Skip to main content

The accents have it

I have noticed that the majority of shows dealing with advise and overhauls (for example Tabitha’s Salon Takeover, Super Nanny and Kitchen Nightmares) are all hosted by people with accents other than American. In my opinion, we Americans are very tolerant of criticisms if these words are flavored with an accent. Could it be that we are mesmerized by the foreign twist of phrases? That these hard truths are easier to take in when someone overseas is making the observations? Or is it that their foreign accents are so fascinating that we really don’t hear what they are saying? We love the fact that they are rolling their R’s, all the while ignoring that the words they are hurling at us are” r-r-raging ignor-r-r-amous??”
I am basing this opinion on my own experience. Here in Idaho, I completely blend in with my California accent. However, when I was 14 and visited my family in Scotland, I was a rock star! When I was out shopping with my cousins, the minute I opened my mouth, everyone in the store stopped what they were doing and stared at me. True story—children followed me around the store as I chatted with my cousins. When I stopped short to look at a price tag on a blouse, they practically ran into me.
At the time, I was just having normal conversations. However, I believe if I was doling out advice, I would have had a captive audience. If I had turned around and said to these children some endearing term like “Hey, you rug rats, you better take care of your teeth or you’ll be sorry! Oh, by the way, surf’s up!” they would have scampered off to immediately brush their teeth. No matter that their mothers had been nagging them all their lives, the fact that the American girl told them to made all the difference.  
Then again, they may have just stared transfixed with pie pan eyes at me, waiting for my next friendly insult.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How's the haircut?

Isn't it amazing how a bad memory can stick to you like a wad of gum in your hair? You try to remove it, but in order to do that, you need to cut off some of your hair? At first, you’re apprehensive, but in the process, you end up with a nice hair style? At the beginning of my career, I was working at an apartment complex.  I must have upset my boss by interrupting him when he spoke to me.  I hadn't realized I was in a bad habit of talking over him. I was so anxious to prove I was on top of all the assignments, but in this process, wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise. One day, he held up an eyeglass case and said this signified when it was his time to talk. In front of the other staff, he actually held up the case while he spoke to me. I was embarrassed by his demeaning ways. I didn't put any credence in his opinion. I wrote him off as being a mean old man! For a while, I carried this memory like a wad of hardened gum in my hair. It was brittle and would have...
Post a Comment
Read more

Just a note

If you visit my website, you can now read the first chapter of my book for free! Please feel free to click on its link below: website All I ask is please leave me a comment. Even to just say "hello" so I know that some people are reading it! Thanks everyone, and I'll talk with you later!! Diane
Post a Comment
Read more

Lessons from Teachers

Many times when people talk about the teachers they have encountered in their schools, usually the lessons have been of the traditional sort.   A teacher has done or said something inspiring that has changed their lives for the better.   Actually, I have had a teacher show a negative trait that was a positive life lesson to me.   She was my seventh grade teacher.   She was a very large woman—she had to make her own clothes to fit her.   Not only was her physique large, but also her personality.   She was a very aggressive and no-nonsense woman.     “You can’t get away with anything in Miss C class!”   was the comment we heard from previous teachers and older students.   When she hosted detention, she made a sign to put on the clock that read: “Time passes—will you?”             Being in her class, she made it very clear that she was the boss.   Now, most of the time, she wa...
1 comment
Read more