My ego was battered before when I was told by an American interviewer at a large gaming company that he didn’t think my spoken English was good enough to handle daily communication at the office. Granted, I do not think my English standard is anything to brag about, but I had thought it was at the very least, decent. The feedback shocked me as having spoken English most of my life, I get someone telling me I can’t handle daily communication at the office.
Rather than being offended, I felt I had to take it seriously and decided to look for ways to improve my English. I asked a friend in the UK and an Australian colleague separately on how they feel I could improve my English. Both went, “What? Why?” and declined to answer my question.
I then related the story and was told, “Don’t be silly. Your English is perfectly fine. There are tons of stupid people around who think your English suck because of your accent.” I felt relieved but at the same time upset that my accent was still too blatant in spite of my effort to speak without a Singaporean accent at the interview. I have since made the decision to alter my accent. I’ve thought about it many years ago but never really got down to doing it. This time, I will, regardless of what you think of it. For the first time, I recorded myself speaking in what I thought to be “not a Singaporean accent” and played it back. It sounded totally the opposite. Gotta practice more.
Singaporeans tend to be very unforgiving about fellow Singaporeans speaking with foreign accents, which makes me feel repulsed by the idea of going back home even more. It doesn’t even matter if it sounds perfectly natural. Years ago, when I was attending the lecture of a Malaysian professor who used to live in the UK and hence had developed an English accent, a fellow English major student turned to me and said, “Fucking Malaysian with an English accent.”
I went, “What’s wrong with that?”
And he went, “If you’re a Malaysian, you should fucking speak like one!”
To think education would liberalize one’s thinking. I was surprised how such an outstanding student as he was had such a narrow mind.
But think about it. If it’s perfectly fine to want to sound like a native Japanese when speaking Japanese, why is that otherwise for the English language?
Linguistics scholars think people judge your standard of English by grammatical use and not by accent. The truth is, there are people around who judge you by your accent. While teaching in Aichi, and having had to choose students for the annual speech contest, I was for choosing a student whom I felt had better grasp and potential, but eventually, another student, M, who had an American accent was chosen. In fact, even before the audition, the teacher in charge was saying he had already decided to choose student M. I felt that was disrespectful to other students.
I have no intention to mimick the American or British accent, but I hope to alter it to a neutral one. One that no one will think I can’t handle daily conversation anymore.
I’ve been following your blog for awhile, and actually, your experience with the CELTA was a tipping point for me to decide that I wanted to pursue it too. This article reminds me of a certain incident which made me really feel like slapping my palm to my forehead, although I like to think I kept a calm demeanour.
When I went on the course, this issue of accents did come up – the instructor explained that so long as communication was clear, there is no need to school a student to sport a so-called accent. An American trainee teacher asked whether we should teach the students to have pronunciations closer to a “native” accent. When asked what a “native accent” was, he said, “well, like mine.”
The other Americans looked at each other uncomfortably. The Kiwi lady to my right (who knows of SG’s colonial past), said to me rather loudly, “Ah, I guess that means neither of us have native accents.” The Dutch instructor points out that Received Pronunciation is from Britain, not America, but that doesn’t matter so much because the idea is to teach students to communicate effectively with the language.
As Singaporeans, we are exposed to a whole host of accents from a young age – many elderly use approximations of English consonants, people whose parents are Chinese-educated have accents that differ from those whose parents never learned Mandarin (mine, for e.g.), among radio DJs there is a mix of American-sounding or British-like accents, etc. In fact, my instructors on the CELTA did ask whether my accent was representative of my country’s, so I felt I had to explain that there is actually a range of accents in SG, at least as many as there are ethnicities. My angmoh-pai parents studied at mission schools, my dad always had the BBC on, and they hardly ever spoke any language but proper English at home. Maybe that’s why my instructors said they found it hard to place my accent.
I will be moving to Kansai later this year with my husband, who’ll be furthering his studies, and hope to secure a teaching position there. My Japanese friends tell me that an American accent is preferred in Japan, but many Japanese want practice with other English accents too. I can only hope that the broader exposure of the Singaporean experience can help make me a better teacher.
PS: IMHO, your proficiency with English is more than apparent from your blog posts! I can’t tell what your spoken English is like, but just from the way you use punctuation, I think your level is comparable or better than a number of my American and Brit friends!
Hi Aki,
Thank you for reading. Your message made me feel a little more assured, although I feel I should start reading English books again. I’m happy to hear that you’ll be moving over and hope you’ll settle down fine. Do you see yourself here for good or will you be returning someday?
Thanks for your kind wishes! I hope so too. I spent 4 months on exchange in Kansai and lived with a Japanese family. I’ve been lucky enough to go back to visit other parts of Japan since, but moving there is still a little scary to me.
I think reading does help! And watching movies/dramas in the language too. That’s helped me to at least maintain my converational skills in Japanese. Actually, a friend of mine who’s doing further studies at Hokkaido University (in Japanese!!) says he can really feel the deterioration of his English after almost 3 years there. However, staying in touch with English media, and talking to English-speaking friends when they visit Hokkaido seems to help, he says. I guess it helps to keep your vocabulary salient.
Well, let’s stay in touch, perhaps? And if you find yourself in the Kansai area we could arrange something. I’m planning to make Nonya dumplings next year during the dumpling festival period if all goes well. Heheh!
Sure, I have no plans to abandon this blog yet so let me know when you’re here.
I forgot to answer your question! My husband and I will be returning to SG eventually, although Japan is very dear to us and I think we will be going back time and again in the years to come.
Didn’t you already get judged by Singaporeans for trying to be Japanese? I assume you did since I speak Japanese and work in Japan too, and always being told that I’m trying too hard. I’m also a known poseur who speaks with a strange English accent. But I’m happy! Love it! Wishing you all the best in your next job, and wherever you’re moving to. What is that place with the indoor swimming pool? I wanna move there.
Hi Z,
I’ve never been told that before. Why would speaking the language and working here be “trying too hard”? But I admire the fact that you are happy being and doing what you feel you want. Many people live in dissatisfaction because they try to mold themselves into what others deem acceptable, and many-a-times, “acceptable” means being “normal” which means being like everyone else. But take heart in that, years down the road, you’ll be the one with interesting stories to tell. Stories that people want to hear.
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve never written about the indoor swimming pool here. I think the only place I posted the pictures was in Facebook, but from your mail address, I don’t think I know you on Facebook. As for its location, I don’t mind telling you, but for privacy reasons, I prefer to reveal only after I move out of this place. So if you could just wait for around a month, I’ll get back to you then.
Oh sorry I forgot to mention that I read about the swimming pool from your comment in maybe, the previous entry? I just got too excited that you actually stayed at such a nice place and wanna see how it looks. It’s not a problem at all, you don’t have to tell if you don’t want to. Anyway, ganbare!
Ah, I see. I could post a picture if you’d like. Will get down to it when I’m done with settling my stuff.
Hi there!
honestly speaking, I’d not trust an American on whether my English is proficient enough. For example, not all Americans seem to speak clearly (video is of a guy who does 32 different accents) :
Anyway, I’ve been a reader of your blog for some time, and from your posts, I assume that your english is pretty good enough to be understood. So… Please don’t worry too much about that 😀
With regards to our narrow way of thinking, I guess it’s also because in some ways we have slowly became somewhat elitist (or very, since this is subjective). I don’t think it’s a problem.
and lastly, I don’t really think/believe that there’s a “neutral” english accent,unless you’re aiming for IPA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cU9fqpCqBA for eg). However, i believe that eventually , perhaps due to our tongue, a form of “accent” would eventually develop that differ from the so called “neutral” ..
I’m no english expert for sure, but i think you should’ve nothing to worry about. perhaps if you had a different interviewer, he might not comment that your english is not good enough. :d.
Hahaha, didn’t expect to be quoted. Hope you’re getting on well and keep me posted. xx
I’m doing the preparations to move out of Tokyo now so am a little busy with things but I’ll keep you updated. =)
facing the same issue here