going to drop back that exaggeration a little bit and kind of fall into a more natural sound than if you insist on sticking to your English vowels and your English consonants.

Because there was nothing worse than the woman who said, donde esta el bano?

Exactly, exactly. I mean, you don’t want to say it like that, even though that’s natural for you.

No, no.

Yeah, I wouldn’t want to tell them where the bathroom is.

Right, right. But, you know, if you exaggerate the pronunciation in like a really forceful way, you will.

You’ll fall back to it.

And I think it’s totally fine for you to speak Armenian the best that you know how.

Yeah, yeah.

But of course you want to be understood too.

Yeah, yeah.

But, you know, go back to your original point.

Martha, when you’re abroad and you speak Spanish or whatever language,

Do you find yourself speaking with people who kind of half know English and doing the same thing that Seraph is doing?

Actually, no.

No.

I haven’t had that experience.

I was thinking about what that would sound like.

And I think more annoying than that would be just the way that English speakers, when they’re traveling abroad, so many of them tend to just speak louder.

Oh, yeah.

That’s so embarrassing.

Don’t you just want to hide syrup when you read it?

And it’s rude.

I mean, I think that’s more rude.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, I agree.

I’ve done this in French, and I’ve done this in Swedish, and I’ve done this in Spanish,

And so I’ve done the same thing, Zareph.

I’ve kind of taken on the local accent of my English just so maybe they would get it.

Yeah, it’s interesting.

Sometimes it doesn’t.

Yeah, I may do that, but it’s not intentional.

It’s sort of being influenced by them.

Oh, I see.

I see.

So you’re just accidentally picking up the way that they’re talking, kind of fitting into the situation.

Yeah, I think that’s quite true.

Yeah.

Well, thanks, guys, so much.

Cheers.

Hey, listen, how do you say goodbye in Armenian?

You know, it’s more like have a good time.

It’s like genats, like love genats, like have a good life, have a good spirit, have a good time.

Nice.

If I say shknoor agalem, too, does that mean anything?

That means thank you.

Okay.

Excellent.

Bye-bye.

Thank you guys so much.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

That’s the only Armenian I know.

Grunt, I’m so impressed.

Grunt, Grunt.

And then the French say, Grunt, beret.

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