It’s going to sound maybe a little bit strange, but ever since I moved to Canada and having to speak a language that is not my native one, I have become aware of accents. Because when I speak English, I know that I have an accent that is different from the rest. I became self-conscious of the way I speak.
I felt like my accent, which is Latin-American, was a huge sign that said “Hello! I am a stereotype” because the reality is that people that I have seen in movies and shows that share my accent, mostly play stereotypes and most of the cases with negative connotations. Because of all of this, it made me feel insecure about the way I speak. So I would try to use words that sounded more natural, and I might have considered for like one second taking classes to reduce my accent (yes, people! That’s a thing). All of this because I did not want to face any possible discrimination because I was aware that this could happen. But what I was surprised to find out while taking a linguistics class was that it is such a big thing that there is even a term for it, which is “accent discrimination”. And guess what? Accent discrimination is very real for many people.
According to surveys and studies, accent discrimination affects a lot of people in Canada. It changes your chances of renting an apartment or getting a job. You might get fired or suffer from harassment. And the problem here is that it is not really about having an accent because we all have accents. I have an accent when I am speaking English, and I have an accent when I am speaking Spanish (my native tongue). The problem is that there is a hierarchy of accents. There are accents with high prestige and some that do not. It does not matter if you have the same level of fluency. If you have an accent with low prestige, people might think that you are less smart or something along those lines than someone with an accent that has higher prestige. And according to linguistics, if you think that having an accent makes you incomprehensible, that’s not the case. Accents and fluency are not the same. So, the reality is that accent discrimination is about having a specific type of accent, and nothing to do with people not being able to understand you.
So, I have decided that I won’t be part of the problem. I will not let an accent affect how I view a person. I will fight against “Accent Discrimination.” Also, there is nothing wrong with having an accent! I should embrace my accent because we all have one. It does not matter what you do; accents are part of how we speak. Also, I think it is nice that an accent can say so much about where you come from, your history and your culture. We live in a society where everyone is trying to find ways of being unique, so we should embrace accents as something that makes us different and special.