Friday, October 06, 2006
Top O' The Mornin' To Ya, Lassie!
To-may-to, to-ma-to. Say it however you like the meaning is the same and just about everyone will get the message. Ameri-ca, Ameri-ker: one of my pet peeves from this summer's So You Think You Can Dance host Cat Deeley.
Accents have long been considered sexy and exotic, and they are anything but uncommon in the melting pot of the United States (I'd guess they're slightly more uncommon in The Melting Pot of Irvine). Born from immigrant parents, I've learned to understand most accents and to me, it's not so exotic because I hear it all the time.
American television commercials, however, have now, more than ever, latched on to a sexy voice to sell their wares. Most grating to me is the Optimum Online commercials here in New York, where the European scientist is so happy to be able to call "Argentiner" whenever he wants. Most recent (to come to my attention) is the pretty woman with the Spanish accent hawking Macy's newest sale.
What is our obsession with accents? It's not like our pronounciation of English is even the most common (or that English is even the most spoken language in the world). If you think about it, our English is accented English (we certainly don't speak England English). Are we not exotic enough for ourselves? How can America, the land that is arguably the least homogenous in population, be yearning for more diversity in speech and inflection?
But let's look at it this way: Isn't it great that we're using models and actors despite English not being their first language? Don't they reflect a large portion of the American population? Yes!
At first I was in this first camp, and slowly I'm coming to be in the second camp. Moving straight into non-urban Texas, my parents were assimilated into the English language at a pace quicker than newer immigrants who move into existing enclaves. As a result, they have always felt comfortable getting involved in our community's civic activities, and can communicate freely and comfortably with my non-Chinese speaking friends (and most importantly - Kevin). There are plenty of people (including some of my friends' parents and my parents' friends) who were not that fortunate (depending on the viewpoint). They've lived in America for years without learning to communicate fluently in the tongue of their adopted land. Even my grandfathers (both born and raised in Asia - China & Taiwan) would try to speak English whenever they came to visit (needless to say, they were very confident men, and even back then, rudimentary English was taught in schools).
I hope these commercials will continue to use more diverse accents. Maybe it'll show our immigrants and guests that, even if they don't speak the language without a hitch, they can still be heard and we will still listen.
Accents have long been considered sexy and exotic, and they are anything but uncommon in the melting pot of the United States (I'd guess they're slightly more uncommon in The Melting Pot of Irvine). Born from immigrant parents, I've learned to understand most accents and to me, it's not so exotic because I hear it all the time.
American television commercials, however, have now, more than ever, latched on to a sexy voice to sell their wares. Most grating to me is the Optimum Online commercials here in New York, where the European scientist is so happy to be able to call "Argentiner" whenever he wants. Most recent (to come to my attention) is the pretty woman with the Spanish accent hawking Macy's newest sale.
What is our obsession with accents? It's not like our pronounciation of English is even the most common (or that English is even the most spoken language in the world). If you think about it, our English is accented English (we certainly don't speak England English). Are we not exotic enough for ourselves? How can America, the land that is arguably the least homogenous in population, be yearning for more diversity in speech and inflection?
But let's look at it this way: Isn't it great that we're using models and actors despite English not being their first language? Don't they reflect a large portion of the American population? Yes!
At first I was in this first camp, and slowly I'm coming to be in the second camp. Moving straight into non-urban Texas, my parents were assimilated into the English language at a pace quicker than newer immigrants who move into existing enclaves. As a result, they have always felt comfortable getting involved in our community's civic activities, and can communicate freely and comfortably with my non-Chinese speaking friends (and most importantly - Kevin). There are plenty of people (including some of my friends' parents and my parents' friends) who were not that fortunate (depending on the viewpoint). They've lived in America for years without learning to communicate fluently in the tongue of their adopted land. Even my grandfathers (both born and raised in Asia - China & Taiwan) would try to speak English whenever they came to visit (needless to say, they were very confident men, and even back then, rudimentary English was taught in schools).
I hope these commercials will continue to use more diverse accents. Maybe it'll show our immigrants and guests that, even if they don't speak the language without a hitch, they can still be heard and we will still listen.
# posted by ange : 11:10 AM
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the lady from the macys commercial is actually a somewhat famous model. but i dislike her accent. i don't really understand her well. and i don't find it to be one of the 'sexier' accents either. =\
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